How did the monks of the Egyptian desert fight against the
demons that attacked them with tempting thoughts? How could
Christians resist the thoughts of gluttony, fornication, or pride
that assailed them and obstructed their contemplation of God?
According to Evagrius of Pontus (345 '399), one of the greatest
spiritual directors of ancient monasticism, the monk should talk
back to demons with relevant passages from the Bible. His book
"Talking Back (Antirrhaatikos) "lists over 500 thoughts or
circumstances in which the demon-fighting monk might find himself,
along with the biblical passages with which the monk should
respond. It became one of the most popular books among the ascetics
of Late Antiquity and the Byzantine East, but until now the entire
text had not been translated into English. From Talking Back we
gain a better understanding of Evagrius's eight primary demons:
gluttony, fornication, love of money, sadness, anger, listlessness,
vainglory, and pride. We can explore a central aspect of early
monastic spirituality, and we get a glimpse of the temptations and
anxieties that the first desert monks faced.
"David Brakke is professor and chair of the Department of
Religious Studies in the College of Arts and Sciences of Indiana
University. He studied ancient Christianity at Harvard Divinity
School and Yale University. Brakke is the author of "Athanasius and
Asceticism "and "Demons and the Making of the Monk: Spiritual
Combat in Early Christianity, " and he edits the "Journal of Early
Christian Studies.
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