Robin Darling Young, Lillian Larsen, Luke Dysinger: Evagrian Pedagogy

The Scholia in the Work of Evagrius: Christ in Psalms, Proverbs and EcclesiastesAs a hypothesis, this paper proposes that Evagrius of Pontus composed his Scholia on Psalms, Proverbs and Ecclesiastes as the foundation for his work, and probably earlier than his more properly monastic treatises and letters. As a trained grammarian, adept at rhetoric and learned in philosophy, Evagrius may have assembled the scholia as a teacher, either in Asia Minor or in Constantinople. In particular, I will focus upon the presentation of Christ, encountered at various levels, in the scholia, to further demonstrate Evagrius' connection with Origen and Clement.

Lillian Larsen: Evagrius in the Classroom

In introducing his summative collection of Progymnasmata – a spectrum of school compendia that flowered in late antiquity (Atlanta 2003), George Kennedy argues that in order to understand the structural character of emergent ancient literature, one must begin in the classroom. Following Kennedy, this presentation examines the gnomic sentences attributed to Evagrius within a wider didactic and rhetorical frame. Highlighting the integral role accorded gnomic content in ancient education, it explores the particular merits of reading extant compilations of Evagrian source material through a classroom lens.

Fr. Luke Dysinger, OSB: From scholia to gnomai: Evagrius Ponticus’ Pedagogy for the Cosmic Journey

There is a  perceptible movement in Evagrius’ texts from Christianized collections of gnomai to biblical/exegetical sentences (scholia), then to more obscure gnomai intended for a select group of gnostikoi.  This movement reflects Evagrius’ vision of the evolving cosmos and the evolving self: that is, his effort to see every text and life experience as a comprehensible part of an individual and universal epic.

Kuo-Yu Tsui: The Body in the Ascetic Thought of Evagrius Ponticus

This paper explores the notion of the body in the ascetic thought of Evagrius Ponticus, a key figure of early Christian asceticism in the fourth century Egyptian desert. Evagrius' writings reflect his double heritage of Greek philosophy and emerging Christian theology. On the one hand, like Plato in Phaedrus and other dialogues, Evagrius observes that when the body is tempted and distracted by the irrational passions of the soul (psyche), it can impede the monk’s spiritual practice of prayer and contemplation.As therapeutic practice for the potential of such negative, unbidden modesof the body (i.e., flesh/sarx), Evagrius prescribes a rich array of physical and psychological ascetic disciplines to help train and guide the monk along the challenging spiritual journey toward apatheia.Onthe other hand,within the context of Evagrius' cosmology, the body is represented as not inherently evil, but rather as a modality in the tripartite structure body/soul/intellect that was precipitated from the movement of differentiation at the Fall. Withinthis scheme, Evagrius describes the body as the unique divinely created instrument (organon) through which the fallen will may work out and receive salvation.It is only through the body that human beings can learn to overcome passions, establish virtues, and thus purify the soul for participation intheoria and agape. In Evagrius' apokatastasis, there will be a restoration of incorruptible bodies, impassible souls, and intellects of true knowledge, and ultimately, a unity of divine love that subsumes all mortal bodies and all plurality.

Henrik Rydell Johnsén: Reading kephalaia: The composition of Evagrius’ Ad monachos reconsidered

How Evagrius Ponticus (d. 399) composed his highly influential treatises of short and succinct chapters (kepahalaia) is bewildering and has been discussed by many scholars such as Antoine Guillaumont, Jeremy Driscoll, Columba Stewart, and Joel Kalvesmaki. While scholars have regarded some of Evagrius’ texts of chapters as more or less haphazard gnomic collections, they have tried to detect some sort of structure and progress of thought in some others, like Evagrius’ Praktikos and his Ad monachos.In this paper the literary composition of Evagrius’ Ad monachos is reconsidered by paying attention to literary practices and conventions codified in the so called progymnasmata tradition of late antiquity in order to further elucidate Evagrius’ way of composing his teaching and the reading practices that this type of texts seem to presuppose.

