The Angelic Life in Desert and Ladder

Faith and Community around the Mediterranean In Honor of Peter R. L. Brown, 2019

Art and Nature, eds. M. Vicelja-Matijašić, T. Germ, I. Prijatelj-Pavičić, J. Erdeljan, 2022

Medieval Christian monasticism cultivated a particular kind of environmental imagination. The monastic vocation being devised as a spiritual path of redemption and inner cleansing often referenced the fall of Adam and Eve and the loss of the Garden of Eden. Therefore, nature was conceptually framed between the tamed habitation and the hostile wilderness. This paper discusses monastic environmental engagement in the context of the creation of a sacred place. Special attention is devoted to the relations between humans and nature as seen from the perspective of post-humanism and ecocritical theory. Hence, the paper is concerned with three particular issues: 1) the cleansing and sacralization of the landscape by ascetic endeavors; 2) the reaffirmation of the harmonious order; 3) the monastic attitude toward carnivorous beasts.

Open access here: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/emed.12643 This article investigates stories of holiness which have ascetics or monastics as their hero(in)es and which develop based on a careful interlocking of two concepts: wanderings in urban or desert environments and self-confinement in enclosed or secluded spaces. Through a close reading of two saints’ Lives (i.e., the Life of Mary of Egypt and the Life of Matrona of Perge) dating to the early and middle Byzantine periods, the present analysis uncovers the tripartite relationship between movement, confinement, and spiritual advancement from a literary-narrative point of view, thus deepening our understanding of asceticism and monasticism in Byzantine contexts.

2019

This essay attempts to briefly discuss the story of asceticism in the early Church with a particular emphasis on its development in the Eastern and Western monastic traditions.

In a dialogue written by the Christian philosopher Aineas of Gaza (5 th c.), Theophrastos asks his interlocutor Euxitheos why God keeps creating human beings and did not create them all at once, as he had created the angels. Euxitheos answers that God knew that human beings could easily be deceived into worshipping angels as uncreated and eternal deities: God has foreseen that men, marvelling at the rational powers, believing them to be without beginning and un-generated, and making many Principles and innumerable gods, would introduce a disorderly democracy instead of the well-ordered monarchy. 1

This study examines the spiritual guidance provided by Theoleptos of Philadelphia and Gregory Palamas, focusing on their approach to hesychast prayer and ascetic virtue. Theoleptos' letters to the nun Irene-Eulogia and Palamas' writings to the nun Xenia reveal their methods of spiritual direction, emphasizing inner transformation through prayer, self-discipline, and the renunciation of worldly distractions. The analysis highlights key ascetic principles such as vigilance, humility, and endurance, demonstrating how both figures integrated theological insight with practical spiritual advice. Their teachings reflect the Byzantine monastic tradition’s commitment to guiding disciples toward divine union through structured ascetic practices.

Nearly forty years have passed since the appearance of Derwas Chitty's fundamental study entitled 'The Desert a City' 1 on the beginnings of Christian monasticism in Egypt and Palestine. Chitty's titular expression is borrowed from the famous descripition of Athanasius' hagiographical work, the Vita Antonii, where the bishop presents the Saint's effect on his environment. 'The deserthe writes -soon became populated as if it were a city'. 2 However idealized this presentation of Anthony and his circle may be, the crucial role of the desert in the history of ascetical movements can hardly be overestimated. The 'desert' or 'wilderness' (η έρηµος) is not only a place where one is able to find shelter from the outer world and all its earthly cares, but also, since Biblical times, a par excellence territory of the encountering with God, and therefore a source of theology and deep mystical experience. Thus the desert can be perceived in many ways: not only as city -that is, community, as Athanasius refers to it -, but it can also be seen as church, tomb, scripture or hell, which is full of affliction and demons, and as Paradise, the dwelling-place of saints and angels. The desert also has its own theology, which differs from that ofthe cities. In comparison, the former seems more practical, more personal and less theoretical. Usually it expresses itself not in elongated treatises and homilies, but in short stories or letters often gathered in handbooks; and it is indisputably mystical with a paradox mysticism that seems to focus more on the human person rather than the secrets of the ineffable godhead. Excellent studies were composed on the history and thought of early Christian monasticism, that shed new light on the beginnings of theology and asceticism; however, the following essay has for itself a more modest purpose -only to trace the importance of the actual place where this kind of theology and practice was born. For the desert usually appears as a somewhat monochrome background for the events that took place therein, as if it were the schematic and conventional background of the central figures of an icon. A closer look, however, may reveal that this backround is actually a significant component, if notthe protagonist in the history of ascetical thought.

