DESERT FATHERS
by Benedicta Ward · first published 2003
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"The desert fathers provided the inspiration for Christian spirituality throughout the Middle Ages and beyond. The men and women who first embraced the life of solitude in the deserts of Egypt, Palestine and Syria were seldom clerics or scholars. Yet these uneducated peasants, shepherds, itinerant traders, former slaves and prostitutes soon attracted so many followers they were said to have turned the desert into a city. From the fourth century onwards, along with biographies and full-length treatises, their reflections were brought together and widely circulated. Powerful and moving in their
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…been a light reading year, for various reasons of circumstance and laziness, but here are the standouts in my mind: * Thomas Merton -- The Wisdom of the Desert A collection of quotes by and about the Desert Fathers of the early Christian church. I especially liked the ones that showed extreme mercy and selflessness, such as the monks who turned in a band of robbers, felt bad about it, and broke them out of prison,…
on “Ask HN: Books you read in 2018?” ↗On the note of the Desert Fathers, the "Life of St. Anthony" written by St. Athanasius is one of my favorite books, and is a relatively short and accessible read: http://newadvent.org/fathers/2811.htm or for a facsimile of a print from…
on “The art of the hermit” ↗…body, including the muscles needed for speech. This guy seems like he was more interested in informing this person that he was fasting than actually keeping his "fast". This incident reminds me of the Desert Fathers, the early christian monks who lived in the desert in Egypt. They took fasting very seriously as a way of keeping their religious purity. Many of their parables caution against keeping your fast for show.…
on “Dopamine Fasting” ↗…the west, the idea has had a profound cultural impact. Peter France explores this in his book Hermits, attributing the creation of monasticism to the example set by the earliest Christian hermits, the Desert Fathers of Egypt. I'm curious why, given this little bit of insight, he never sought out any hermit monks? I personally know of an Orthodox Christian hermitage in Canada that's the real deal, not to mention…
on “What I learned about solitude from my time with hermits” ↗…ones means. Having as small a 'footprint' as possible - carbon or otherwise. I probably first entertained this idea after reading translations of Buddhist texts or things like Merton's "Saying of the Desert Fathers". But for much of my life this was a fuzzy idea like most liberal thoughts something to declaim with out really applying. In my mind it took the form of a clean aesthetic - clean, Zen-inspired, Danish…
on “Dude, Where's Our Car ?” ↗…is trying to say. However I suspect the author of this post would very quickly become frustrated with these works and beg them to "get to the point!". And another perspective outside of these are the "Desert Fathers", the early Christian ascetics, who would spend years meditating on single passages from the bible.
on “Why books don't work (2019)” ↗John Cassian's "The Conferences"[0][1] is a collection of interviews with the Desert Fathers, and one of the subjects discussed is that of focus and concentration (a selection of excerpts was recently compiled into a small book entitled "How to Focus", a review of which was posted here on HN…
on “Fragmented thinking is a bigger threat to flow state than interruptions” ↗