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    Writings of the Desert Fathers & Mothers (Annotated)
    Writings of the Desert Fathers & Mothers (Annotated)
    Writings of the Desert Fathers & Mothers (Annotated)
    Ebook68 pages1 hour

    Writings of the Desert Fathers & Mothers (Annotated)

    By Upper Room Books

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    About this ebook

    With:

    • Historical commentary
    • Biographical info
    • Appendix with further readings

    For nearly 2,000 years, Christian mystics, martyrs, and sages have documented their search for the divine. Their writings have bestowed boundless wisdom upon subsequent generations. But they have also burdened many spiritual seekers. The sheer volume of available material creates a seemingly insurmountable obstacle. Enter the Upper Room Spiritual Classics series, a collection of authoritative texts on Christian spirituality curated for the everyday reader. Designed to introduce 15 spiritual giants and the range of their works, these volumes are a first-rate resource for beginner and expert alike.

    In the early centuries of Christianity, thousands sought new insights away from cities and towns. They sought simplicity, solitude, and community in the deserts of Egypt and Syria. Although these desert dwellers rarely wrote anything, sayings and stories about them began to circulate. This volume offers a collection of rare wisdom and pointed advice, both refreshing and inspiring in its simplicity.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherUpper Room Books
    Release dateApr 1, 2017
    ISBN9780835816786
    Writings of the Desert Fathers & Mothers (Annotated)

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    Writings of the Desert Fathers & Mothers (Annotated) - Upper Room Books

    Introduction

    What does it take to lead a Christian life? Would a simpler lifestyle help us learn detachment from the things of this world? Would getting away from the distractions of our lives make us holier?

    In the third, fourth, and fifth centuries, thousands of men and women abandoned the cities of the eastern Mediterranean to seek simplicity, solitude, and Christian community in the deserts of Egypt and Syria. Some lived alone, seeing others only at daily or weekly services of worship. Some lived in communities of thousands, working and worshiping together. They learned that fleeing external distractions only brought them face-to-face with the root of temptation in their own thoughts—the demons of lust, greed, pride, and envy were still with them. They also learned about the depths of God’s mercy and forgiveness and the power of the Holy Spirit to overcome every other spirit and cleanse the soul.

    Though the desert dwellers rarely wrote anything, others began to tell stories about them: how they came to repentance, how they fought against temptation, how they lived in community. They also wrote the teachings of the desert mothers and fathers, sometimes arranged in long speeches, sometimes only a few words of wisdom. Through these writings, desert teachings about prayer, spiritual disciplines, and living together spread throughout the Christian world and became the foundation of monasticism in Western Europe as well as in the Eastern Church. The following selections include both stories and sayings illustrating the wisdom of the desert.

    The World of the Desert

    When Anthony, the first of the desert fathers, journeyed into the desert around 285 CE, the Roman Empire still controlled all the area around the Mediterranean Sea. Though frequently torn by war between rival emperors, the empire provided a common culture in which Christianity grew despite persecution. By the late third century, Christianity was often tolerated even though officially illegal. Christians were able to build large churches in many cities. In 303, however, Emperor Diocletian attempted to restore Rome’s power through strict adherence to the Roman gods. Many Christians were imprisoned or killed. Others denied Christ and sacrificed to the gods of Rome.

    After Diocletian’s death, one of the rivals competing for power became a Christian. Constantine saw in a dream that he could win if his banners displayed the sign of the cross. After his victory, he first declared toleration for all religions, then made Christianity the official religion of the empire. Suddenly bishops had secular as well as spiritual power, and only Christians could hope for advancement in government service.

    Constantine soon discovered that the faith he had embraced and promoted was split in many factions. Debate raged over doctrinal issues such as the nature of Christ and his relation to God the Father and over practical questions such as what to do about Christians who had fallen away during persecution and now wished to return. Convinced that only a united church could unite the empire, he called a council in Niceaa (325) to decide these matters, and he offered the might of the empire to enforce its decisions.

    These changes in the church and the world provided several motives for men and women to go into the desert. Some may have become disgusted with the secularization of Christianity, believing that it had become so easy to be a Christian that few took spiritual disciplines seriously. Others may have sought a refuge from the controversies, a place where living a Christian life was more important than debating fine points of doctrine. The desert offered opportunities for harsh discipline and hard work, solitude for prayer, space to form new kinds of communities dedicated to Christian living.

    Life in the Desert

    Anthony was born about 251 in Egypt in a Christian family. His parents died when he was about eighteen. He then sold his estate, placed his sister with a community of women, and began to seek spiritual guidance from older men in the area. He lived outside his home village for some time, then (about 285) lived alone in an abandoned fort in the mountains just east of the Nile for about twenty years. Many people came to seek his wisdom and some stayed nearby as disciples. He returned to Alexandria briefly during the Diocletian persecution, then returned to the desert to organize his followers into a slightly more structured community. About 313 he went farther into the desert to a mountain near the Red Sea. He lived there until his death in 356 at the age of 105. His friend Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria, wrote a book of Anthony’s life the next year. It was quickly translated into several languages and spread throughout the empire. Reading the Life of Anthony was a key ingredient in the conversion of Augustine ten years later.

    Meanwhile, many others had followed Anthony into the desert on both sides of the Nile in central Egypt (the Thebaid). About 320, Pachomius founded a community in Tabennisi in Upper

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