John Cassian: The Conferences

John Cassian: The Conferences. Translated by Boniface Ramsey, O.P. Ancient Christian Writers No. 57. New York: Paulist, 1997. xv + 886 pp. $39.95 (cloth).

Last summer, on my way to the airport in Nice after two weeks of touring Romanesque churches and abbeys in southern France, I saw a freeway sign for "Lac Saint Cassien." Since Cassian's monastic home had been Marseilles, this prophet had at least been honored in his own country, if not the wider Church. (Cassian got into the ecclesiastical doghouse for his opposition to Saint Augustine's views on grace and predestination.) Except for Saint Benedict, Cassian (360-435) is arguably the most important western monastic figure before Saint Bernard. His two great works, The Conferences and The Institutes, constitute, in Adalbert de Vogue's words, "a doctrinal compendium without parallel in all of Latin monastic literature.... Cassian's work, therefore, embraces all of monastic life under its two forms: cenobitic and eremitic." Boniface Ramsey's excellent translation of The Conferences now makes available the first complete English rendering, and a welcome addition it is to the canon of ancient monastic literature available in English.

Cassian divided The Conferences into three long books that purportedly give transcriptions of talks made at the end of the fourth century by the famous ascetics of Egypt whom Cassian had visited. "This vast work," as Ramsey summarizes, "is about obtaining purity of heart through the exercise of discretion, all for the sake of preparing oneself for the kingdom of heaven" (p. 20). Ramsey is clearly an admirer of Cassian, calling him "a master of the inner life" (p. 24) with a "fine understanding of human psychology" (p. 430); he is not, however, obsequious or uncritical, calling attention to Cassian's occasional illogical reasoning or murky theology. The translation reads very fluently, with only rare latinate passages (e.g., 1.1, which may intentionally capture Cassian's baroque opening sentence).

Ramsey is an excellent guide to Cassian's thought. He provides a good brief introduction (twenty pages), with an introduction of three to four pages for each of the twenty-four conferences; thus he supplies the reader with about a hundred pages of introductory material. In addition, he concludes each conference with a list of "Textual References" and copious "Notes to the Text" that provide good bibliographical references to both patristic and modern scholarly sources. The book concludes with twenty-five pages of indices of scriptural and non-scriptural citations and allusions, non-scriptural persons, and places. Many readers will welcome the helpful glossary of terms at the beginning of the book.

Since this edition of Cassian's Conferences is so welcome and since Ramsey has done such a fine job with it, it may seem uncharitable to criticize it, but the volume does have flaws. Ramsey occasionally uses terms (Anthropomorphites, non-Pachomian) without defining them or he defines them later, so some readers may be at a loss. Greek terms are not transliterated, are without accent or breathing marks, and lack final sigmas. Much more important, and serious, is the fact that the volume contains no final bibliography or subject index. These two deficiencies are serious defects for anyone using Ramsey's translation for scholarly work. Since this edition is bound to become the standard work in English, such a lack is even more unfortunate. Perhaps future printings can correct these shortcomings.

Nevertheless, John Cassian: The Conferences will take its place in the forefront of English translations of early Christian literature. Owing to publishing problems, the volume was long delayed; now that it is here, we can all rejoice.

TIM VIVIAN

Bakersfield, California

Copyright Anglican Theological Review, Inc. Winter 1999
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