The Letters Of Saint Antony The Great

These seven letters were addressed by St Antony (251-356 AD) to his disciples. This hermit of the Egyptian desert draws our attention to those things which are essential in the spiritual life. Among the main themes are the witness of the Holy Spirit in the conscience of each person, the need for self-knowledge, the call to follow Christ, the unity of the Church, and our mutual co-inherence as members of the Body of Christ.

This book revolutionizes our understanding of the life and thought of the great anchorite father of the Egyptian desert. It is a signal contribution to our knowledge of Egyptian Christianity in the third and fourth centuries.—Birger Pearson, Institute for Antiquity and Christianity Samuel Rubenson, by means of a fresh analysis of the letters of St. Antony, exposes the distortion of the picture of early Christian monks as unlettered and primitive. Rubenson describes the desert monasteries as centers of theological reflection in Egypt, showing how they combined the speculative philosophy of the Greeks and the biblical tradition. Included in this volume is a new translation of the letters themselves, which are shown to be authentic and an important source for the study of the desert fathers and the early monastic tradition. The later image of Antony is demonstrated to be influenced by church politics of the latter part of the fourth century. Samuel Rubenson is Associate Professor at Lund University, Lund, Sweden.

Seven letters were written by St. Anthony the Great, which are ever so simple yet inexplicably profound, reflecting the still life of the desert, far away from the tumult and distraction of the world. These letters reveal the path to God with such clarity as befitting of someone who has tasted and experienced the love of God in truth, and are as beneficial and relevant today, as they were in the fourth century.

This book contains the fourteen surviving letters of St Ammonas, one of the disciples of St Antony the Great. The main topics of these letters are the gifts of the Spirit, spiritual direction and discernment of the will of God. Derwas Chitty made a draft translation of these letters from the Greek and early Syriac versions; after his death, Dr Sebastian Brock carried out a thorough revision and added an introduction and a bibliography.

Fairacres Publications 120 Scholars have often concentrated on the theological writings of St Athanasius (c. 296-373 AD) and on his influence as a religious leader, so that his contribution to the monastic life has not received due recognition. In these six letters addressed to monks, Athanasius is revealed as a wise spiritual guide and loving pastor, determined that the monks should receive sound teaching, so as to avoid the pitfalls of heresies current at that time. As Leslie Barnard notes in his Introduction, ‘The permanent significance of these letters lies in their wisdom, moderation and balance.’