not in essence but in intensity

Monasticism is the most authentic form of Christian discipleship. As Basil sees it, if we would let the Lord’s grace have its way with us, if we would follow our baptism to its end and keep all the commandments, we would end up in the monastic life. Indeed, Basil’s word (eisagomenoi) for candidates seeking to enter the monastic community is also the word for catechumens, indicating a “link between the ascetic life and baptism.” Basil’s “monks”—as they would later be called and as we call them—“were simply,” Robert Taft writes, “Christians taking the whole business seriously.” The monastic life, then, differs from the life of ordinary discipleship not in essence but in intensity. But what does this most intense Christian life look like in Basil’s thought and practice?

One of the most fascinating features of the fourth-century church is that we get to observe monasticism in its various stages of development, from devoted and pious family to highly organized monastery, from informal household virginity to ritually consecrated virginity.

Stephen Hildebrand, Basil of Caesarea, 125