theology as ascetic act: disciplining christian discourse

Nathan G. Jennings's captivating study explores the ascetical logic of the various practices that Christians call theology. By establishing ascetic practice as coherent within the logic of Christian thought, Jennings argues that Christian theology itself, as an embodied Christian practice, is a type of and participant in Christian asceticism. Jennings establishes that the implications of such an understanding of Christian theology can be brought to bear on modern Christian scholarship in profound and transformative ways. With engagements and references that span a vast terrain from Patristic authors to modern systematic theologians, Theology as Ascetic Act: Disciplining Christian Discourse is a significant contribution to both modern Christian thought and the study of asceticism.

Nathan G. Jennings is the J. Milton Richardson Associate Professor of Liturgics and Anglican Studies at the Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest, Austin, Texas. He received his BA from the University of Texas, his M.Div. from Yale Divinity School, and his MA and Ph.D. from the University of Virginia.