Abstract

In the last decades, an increasing numbers of Christians are drawn to a disciplined spiritual lifestyle (asceticism) and are finding new forms to express their spirituality by joining the secular and religious world. This research elaborates on this fact, presenting lay ascetic communities as well as individuals in North America and around the world, who have chosen lay asceticism as a Christian way of life. Throughout this work, concepts and vocabulary are clarified in order to eliminate misconceptions and facilitate understanding. One constant preoccupation was to keep objectivity; in order to achieve this, a wide variety of sources was consulted from various cultures, eras and realms. The facts uncovered in this research not only unveil new opportunities for all Christians whether they be male or female, celibate, married, or family groups, but they also challenges Christian individuals to remember that in order to live the Gospel values one needs to discipline oneself. It challenges Institutions to revise what spiritual nourishment church communities offer, to find spiritual guides and to open new spiritual status for laity. It also challenges theologians to search for a new understanding of chastity, of the theology of the body and the theology of marriage