Monica Tobon: Reassessing the orthodoxy of Evagrius’ Christology

Recent commentators
have distanced themselves from Antoine Guillaumont’s supposition that the anathemas
of 543 are a reliable guide to Evagrius’ Christology, but have nonetheless concluded
that for him Christ is not truly the Logos Incarnate but instead a pre-existent
nous united to the Logos, and that accordingly his Christology was unorthodox
according to the standards of his own day. This communication challenges this
view by (i) summarising evidence from Evagrius’ writings that he did indeed
believe Christ to be the Logos made flesh, and (ii) arguing that his doctrine
of pre-existence (which was in any case only condemned in association with
Evagrius himself) has no implications for Christ’s divinity.

Nichifor Tanase: Syriac and Coptic roots of Gregory Palamas hesychast theology of the Uncreated Light

Evagrius
writes that, after progressing in virtue, ‘in prayer you will see your mind
like a star [νοῦν ἀστεροειδῆ]’ (Thoughts 43); He and his friend Ammonius journeyed to consult John of Lycopolis, the great “Seer of the Thebaid” about the the source of the light that illumines the mind. It is the Holy Trinity, in fact, the divine light makes the mind itself to be radiant.To Evagrius there is a coincidence of the Light and Face in the „kindred light” (τό συγγενές φῶς – Skemmata 2) as the splendour of the Lord’s face (acoincidence of the images of the light and
the face).Christ becomes present in the soul as He was in the
Incarnation and, through His presence we are being ‘mixed’, from within (ἐν ὑμῖν),
with the light of the Trinity. The theme of the divine light was extensively discussed by the Syriac mystical writers of the seventh and eighth centuries, especially by Isaac of Nineveh, Joseph Hazzaya, and John of Dalyatha. Saint Gregory Palamas uses the macarian term of ‘ὑποστατικὸν ϕῶς’, to show that the light (φωτισμός) is Christ, shining ‘substantially’ (ὑποστατικῶς) whitin all human person. The important text is from Tr.III.i.16:‘He Himself is deifying light’ (Tr. II.iii.9). The Palamas’
Hesychast idea of the light-like sensitive nature of man shows clear
similarities with this early syrian and desert coptic understanding of the
luminous reflection of God’s Glory.

Eric Crégheur: Un nouvel écrit pseudo-athanasien : deux collections coptes inédites de paroles de sagesse préservées à Toronto

Cette communication a pour objet de présenter deux collections de sentences coptes inédites conservées à Toronto, à savoir des Paroles d'instruction attribués à Athanase d’Alexandrie et un court recueil de sentences anonymes, attribué par erreur à Évagre. Après une présentation du manuscrit (description physique, provenance et contexte de son acquisition par le Royal Ontario Museum) et de son contenu (textes préservés, langue, histoire de la recherche), nous nous pencherons avec plus de détails sur les deux collections de sentences encore inédites qu’on y trouve : caractéristiques des sentences, langue originale et milieu de composition, attribution, datation, etc. Nous dirons enfin quelques mots sur la place que ces deux recueils occupent au sein de collections similaires et apparentées.

Rubén Peretó Rivas: The attention (προσοχή) in Evagrius of Pontus

Basil of Caesarea gave an important place to the attention both as a way to stay faithful to the Lord’s commandment and as a barrier to prevent the assault of the demons through the evil thoughts.Evagrius of Pontus, a disciple of Basil, is well known by his psychological approach to the Christian asceticism in which plays an important role the logismoi or wicked thoughts that are instiled by the demons in the mind. In this paper, I want to discuss the place of the attention in the Evagrius’ teachings, how it is essential for keep the soul free from the demon’s temptations and particularly the psychological meaning that the author assign to this concept.I will specially focus in two of his main works: The Monk. A Treatise on the Practical Life and On Prayer, but taking account the whole of his writings.

Daniel Opperwall: Chained to Grievance, Rotten to the Roots: Evagrius and John Cassian on Sadness

Both Evagrius and John Cassian emphasize sadness (λύπη in Evagrius, tristitia in Cassian) among their eight principle forms of vice. Yet, little scholarship is available exploring its role in their thought. This is unfortunate; sadness is an essential plank of their monastic psychology, as well as a challenging term to define in their writings. In this paper, I explore the definition of sadness shared by Evagrius and Cassian, then pay special attention to the differences between them in its use.For both Evagrius and Cassian, sadness serves as a broad, flexible, and even contradictory category with no direct English equivalent. Each author describes experiences resembling melancholy, depression, annoyance, grief, irritability, disappointment, tranquility, and even joy under the heading. Cassian follows Evagrius closely in his definition of sadness, and in identifying three root causes thereof (frustrated desire, personal grievance, and unexplained sadness). Perhaps most notably, sadness is both a vice and a potential virtue for both writers, a problem that they each wrangle with at some length.Evagrius and Cassian, however, diverge somewhat in how they discuss the effects of sadness. Evagrius most often presents sadness on the metaphor of chains, casting it as an experience that binds the monk to unrealized desires. Cassian, in a subtle but important gloss, compares sadness especially to rotting wood, focusing on its effect on relationships and its communal ramifications. Observing this move on Cassian’s part raises important questions about developments in the emotional culture, spiritual psychology, and aretology of early monastic literature.

