“In reality, the practices of direction and spiritual examination – elaborated by ancient philosophy – were accepted into Christianity, where they saw a development of new forms and effects … That these ways and means of the philosophical life were put into practice [in the early Christian monasteries] is not surprising in the least … monasticism was able to present itself as the philosophical life par excellence: philosophy according to Christ, philosophy through works. And the monasteries were able to be defined as schools of philosophy.”
M. Foucault, Confessions of the Flesh, trans. R. Hurley (New York, 2021), p. 86
D. L. Dusenbury 