Evagrius Ponticus

And we're gonna start in the fourth century with a man named...

Evagrius Ponticus.

Evagrius Ponticus.

I love saying it 'cause-

There's, there's a name for you

...

there is a n-

Right? Although he was also known as Evagrius the Solitary.

We may, however, infer from this that the name of bishop is common to all the ministers of the word, inasmuch as he assigns several bishops to one church.

The titles, therefore, of bishop and pastor are synonymous, and this is one of the passages which Jerome quotes for proving this in his epistle to Evagrius, and in his exposition of the epistle to Titus.

Afterwards there crept in the custom of applying the name bishop exclusively to the person whom the presbyters in each church appointed over their company.

It originated, however, in a human custom, and rests on no scripture authority.

First of all, on the historical level, no, that's not the debate.

The debate is whether or not it's Evagrius that's really in view, somebody he never even mentions and, but, but you're alluding to when you talked about the Pal- Palestinian monks.

And actually, there's been a lot of work done on this.

True, a lot of it's in French, so I, okay, I'll give you a p- he'll give people a pass there.

I don't think it's been overturned at all, uh, even though some people have tried to do so.

But he very m- very convincingly shows, once again, if you read the rest of the canons instead of just cherry-pick one and 14, even though he doesn't even get to the details of one and 14, all the rest of the canons, almost all of them are about Christology.

And the Christology, even down to the technical terms being anathematized, you will find in Evagrius, you do not find in Origen.

So it's this kind of...

And, and so anything that started five, more than 500 years ago was, like, phf, this is just Catholic.

You know, it was just like, who cares? Anyway, I, as I was researching for my first book, I came across the desert hermit, Evagrius, Evagrius of Pontus.

And he, he was just so interesting to me.

So in my first book I talked about, um, he talks about afflicting thoughts, and I wound up really coming to an understanding that these are not things that are part of us, but they move through us like weather systems.

Mm-hmm

... and I'm wondering, uh, does that s- does that setting lend itself to contemplation and the sort of asceticism that they were living with?

I think it could eventually, but I think what they came across, what everybody comes across, and this is why Evagrius wrote to it with the students, he would say, "You're gonna have these nine afflicting thoughts." So first are the, the, the temptations of the body, then the temptations of the mind, and then the temptations of the spirit.

And there were...

Now I happened to be dejected, having been tormented by the love of women, both in my waking thoughts and my nocturnal visions.

And I was nearly leaving the desert, passion driving me, yet I did not refer the matter to my neighbours, nor to my teacher Evagrius.

but I journeyed secretly into the great desert and spent fifteen days in meeting the fathers who had grown old in the desert at Skeete.

Among others I met Pacon.

So now he was extremely anxious.

Another trial was going on, and others were being put to torture for some accusation, so he continued to be much perturbed.

and the angel who brought the vision transformed himself to represent the coming of a genuine friend and said to him tied up as he was among forty prisoners chained together why are you retained here my lord deacon he said to him in truth i do not know but i have a suspicion that so-and-so the ex-governor has laid a charge against me impelled by an absurd jealousy and i fear that the judge corrupted by bribes may inflict punishment on me he said to him if you will listen to your friend it is not expedient for you to stay in this city Evagrius said to him, "'If God will release me from this misfortune, and you see me in Constantinople any more, know that I shall suffer this punishment justly.' He said to him, "'Let me bring the gospel, and swear to me by it that you will leave this city, and care for your soul, and I will free you from this durance.' so he brought the gospel and he swore to him by the gospel except for one day to give me time to put my clothes on board i certainly will not remain so when the oath had been produced he came back out of the trance which had come on him in the night and he arose and argued with himself even if the oath was in a trance nevertheless i did take it so having put all his belongings into the ship he went to jerusalem and there he was received by the blessed melania the roman lady but once again the devil hardened his heart as he did pharaoh's and since he was young and vigorous doubts beset him and he hesitated saying nothing to any one and changing his clothes and his habit of speech back to his old ways vainglory stupefying him but god who wards off destruction from us all involved him in a bout of fever and after that in a long illness lasting six months drying up his flesh the source of his trouble but when the physicians were at a loss and could find no way of cure the blessed melania said to him son your long illness does not please me tell me therefore what are your thoughts for this illness of yours is not without god then he confessed to her the whole matter but she said to him give me your word before the lord that you will keep to the mark of the monastic life and sinner though i am i will pray that you may be granted a furlough of life and he consented so within a few days he got well and he arose and received a change of clothes at the hands of the lady herself and went away and exiled himself in the mount of nitria which is in egypt Having lived there two years, in the third year he entered the desert.

So he lived fourteen years in the place they call Calia, and he used to eat a pound of bread, and in three months a pint of oil, though he was a man who had come from a luxurious and refined and voluptuous life.

And they were asking why this was.

And so Ethan was explaining to them that Evagrius in the first book of the Philokalia says that if you have friends, avoid constant meeting with them.

For if you meet only on rare occasions, you'll be of more help to them.

And if you find that harm comes through meeting them, do not see them at all.

I love you.

that is maintained even if you are sharing a relatively close space or even if you are seeing the person relatively often, it still doesn't have to fall into the bickering and criticism and relaxation that comes from familiarity.

Yeah, and you can have a couple, like Evagrius says, if you have friends.

You can have a couple of friends that maybe you do see quite frequently, but if you want to be of benefit to each other, then you need to have that respect.

M- my theological background is in patristics, is in the early church.

Um, one of the Desert Fathers, Evagrius Ponticus.

I continue to write articles, uh, connected with Evagrius.

He was a, he was a brilliant psychologist of the late fourth century, and much of his, much of his insight has to do with, um, uh, personal growth, with growth in one's own sense of self, one's sense of relationship with others.

and really be able to articulate it, understand it, and explain it.

So authors like earlier Origen, but then Evagrius, St. John Cassian is a great bridge figure between the East and the West.

He was both Greek and Latin speaking.

But the sort of definitive Western or canonical version comes from Pope Gregory the Great, who is writing in the mid to late 500s.

So as we look at numbers, because with discernment, we want to ask a couple of questions like what might these numbers mean? whether they're rising or falling or staying steady, what might they reveal perhaps about our spiritual health of our people or our culture of our ministry that we want to cultivate, that we want to take note of? Or given the mission, what might God be inviting us to notice here or change based on the needs of our people? So again, I've been reading a book, a great book called dangerous passions, the deadly sins, the seven deadly sins or eight deadly sins through church history, uh, written by Dennis Alcom.

And, uh, it talks about the set, the deadly sins, uh, and what, It's an examination over the last 1,500 years, especially from the 4th to the 7th centuries, when people like Evagrius and Cassian and Gregory were writing about deadly sins, and they were really critical to following Jesus for monks.

So these sins are gluttony and lust, greed, anger, envy, sloth, vainglory, or pride.

When I first picked up the book, I'm thinking, I don't think I'm struggling too much with any of them.

Like what are the thought patterns? You know the phrase, there's nothing new under the sun, okay? There's nothing new under the sun.

Back in the early church, there was a Christian writer, his name was Evagrius, okay? And Evagrius is known for having these eight thoughts or eight temptations.

So he kind of gave us these eight temptations that humans are typically tempted with, okay? And I'll put them here on the list, it's not like to memorize them, but to just recognize there's nothing new under the sun.

Everything that we deal with, people before us and people after us are going to deal with it as well.