Date of Award
5-2026
Document Type
Thesis - SCU Access Only
Publisher
Santa Clara : Santa Clara University, 2026
Degree Name
Licentiate in Sacred Theology (STL)
Director
Christopher Staab, SJ
Abstract
This study examines John Cassian’s theology of puritas cordis within early Christian monasticism as a response to the fundamental problem of human interior fragmentation. While modern scholarship has clarified Cassian’s historical and doctrinal significance, it has not sufficiently interpreted purity of heart as the unifying center of his theological vision. Addressing this gap, the study employs close textual analysis of the Conferences, supplemented by the Institutes, within a historical-theological framework. It argues that puritas cordis functions as the architectonic principle of Cassian’s thought, serving both as the scopos—the proximate aim governing ascetical practice— and as an anticipatory participation in the telos, the visio Dei. On this basis, Cassian’s anthropology of the inner man and his dialogical pedagogy emerge as a coherent process of transformation in which the human person is reordered toward divine perception. The study concludes that this framework offers a constructive resource for contemporary theological anthropology and the recovery of spiritual integration.
Recommended Citation
Tesfaye, Samson D., "John Cassian's Vision of Purity of Heart as Skopos and Telos of Christian Spirituality and its Contemporary Relevance" (2026). Jesuit School of Theology Dissertations. 181.
https://scholarcommons.scu.edu/jst_dissertations/181
