The Suffering Of Christians By Ascetic Christians

Christians that devoutly abstained form worldly pleasures were known as ascetic christians. These christians recognized a distinct difference between the body and the soul. Early ascetic christians privileged the soul over the body because the body was a symbol of mortality and sin, while the soul was a symbol of spirituality and salvation. Therefore, ascetic christians imposed suffering on their bodies and renounced pleasure in order to draw closer to the divine nature of God by strengthening the soul. These sufferings included abstaining from sex, giving up material goods, and fasting. Different levels of sufferings were experienced by ascetic christians and the audience of the works factored into the levels suffering described in our readings. The suffering of christians written for ascetic christians that were wealthy was vastly different than that of ascetic christians that simply wanted to become extreme ascetics or â€Å"better† christians. 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