asceticism is a philosophical doctrine that advocates abstaining from physical and psychological pleasures, believing to be the way to achieve perfection and moral and spiritual balance.
For ascetics – practitioners of asceticism – the physical body is a source of great evils, being useless in spiritual terms, and they deny all carnal or worldly desires. For this reason, it is common for asceticism to practice physical penances, such as flagellation, strict diets and frequent fasts.
Disregards and denials of natural carnal impulses would be the only way to reach real wisdom, exercising self-control in the face of countless human temptations.
It was agreed to associate asceticism with spirituality, however, there are not all examples of ascetics who seek to reach a high divine level or spiritual conquests.
The ancient Spartans, for example, were exposed to situations of extreme physical suffering and psychological, in order to be prepared to fight in wars, becoming more combatants resistant.
religious asceticism
This is a classic and more widespread model of asceticism, quite common in early Christian doctrines or in Eastern religions, such as some strands of Buddhism, for example.
Religious ascetics should live a life with the austerity of worldly pleasures, with the intention of gaining the ultimate spiritual mastery.
Carnal pleasures, that is, pleasures that are natural to human beings, would be considered sinful and should be self-sacrificing.
lay asceticism
Laic asceticism is a set of religious representatives proposed by the intellectual and “father of sociology” Max Weber.
Calvinism, Pietism, Methodism and the sects of the Baptist movement are some of the Protestant religious doctrines that make up the so-called lay asceticism.
In his studies of the "spirit" of capitalism, Weber also explains the concept of the worldly asceticism, a conception of social behavior in which followers of Protestant religious doctrines dedicated to professional application, without caring for the pleasures that the accumulation of wealth could bring.
Weber also presented in his studies the definitions of intramundane asceticism and extramundane, which consists in the acceptance of a more rational religiosity, with some secular practices, and the idea that the "things of God" are parallel and opposite to the "things of the world", respectively.
Asceticism and hedonism
Asceticism and hedonism are opposite concepts. While asceticism preaches the denial of worldly and carnal pleasures, hedonism is a philosophy that the pursuit of pleasure is the only purpose of life.
Learn more about the meaning of Hedonism.
