Evagrius Ponticus and the Eastern Monastic Tradition on the Intellect and the Passions (2011) (original) (raw)
Related papers
Evagrius of Pontus, Guide to the Divine Light
St Vladimir's Theological Quarterly, 2020
The article presents Evagrius as a spiritual father who guides his monks towards the contemplation of the divine light. The path to this peak follows a certain route and has several stages. The author analyzes the Evagrian texts related to this topic contextually and terminologically, organizing them according to the stages of spiritual ascent. Thus, after affirming the biblical substrate of Evagrian theology, the author shows that even at the stage of the praktikē the ascetic is imparted with the divine light to a certain degree. The fundamental distinction between the created light of the mind and the uncreated divine light is highlighted, and the connections between ascetic anthropology and the light of the Holy Trinity and between contemplation and deification are emphasized. Finally, it is demonstrated that the experience of the light described by Evagrius has a profound Christological and ecclesiastical character, despite some interpretations that see Evagrius as an author under the sway of non-Christian influences. These teachings on the divine light have been retrieved, developed, and detailed throughout history by all the hesychast fathers who used Evagrius’ writings, a fact showing the importance of the topic for the whole Christian spirituality.
Reconstructing the Theology of Evagrius Ponticus: Beyond Heresy
2013
Evagrius Ponticus is regarded by many scholars as the architect of the eastern heresy Origenism, as his theology corresponded to the debates that erupted in 399 ad and episodically thereafter, culminating in the Second Council of Constantinople in 553. However, some scholars now question this conventional interpretation of Evagrius’ place in the Origenist controversies. Augustine Casiday sets out to reconstruct Evagrius’ theology in its own terms, freeing interpretation of his work from the reputation for heresy that overwhelmed it, and studying his life, writings and evolving legacy in detail. The first part of this book discusses the transmission of Evagrius’ writings and provides a framework of his life for understanding his writing and theology, whilst Part II moves to a synthetic study of major themes that emerge from his writings. This book will be an invaluable addition to scholarship on Christian theology, patristics, heresy and ancient philosophy.
David Brakke opened his review of Robert E. Sinkewicz"s important monograph Evagrius of Pontus: The Greek Ascetic Corpus with an incontrovertible sentence: "One of the great achievements of twentieth-century scholarship in patristics and monasticism was the recovery (still in progress) of the works of Evagrius Ponticus (ca. 345-399), arguably late antiquity"s greatest theorist of the monastic life" 2. The fragments of Evagrius" life that are known are preserved in the thirty-eighth chapter of Palladius" Lausiac History. He was born in the modest city of Pontus, Asia Minor and later made his way to the great religious centers of Constantinople and Jerusalem, after which he spent the remaining sixteen years of his life as a monk in the Egyptian desert, initially at Nitria and ultimately at Kellia 3. Evagrius" writings, which are numerous, largely focus on the psychology of temptation and pure prayer, both themes of which became the bedrock for all subsequent Christian monastic thought 4. Due to his theological ties with Origen 5 , the Second Council of Constantinople in 553 condemned "certain of Evagrius" doctrinal statements on 1) The background for this essay was a course that Valentina Duca taught while I studied for the MSt in Syriac Studies at the University of Oxford. Bogdan Draghici and Jijimon Puthuveettilkalam, SJ also participated in this course. I would like to thank Valentina Duca for offering critical feedback at an earlier stage of this essay. 2) David BRAKKE, Review of Evagrius of Pontus: The Greek Ascetic Corpus, trans.
Augustine Casiday, Gabriel Bunge and the study of Evagrius Ponticus
St Vladimir's Theological Quarterly, 2004
Revisionist scholarship is very much the order of the day in patristic studies. This should not alarm anyone, since in principle it need mean nothing more than that earlier ideas are being critically received, evaluated, and transmitted. By this token, revisionists can be deeply traditional just as easily as they can be iconoclastic. Or perhaps not quite as easily: for iconoclasm is a tremendously appealing route, to judge from the proliferation of modern apologetics for ancient heretics. Often enough, one meets with modern rehabilitations of the likes of Arius, Eunomius, Marcellus of Ancyra, Origen, and (particularly in the first half of the twentieth century) Nestorius, that are as hostile toward the very concept of orthodoxy as they are sympathetic to the erstwhile heretic in question. Iconoclasm comes so readily to most revisionists that one could be easily forgiven for-wrongly-assuming that the one implies the other. This is most definitely not so, even if denying the connection may initially seem paradoxical. Twenty years of fruitful research into the life and works of Evagrius Ponticus have firmly established that searching, scholarly re-evaluations can in significant respects be deeply traditional. The works that are the concern of this review showcase this phenomenon quite clearly. Before reviewing those works, however, it would be useful to say a word about what sort of revision is needed in the case of Evagrius.
DREAMS IN EVAGRIUS PONTICUS' LIFE AND TEACHING
There are few late antiquity authors who pay more attention than Evagrius todreams. For him, visions and dreams are not a way to prophesy the future or tokeep in contact with the dead. They are basically a way to know oneself and thestate of one?s own spiritual life. After contextualizing the theories on dreams in themost significant authors of that period, I discuss the place that visions and dreamsoccupied in the Evagrian corpus, describing their mechanisms as a complex operationbetween passions, memory and the influence of demons.
Icoana Credintei, 2020
The year 2019 was dedicated to paying homage to one of the foremost servants of the Romanian Orthodox Churchpatriarch Iustin Moisescu. This was a good opportunity for us to bring back to light writings which relate to his preoccupations with the teachings of the Church Fathers. These preoccupations originate as early as the time of the courses attended in the "Miron Patriarhul" Seminary in Câmpulung Muscel, which he graduates as valedictorian, followed by the Faculty of Theology in Athens, where he goes for four years, between October 1930 and July 1934. Following this fruitful period, he prepares his doctoral thesis entitled "Evagrius Ponticus. Life, Writings and Teachings" which he presents in 1937 in Athens, under the guidance of the distinguished Greek patrologist Dimitrios Balanos. This paper was graded as exceptional.