The Desert Fathers: “Like a body whose soul has departed”
The Desert Fathers: “Like a body whose soul has departed”
This chapter examines memory and practices of death in a broad range of literature from and associated with the Egyptian and Judean deserts, from the fourth through sixth centuries. It focuses especially on the Apophthegmata Patrum. Memory of death refers both to awareness of inevitable physical demise, and contemplation of postmortem judgment. With regard to the latter, two sides of contemplation are discernible: fearful imagining of possible condemnation, and hopeful imagining of possible beatitude. Practices of death index a range of behaviors, many of which center on refusal to judge one’s neighbor and the cultivation of dispassion. While many voices in Desert literature laud the usefulness of memory and practice of death, some are more cautious, and some entirely resistant. Evagrius and Mark the Monk share a distrust of the memory of death, while other figures dispute the viability of discourses of dispassion.
Keywords: Desert Fathers, Apophthegmata Patrum, Evagrius, Diadochus, Psuedo-Macarius, dispassion, logismoi, penthos, eschatology
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