Palestine (MNN) — Between the fourth and seventh centuries, Christians transformed the Judean wilderness into a place of worship, prayer, and community.
Haytham Dieck is teaching a new course about monasticism with Bethlehem Bible College. He says, “When you go deeply into the history of monasticism, you get really surprised. People just left their materialistic lives to follow Jesus as He said. They went in the desert, to the Judean Desert, the same place where Jesus fasted for 40 days and 40 nights.”
The Judean Desert is a very harsh environment. But Christians turned it into a city with 70 monasteries. At different times of day, one could hear bells ringing from all directions.
From here, monasticism spread out to other parts of the Christian world as well. It also led to a lot of theological development. Dieck says, “Probably the first establishment of Arab theology started in the monasteries in the Judean Desert, which is absolutely phenomenal. That is exactly the concentration of the course.”
Course details
The course will be taught in nine sessions, Dieck says, “Each class will run for almost an hour and a half. That means the class will total almost 13 hours.”
Dieck has previously taught courses on discovering Jerusalem, Galilee, and Bethlehem. In the future, he hopes to teach on the women of the Bible.
Want to learn more? Consider signing up for the online class here.
Header photo courtesy of Bethlehem Bible College.