Andrew Cain: The Greek Historia monachorum in Aegypto and the Origenist Controversy in Late Fourth-century Palestine

In the mid-390s, seven monks from Rufinus’ monastery on the Mount of Olives visited numerous monks and monastic communities throughout Egypt. Within months of their return to Jerusalem, one of them composed, in Greek, an engaging account of this trip. Although cast ostensibly as a travelogue, this work, best known today as the Historia monachorum in Aegypto, is a sophisticated piece of hagiography which graphically portrays the Egyptian monks as prophets and apostles like those in the Bible.In my recent book,The Greek Historia monachorum in Aegypto: Monastic Hagiography in the Late Fourth Century (Oxford, 2016), I demonstrated that the various discourses attributed to the Egyptian monks in the Greek Historia monachorum (HM) evince striking affnities with the ascetic teaching of Rufinus’ mentor Evagrius of Pontus, and I argued that the anonymous author (Anon.) of the HM conceived his work as veiled propaganda for Evagrian-style asceticism.In this communication, I further explore the question of authorial intent and suggest that another consideration may also have prompted Anon. to compose the HM: the recent series of conflicts, rooted ultimately in a dispute over Origen’s theology, between his own monastery and Jerome’s rival monastery in nearby Bethlehem. I argue that in idealizing the Egyptian monks as miracle-working men of God, and in highlighting the personal connection to them that his monastery enjoyed, Anon. used his hagiography to claim a certain spiritual authority by association with them and thereby sought to gain symbolic leverage over his anti-Origenist opponents in Bethlehem.

Stuart Parsons: The Coherence of Evagrius’ Scholia on Proverbs

Scholarship has not yet discovered the structure of Evagrius’ Scholia on Proverbs at a detailed level. Indeed, Paul Géhin, one of the foremost Evagrius scholars of the twentieth century and editor of our standard Greek text of the Scholia, finds Evagrius’ selection of proverbs upon which to comment to be curious. But this curiosity is explained by an ascetic-salvific, conceptual structure that underlies the Scholia, determining not only the commentary but even Evagrius’ very selection of individual proverbs, a structure owing not as much to a unique philosophical system encoded in his mystical writings, but rather to more widely held views and to his exegetical convictions recorded in his Gnostikos.

Monica Tobon: The place of God: apophasis in Evagrius Ponticus

Evagrius' Chapters on Prayer famously characterise the highest form of prayer as beyond both images and concepts, thus situating their author within the rich tradition of Christian apophasis whose witnesses include Gregory of Nyssa's Life of Moses, Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, the Cloud of Unknowing, John of the Cross and Thomas Merton. Yet despite the vigour of this tradition the very notion of Christian apophasis remains controversial, suspected by its critics of failing properly to grasp the significance of the Incarnation. This paper aims accordingly to clarify the significance of apophasis in Evagrius. Taking his ‘Gnostic Trilogy' as paradigmatic of his spiritual system, it will note the likely Platonic/Neoplatonic/Cappadocian influences upon Evagrius' apophaticism, explore the role of apophasis in the spiritual life, how it relates to Evagrius' anthropology and eschatology, and how, far from betraying a deficient engagement with the reality of the Incarnation, it enables Evagrius' spirituality to be profoundly incarnational.

Robin Young: The Use of the Kephalaia in Evagrius of Pontus

Antoine Guillaumont’s 1962 monograph on the transmission of the KephalaiaGnostika eastwards among Syriac speakers established Evagrius of Pontus’ Gnostic Trilogy as the crux interpretationis of Evagrius’ entire literary corpus.  Guillaumont concluded that the substance and style of the three constituent books – Praktikos,Gnostikos and KephalaiaGnostika – reflected the thought of Origen and presented it in an esoteric way.  Evagrius created the kephalaiaon to hint at a teaching also – like Origen’s – rooted in the sapiential tradition and in certain philosophical insights.  Evagrius crafted the instrument of the kephalaiaon to train ascetics toward contemplation.

