ASCETICISM • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Asceticism

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Asceticism

noun

The doctrine that through renunciation of worldly pleasures it is possible to achieve a high spiritual or intellectual state.

The trait of great self-denial (especially refraining from worldly pleasures). Synonyms: austerity, nonindulgence.

Rigorous self-denial and active self-restraint. Synonym: ascesis.

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Etymology of 'Asceticism'

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"Asceticism" Quotes from Famous Books

... settlements in both Maryland and Virginia. But the life in the Southern states took on the more liberal tinge which had characterized that of the Royalists, even to the extent of affecting the Scotch Calvinists, while the asceticism of the Roundheads was the keynote of the Puritan character in New England. When this great country of ours began to develop, the streams moved westward; one over what became the plain states of Ohio and Indiana and Illinois, ...

— The Crossing • Winston Churchill

... ascetic caricature. Through the selfish cowardice of the monastic life we often see the loving sympathy of Christian self-denial. Thus there was an element of true Christian zeal in the enthusiasm of the Eastern Churches; and thus it was that the rising spirit of asceticism naturally attached itself to the Nicene faith as the strongest moral power in Christendom. It was a protest against the whole framework of society in that age, and therefore the alliance was cemented ...

— The Arian Controversy • H. M. Gwatkin

... all," "In him we live and move and have our being," but the whole history of Christianity is the record of a spiritualism almost too excessive. It has appeared in the worship of the Church, the hymns of the Church, the tendencies to asceticism, the depreciation of earth and man. Christianity, therefore, fully meets Brahmanism on its positive side, while it fulfils its negations, as we shall see hereafter, by adding as full a recognition ...

— Ten Great Religions - An Essay in Comparative Theology • James Freeman Clarke

... up his cross and follow me;' but who has understood it? The letter of the law has indeed been observed by many earnest followers of Jesus to a degree not considered necessary in this age, but what has it demonstrated? What has come of all the fasting and renunciation, the cruel asceticism and severe discipline? ...

— The Right Knock - A Story • Helen Van-Anderson

... of his years, and in spite of his asceticism (or because of it, for all I know), was a very healthy and happy old gentleman. And as he swung on a bar above the sickening emptiness of air, he realized, with that sort of dead detachment which belongs to the brains of those in peril, the deathless ...

— The Ball and The Cross • G.K. Chesterton

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