Askesis

And this we do find in the Basilican, the Byzantine, and the Romanesque architectures, each more perfect than another, and each lacking in an ever diminishing degree much of the perfect holiness of the Saint of "the most high,"—they came and passed away like different periods in the askesis of a holy soul aiming after the perfection of the spiritual life, and truly therefore they are Christian.

The preacher's faith should be nourished by self-discipline, the true askesis. […] What we venture to recommend is that spiritual askesis—self-discipline of all the faculties—which imparts to the preacher's faith the property of being imperturbable, […]

The body of this book consists of three related case studies, which take up particular problematics surrounding the hermeneutics of the transgendered agent, the askeses of organized weight-loss dieting, and attempts to represent the subjectivity of cosmetic surgery recipients.

Their different practices, or askeses, of attachment widen their conceptions of the divine, the self, and longing itself. Looking at their respective askeses, we next consider how each woman hints at the apophatic in her practices, and the tantalizing implications therein.