Dr. Andreas Kirchner

Working Area Ancient Church History

Second funding period:
Postdoc
in sub-project G1
Otium – a Cultural Transfer between East and West. Transformations of Asceticism and Monasticism

First funding period:
PhD student
in sub-project A2
‘Otium’ as a Way of Life in Late Antiquity: ‘Theoría’ and the Monastic Tradition

ORCID iD: 0000-0002-7329-6821

Postdoc-project

The project investigated the development of otium and ascetic concepts in the Middle East and the Far East of Late Antiquity. Looking at the different influences of multiple religions, forms of otium, especially in Nestorian Christianity, were elaborated taking into account Jewish, Manichaean as well as other, Far Eastern forms of otium and asceticism. An additional strain of analysis focused on the further development of otium in the Middle East with a view to Islamic Sufism. It was also investigated whether (and to what extent) the concepts of otium had an impact on the formation of Sufi ways of thinking.

Publications relevant to the project

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