Based on a new translation of the entire KG made from its Greek and Syriac versions (with comparanda from the Armenian), the papers in this workshop address the purpose, structure and content of various kephalaia.  Together they argue for the coherence and for the centrality to Evagrius’ work of the Gnostic Trilogy, and explore how Evagrius linked the kephalaia of each book to connect all three in an elaborately-worked pedagogy.  The S2 KG not only reflects Evagrius’ intricate and coherent system of thought; its teachings are also anticipated and reinforced in the kephalaia of the Praktikos and the Gnostikos.

Ian Gerdon: The Evagrian Roots of Maximus the Confessor's Liber Asceticus

As yet, only one alternative has been posed to Polycarp Sherwood's dating of Maximus the Confessor's Liber Asceticus (LA) to the earliest strata of his writings (i.e., by 626 CE): Irénée-Henri Dalmais's suggestion that the work's Christological and Scriptural maturity indicates a late composition. Dalmais's eloquent praise for LA is widely cited; his proposed date is not. Yet no attempt has been made to refute his argument, despite the insight and clarification to be gained from such an attempt.
I will use Dalmais's position as a point of departure for reconsidering the relationship between Maximus and his monastic predecessor Evagrius Ponticus. In order to stress the maturity of LA, Dalmais attempts to disentangle the work from the deep Evagrian influence found in the undisputedly early text Capita de Caritate, which appears to be a companion to LA. I will show on the contrary that LA is founded on ideas drawn from Evagrius's Thoughts and Praktikos. It is precisely Maximus's remarkable Christological grounding for asceticism that clearly shows his debt to Evagrius, for the two motifs that give Christological meaning to the double love commandment in LA are found in Thoughts 1 and Praktikos 5. Maximus does not simply give a new orientation to Evagrian material, as Dalmais states: he develops an implicit possibility of Evagrian asceticism and Christology. From this vantage, it will be possible to refine our understanding of the continuity and development of Evagrian thought in Maximus's early ascetic works.

Benjamin Ekman: Weaving a garment of logoi: 'natural contemplation' in Evagrius Ponticus Scholia on Proverbs

Evagrius Ponticus (ca. 345-399) is one of the foremost teachers of monastic prayer and ascetic 'psychology' of late antiquity. He was also a writer of large amounts of scholia on biblical books, such as Proverbs and Ecclesiastes. In one of his scholia Evagrius indicates, following Origen, that the order of Solomon's three books represent a sort of curriculum for the monk: Proverbs deals with the ethical effort of ascesis, Ecclesiastes reveals the inner truth of the created order through 'natural contemplation', and lastly the Song of Songs symbolises the 'theology' of mystical prayer.

Despite Evagrius' 'origenist' interpretation of the solomonic books these scholia are not devoted solely to one area of the monastic life at a time. In this paper I will discuss a group of scholia commenting on the 'ethical' book of Proverbs and show how they deal with the practice of 'natural contemplation'. When commenting on verses in Proverbs that use sartorial imagery Evagrius consistently associates the production and use of textiles with the process of contemplating the inner logoi of created beings. The virtuous person's mind becomes clothed in contemplations preparing her for the wedding feast of mystical prayer. The image of 'weaving' the threads of various contemplations that make up a 'garment' indicates for us the elusive nature of how natural contemplation was practiced by Evagrius. Through a close reading of Evagrius' habits of textual interpretation we get a deeper understanding of his monastic pedagogy and the manner in which he integrated ethics with contemplation.

Santiago Vazquez: El ensalmo curativo de Platón y la potencialidad terapeútica de la palabra en Evagrio Póntico

La temática de la palabra y su virtualidad curativa aparece, con distintas modulaciones, en casi toda la obra de Evagrio Póntico. En efecto, la palabra –tanto la Sagrada cuanto la recibida del abbas- es el arma o el instrumento con que cuenta el monje para los combates espirituales y los retos psicológicos que debe afrontar en el desierto y que son el tema principal de la obra evagriana.
En esta ocasión nos detendremos en el abordaje que hace el Póntico de dicha temática en dos de sus obras más importantes: el “Tratado Práctico” y el tratado “Sobre los pensamientos”. Consideramos –y es lo que intentaremos demostrar- que en tales obras se ponen de relieve los fundamentos psicológicos y teológicos de lo que podría entenderse como la propuesta terapeútica del filósofo del Ponto. El análisis de tales fundamentos revelará la presencia en los desarrollos evagrianos de ideas platónicas referentes al “ensalmo curativo”, reapropiadas en el marco de la teología cristiana.

