A chance encounter with a Bulgarian exorcist named Dmitri led Professor Dan Caner to decades of scholarly inquiry into the roots of monasticism and asceticism during late antiquity/early Christianity.  Dan provides an overview of his work which leads the roommates to a discussion of parallels in the lives of modern academics. Featuring Professors Dave Powelstock and Emma Gilligan and former European Human Rights Commissioner Nils Muiznieks.

Discussed in this episode: Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov; Stories and Sayings of the Desert Fathers; William Dalrymple, From the Holy Mountain; W. Somerset Maugham, The Razor’s Edge.

Not discussed but essential: Daniel Caner, Wandering, Begging Monks: Spiritual Authority and the Promotion of Monasticism in Late Antiquity.

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