...rethinking...

A little while ago I was re-reading parts of Peter Brown's famous autobiography of Augustine.

You know, during the 4th c., ascetics were really weird, because they were all these celibate non-clergy people that were outside institutional structures of the church. We don't tend to think of Augustine that way because he was later pressed into being a priest and then a bishop, but he was - at least for a while. Really, even though his Confessions were written from when he was a young bishop, it's all about how he converted to this sort of elite Christian life where he was celibate and really really into leading the full life of a Christian, outside the institutional church!