The Heythrop Journal, 2011

In the contribution to the sociology of religion included in his massive work on Economy and Society, Max Weber gives a brief genealogy of what he calls 'innerworldly asceticism,' tracing the phenomenon the analysis of which he would become famous for in the Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism back to the middle ages. Here he suggests that labor as a hallmark of Christian monasticism is a distinctively western phenomenon, receiving its 'strongest expression in the starkly simple, methodical regulations of the Cistercians.' 1 By contrast, 'oriental and Asiatic types of salvation religion,' including the spirituality of the eastern Christian churches, manifest a tendency toward otherworldly 'contemplation.' 2 Now, as a community and as a monastic program, the Cistercians have their genesis in a revival of the rule of St. Benedict, whose ideals were being eroded, or so they claimed, by the liturgical excesses of the Cluniacs. 3 Benedict's Rule, however, has as one of its primary historical predecessors the rule developed by Basil of Caesarea in the fourth century, which had provided the framework for monastic life in eastern Orthodox Christianity for centuries. Benedict himself does not hide this debt: at the end of the Rule, he suggests that this document is but a poor beginning, and that for a deeper understanding of monastic life, one should read Basil's rule. 4 Moreover, it is not the case that Benedict merely supplemented Basil's rule with stricter prescriptions regarding labor. If anything, Basil's rule says more about work than Benedict's does. The purpose of this paper is not to disprove Weber's genealogy of innerworldly asceticism (it is doubtful that this historical issue is of utmost importance in the evaluation of Weber's deployment of that concept), but rather to give an interpretation of one of the most important documents in the history of the development of the Christian monastic conception of work, namely, Basil's Asketikon (i.e., his 'rule'). The paper takes this document, whose composition is occasional in nature, being Basil's response to questions that arose as ascetics began to live in communities of their own rather than in preexisting households, as its point of focus. We shall argue that Basil was more concerned, first, with the justification of the ascetic life as a viable option among other ways of life and, second, with the elaboration of how the work of a community of ascetics would meet a variety of material needs, than he was with articulating a spirituality of work that made of work an ascetic virtue in itself. In a variety of ways we hope to illustrate, work could serve as a training ground for the virtues, but it was such as a single component subsumed under a larger spiritual program, the goal of which was a devotion to God with a totally undistracted state of mind.

The Catholic Historical Review, 2001

Witchcraft and magic in Europe. The eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. By Marijke Gijswijt-Hofstra, Brian P. Levack and Roy Porter. (The Athlone History of Witchcraft and Magic in Europe, .) Pp. xiij. London : Athlone Press, . £ (cloth), £. (paper).     ;     Witchcraft and magic in Europe. The twentieth century. By Willem de Ble! court, Ronald Hutton and Jean la Fontaine. (The Athlone History of Witchcraft and Magic in Europe, .) Pp. xiij. London : Athlone Press, . £ (cloth), £. (paper).     ;     Witchcraft, magic and superstition in England,-. By Frederick Valletta. Pp. xvij incl.  figs and  tables. Aldershot : Ashgate, . £..     JEH ()  ; DOI : .\S The first three books under review form part of the six-volume Athlone History of Witchcraft series, connecting the pagan societies of antiquity with the esoteric religions of modern Europe. Volume ii explores magical beliefs and practices in the Mediterranean, drawing on ancient literary, historical and philosophical texts, and more mundane social, legal and religious records. The discussion moves from cursing and the casting of spells, through to the sorcerers and necromancers of myth and Scripture, concluding with the place of magic in the mental world and its demonisation as Christianity came to dominate western thinking. As a whole, the book amply demonstrates the historical uses of witchcraft for entering past mentalities, but also the contemporary uses of witchcraft for marking boundaries of social and religious orthodoxy : to include and exclude, to unite and divide. In volume v, we are offered a summary of the interrelated reasons for the decline of witchcraft prosecutions in the eighteenth century : legal caution and scepticism ; changes in witch-beliefs ; broader religious shifts ; social and economic transformation. The becalming effects of the Enlightenment upon witch-hunting zeal are minimised here, and in the rest of the book the social and cultural trajectory of witchcraft appears far from linear. Although it disappeared as an indictable crime, witches were still feared and loathed in communities, and in more rarified circles conversation about their existence shaped many a political and philosophical discussion, as well as focusing ideals of polite conduct and manners. Finally, witchcraft proves its worth as a   extensive notes, substantial bibliography and detailed index will be of great use. In spite of a rushed style, in which long sentences struggle to enclose explanatory parentheses, and in spite of innumerable misprints, hinting at very careless editing, the book does provide, therefore, a useful summary of what has been said about some aspects of western ascetic practice down to the seventh century. The invitation to think again about where the central lines of history may have run is, however, sadly absent. C U  A P R Pseudo-Makarios. Reden und Briefe. Edited and translated by Klaus Fitschen. (Bibliothek der Griechischen Literatur, .) Pp. viij. Stuttgart : Hiersemann, . DM .     ;   JEH ()  ; DOI : .\SX This is a reliable German translation with introduction and brief notes, of what is usually known as Collection  of the Pseudo-Macarian homilies : sixty-four pieces, as edited by Bertholdt in the Berlin Corpus in . It is the most extensive collection and includes much in Collection  of fifty pieces, previously published in Migne PG xxxiv and by Doerries and others in Patristische Texte und Studien (). Though often called ' homilies ', the title ' Addresses and letters ' better describes their character and is rightly retained. The repetitions and rhythmic flow hint at the original setting in oral instruction. Warm, simple but not naı$ ve, devout and with negligible interest in doctrinal controversy, they make a welcome relief in theological literature and recall the student of church history to the continuing life of faith. They are the work of an anonymous fourth-century author ; their provenance is probably Syrian. They reflect the kind of devotion which in its rawer form is characteristic of the so-called Liber graduum and of the Messalian teaching condemned at the Council of Ephesus (). (The great Cyril of Alexandria, ever prudent, found nothing wrong with the Messalians except that they called themselves ' Messalians ' ; Gregory of Nyssa fifty years before had a soft spot for them and made use of the writings of ' Macarius '.) The teacher who addresses us from these pages is by intention a Catholic (like the author of the Liber graduum) whatever others might later say. He is worth listening to for his own sake. Perhaps the technical church historian will learn here something about the life of the period, but these pieces are not for such. It is good to have them here skilfully presented in full. Annotations and explanatory material are admirably lucid and concise.