UCLA Life of Asceticism Essay

We’ve talked a lot about monks in this course. To become a monk is to reject the material world and
turn to a life of asceticism. In early Christianity, the Life of St. Antony helped to idealize asceticism.
That’s why Augustine’s Confessions talks so much about it. Interestingly, the life of asceticism (this
time of Daoist monks) is also something that Xue Tao touches on in Poem in Response to the Taoist
Teacher Yang’s “On Being Summoned to Court” (Xue Tao, page 7). Her response to asceticism is
very different from Augustine’s.
In your essay, first write Augustine’s and Xue Tao’s fictional “Amazon Reviews” of the Life of St.
Antony, as excerpted in our reading. In the first review, imagine that you are Augustine; in the second,
imagine that you are Xue Tao. Based on the Confessions of Augustine and on this and other poems by
Xue Tao, what would each say about Antony’s asceticism in their review? What specific sections of
the Life of St. Antony would each have strong opinions about, whether favorable or critical? Each
review must include at least one quote from the Life of St. Antony and the reviewer’s (Augustine/Xue
Tao) reaction to said quote.
In the second part of your essay, briefly justify why you wrote each review in the way you did. Cite
and quote from Xue Tao and Augustine (as well as Prof. Kelting’s lectures on them) to help explain
why you characterized Xue Tao’s and Augustine’s reactions to the Life of St. Antony in the ways that
you did.

You must cite and quote primary-source readings to receive full credit for each answer.
o For Augustus’ Res Gestae, please cite the version with my intro and orienting questions.
o You do not need a full works cited, just in-text citations:
 Quoting a source: As Shapur says: “quote quote quote” (Res Gestae of King
Shapur, page 4).
 Citing a source: Xue Tao claims a, b, c (Xue Tao, page 3).