Crossword clues for asceticism
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Asceticism \As*cet"i*cism\, n. The condition, practice, or mode of life, of ascetics.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
Wiktionary
n. The principles and practices of an ascetic; extreme self-denial and austerity.
WordNet
n. the doctrine that through renunciation of worldly pleasures it is possible to achieve a high spiritual or intellectual state
the trait of great self-denial (especially refraining from worldly pleasures) [syn: austerity, nonindulgence]
rigorous self-denial and active self-restraint [syn: ascesis]
Wikipedia
Asceticism (; from the áskesis, "exercise" or "training") is a lifestyle characterized by abstinence from worldly pleasures, often for the purpose of pursuing spiritual goals. Ascetics may withdraw from the world for their practices or continue to be part of their society, but typically adopt a frugal lifestyle, characterised by the renunciation of material possessions and physical pleasures, and time spent fasting while concentrating on the practice of religion or reflection upon spiritual matters.
Asceticism is classified into two types. "Natural asceticism" consists of a lifestyle where material aspects of life are reduced to utmost simplicity and a minimum but without maiming the body or harsher austerities that make the body suffer, while "unnatural asceticism" is defined as a practice that involves body mortification and self infliction of pain such as by sleeping on a bed of nails.
Asceticism has been historically observed in many religious traditions, including Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism. Mainstream Islam has lacked asceticism, except for its minority Sufi sect whose long tradition has included strict asceticism. The practitioners of these religions eschewed worldly pleasures and led an abstinent lifestyle, in the pursuit of redemption, salvation or spirituality. Asceticism is seen in the ancient theologies as a journey towards spiritual transformation, where the simple is sufficient, the bliss is within, the frugal is plenty.
Usage examples of "asceticism".
The cult of Mithra, less widespread then than it has become since our expedition in Parthia, won me over temporarily by the rigors of its stark asceticism, which drew taut the bowstring of the will, and by its obsession with death, blood, and iron, which elevated the routine harshness of our military lives to the level of a symbol of universal struggle.
It goes without saying, of course, that the asceticism of the one and the hedonism of the other are at many points interchangeable.
I say that the main Christian impulse cannot be described as asceticism, even in the ascetics.
For proof and illustration of the danger, need one do more than point to the terrible excesses of asceticism still prevalent in India?
An exaggerated and uncompromising asceticism has won for many Christian saints their honours on earth and their assurance of special privileges in heaven.
The so-called religious element was in partnership with fraud, superstition, ignorance, incompetence, and an asceticism like that of Simeon Stylites, leading to nothing.
Christian Science is a modern adaptation of all that is best in the simplicity and asceticism of Jesus, the commonsense philosophy of Benjamin Franklin, the mysticism of Swedenborg, and the bold pronunciamento of Robert Ingersoll.
Versions which contained docetic elements and exhortations to the most pronounced asceticism had even made their way into the public worship of the Church.
Logos, and it is perfected, after complete asceticism, by mystic ecstatic contemplation in which a man loses himself, but in return is entirely filled and moved by God.
That he could do with himself what he would, that he created a new thing without overturning the old, that he won men to himself by announcing the Father, that he inspired without fanaticism, set up a kingdom without politics, set men free from the world without asceticism, was a teacher without theology, at a time of fanaticism and politics, asceticism and theology, is the great miracle of his person, and that he who preached the Sermon on the Mount declared himself in respect of his life and death, to be the Redeemer and Judge of the world, is the offence and foolishness which mock all reason.
Spirit of Christ which operates through knowledge, asceticism, and holy consecration: thus originates the perfect Gnostic, the man who is free from the world, and master of himself, who lives in God and prepares himself for eternity.
The cheerful asceticism, the powers of the spiritual and the good which were seen in the Christian communities, attracted them and seemed to require the addition of theory to practice.
On the right were communities such as the Encratites, which put all stress on a strict asceticism, in support of which they urged the example of Christ, but which here and there fell into dualistic ideas.
Still, the position towards asceticism yielded a hard problem, the solution of which was more and more found in distinguishing a higher and a lower though sufficient morality, yet repudiating the higher morality as soon as it claimed to be the alone authoritative one.
But in the circumstances of the time even they could not but be touched by the Hellenic mode of thought, to the effect of associating a speculative theory with asceticism, and thus approximating to Gnosticism.