Ruben Pereto Rivas: El Carro Alado platónico y la eutonía en la dinámica psicológica de Evagrio Póntico

Se considera con justicia a Evagrio Póntico no solamente uno de los primeros y más influyentes maestros de la doctrina espiritual cristiana sino también un autor dotado de una singular profundidad en sus análisis psicológicos que revelan en sus escritos aspectos del alma o de la psique humana que aún hoy poseen vigencia.

Uno de los conceptos que con mayor frecuencia se encuentra en sus escritos y que posee una densidad psicológica particularmente significativa es el de eutonía o tensión del alma hacia su fin, que es el retorno a la Unidad divina, y que provoca que el hombre se mueva más bien que permanezca  en la inmovilidad propia del abatimiento o atonía.

En este trabajo se enmarcará el concepto deeutonía dentro de la obra evagriana, se caracterizará de acuerdo a los rasgos principales con los que el autor la define y se la enfrentará, a fin de completar su definición, con sus opuestos, es decir, la tristeza y la acedia.

El resultado de esta descripción de la eutoníapermitirá proponer una relación de analogía con lo expresado por Platón en su mito del Carro Alado. Sin pretender establecer dependencias estrictas entre ambos autores, es posible, sin embargo, descubrir elementos comunes que permanecen constantes y ubican a Evagrio dentro de la tradición de pensamiento heredera, en algunos aspectos, de Platón y su obra.

Jonathan Zecher: John Climacus on the Number of Thoughts

One of Evagrius Ponticus' great bequests to theological posterity was his classification of the thoughts (logismoi) which assail ascetics.  He works with eight thoughts, generally, arranged according to their interrelations and ways of besetting monks.  In the Latin West, thanks especialy to John Cassian and Gregory the Great, the eight thoughts become seven and emerge ultimately as the "Seven Deadly Sins" of Medieval spirituality.  In the East, however, while other writers like Mark the Monk crafted different schemas of thoughts and their operation, Evagrius' eight-thought system remains the most prominent.  Two centuries after Evagrius' death, John, abbot of St. Catherine's Monastery on the Sinai Peninsula, penned what would become the East's most influential piece of spiritual direction:  The Ladder of Divine Ascent.  Scholars generally believe John to modify Evagrius' system in this work to a seven-thought one, which draws on but differs from Cassian's.  This paper will argue, on the contrary, that John develops Evagrius' eight-thought system but significantly alters the order to reflect a genealogical rather than operational schema.  In doing so, it will benefit our understanding not only of John's presentation of the spiritual life (which relies heavily on genealogical presentations of thoughts) but also of what literature he likely read and what use he made of the controversial heritage of Evagrian spirituality.

Yuliia Rozumna: “‘Be Angry and Do Not Sin’. Human Anger in Evagrius of Pontus and Gregory of Nyssa”

The creation of a positive theology of human anger has never been an easy task. Gregory of Nyssa (335-395) and Evagrius of Pontus (345-399) are two important witnesses from the early Church who made distinctive contributions to this problem. This paper compares their different approaches to the nature of anger with a look at the ancient philosophy: Evagrius discusses specifically the use of anger in accordance with nature, anger in fighting the demons, anger and prayer, and apatheia; Gregory discusses anger in the context of passions, human freedom and desire for God, and has a different view on the future of the human body. The paper, however, argues that both theologians agree on the possibility and necessity of the righteous human anger. For both of them the irascible part of the soul which produces anger was created by God in His image. Anger therefore could never be just an evil passion; whatever evil was attached to it was to be explained solely as a result of humanity’s fallen condition. In the scheme of Christian asceticism to which both authors subscribed, the primordial goodness of anger could be restored when the irascible part of the soul was subjected to reason (Gregory) or used “according to nature” (Evagrius). Indeed it could even become praiseworthy as a genuine virtue when transformed into courage against evil, the common enemy of humankind.