Despondency: The Spiritual Teaching of Evagrius of Pontus on Acedia

by Gabriel Bunge

This ultimately joyful work is one of the few books available in English to deal exclusively with the problem of despondency-acedia- and how it can be overcome. Bunge analyzes the views of Evagrius Ponticus, the famous "philosopher of the desert," on the dangers of acedia. Evagrius develops a sophisticated psychology which remains beneficial to us today. Indeed, this 4th-century Desert Father writes for Christians for those in modern deserts -the city- and for those subject to silent despair. This is a companion book to Dragon's Wine and Angel's Bread (SVS Press, 2009).

Genres: Spirituality, Theology, Christian, Religion, Nonfiction, Prayer, Philosophy

156 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

Reviews

[Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fr Bunge has another masterpiece on his hands. I am a big fan of his work, and of Fr Bunge himself. At one of the highest 'ranks' of monasticism Fr Bunge writes many of these things from personal experience. Despite that, this is not some random assemblage of his thoughts and ideas on the matter. Fr Bunge having experienced these things himself, nonetheless gives us the words of the Church Fathers as THE last word on the subject.

Some find monasticism, and more generally Orthodoxy, to be 'otherworldly' or too mystical. In addition the words of the Fathers are considered to be outdated and no longer applicable in our 'enlightened' age. Fr Bunge puts these ideas to the test, and the ideas are found sorely lacking. Fr Bunge, along with a very long line of monastics stretching back to the beginning, has firsthand and practical knowledge of the very real problem of despondency, and through actual experience has found that the words of the Church Fathers are not only still relevant, but are the most practical and useful tools that we can use to help us progress through these potentially destructive episodes that sometimes plague us.

Fr Bunge teaches us what despondency is, and then gives simple and practical advice on how to push through and continue our spiritual journey. I would recommend this to any Orthodox Christian. Whether or not you feel that you are suffering from despondency, read it anyway. Even if you aren't, one day you might. And because many times we don't even recognize despondency for what it is, I would recommend reading this with the advice and help of your spiritual father or parish priest. Sometimes others can know us better than we know ourselves!

Highly recommended, as always. I look forward to more of Fr Bunge's work! May God grant him many, many years!

[Franklin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I cannot say enough good about this book. It would be great to read this with a friend or under the guidance of your priest or spiritual father/director. I would recommend praying as you read this book - really praying. If acedia/despondency/sadness is a battle/struggle for you, Fr. Bunge helps to bring to light how it takes its hold upon us, its symptoms and its treatment. A wonderful book, and actually very helpful in pointing the way forward to freedom from its tentacles. Fr Bunge, recently tonsured an hieroschemamonk - the highest level of monasticism, has a wonderfully compassionate heart and incisive insight into the landscape of those suffering under the demonic assaults of despondency/acedia. The key here, though, is in reading this, especially if you struggle with it, I would recommend reading this with someone you respect in having holiness of life and nearness to God - or at least you can talk with them about your reading. Reading the book will bring things up and you may need the support and encouragement of a priest or spiritual father/director or brother or sister in Christ as you process and battle through to freedom by God's grace.

[Vagabond of Letters, DLitt · Rating 3 out of 5]

6/10

Bunge does not deal as much with acedia in the sense of burning out, ceasing to care (as much) about God and religion, becoming latitudinarian, etc. as I thought he would. The book is somewhat unfocused, dealing a bit with that sort of acedia but more with an acedia of despondency which leads to depression and suicide.

This book places far too much stress on freedom of will for a determinist and predestinarian. It is heavy on the Cassianic semi-Pelagianism, but not as much as many Orthodox writings.

I suffer from the acedia of ceasing to care about religion (I used to be a rigorist until early 2017, when a series of internal mental events and knowledges seem to have swept that fire from my heart, looking back) - caring strictly about canon law, the worthy reception of the eucharist, the doctrines of creation, justification, the sacraments, eschatology, Christology, atonement, theological anthropology, etc. - but theology became to me an enjoyable academic exercise and my real, felt belief in the immanent reality of heaven and hell faded, and I came to muster less fire and passion in defense of true doctrine, virtuous practice, etc. This book provides no cure for that. I suppose I'll read Dark Night of the Soul next, and see what help is there.

Some of the religious fire has been rekindled with time, but I am far from my peak. Lewis speaks of this when he speaks of miracles accompanying preconversion and trials accompanying the Christian life. I fell too much in love with political theory, with genetics and race, the importance of preserving a genetic legacy, the importance of maintaining a worldly culture and civilization, and with evolutionary theory to tie it together - but I can't stop believing in these things by an act of will once convinced of them. (I am a convinced evolutionist, but my slide in to acedia started about the time I became convinced of it: correlation or causation? But I can not will myself back to belief in YEC, though I'll read books critical of theistic evolution until I do.)

Then again maybe I should read more scripture instead of analytic theology. This is my first venture even in to patristics in quite a while.

In summary: the book doesn't deal much with the type of acedia I describe above (lassitude in religion, lack of care, viewing canon law and tradition with less reverence, and latitudinarianism), and it puts a lot of weight on an ostensible freedom of the will that can't carry such a weight because it doesn't exist.

[Youssef Botros · Rating 5 out of 5]

Get to Know yourself

This is a crucial read for any intellectual trying to understand an important step in their spiritual journey. Bunge is a professor of the highest degree. He simplifies, analyzes, transmits the knowledge and experience of these fathers in such a way that allows the student (us the readers) to not only comprehend and connect to the work but, to personalize and practice what is gained. I didn’t understand the saying ‘knowledge is power’ until I realized the strength I gleaned from this book.

[Margaret · Rating 5 out of 5]

Straightforward, concise, easy to follow book on the spirit of Acedia, also known as despondency. It is not limited to feeling melancholy as the title seems to imply. It is different than the other Passions/Vices because it is a compound demon, consisting of more than one passion/vice. It has some practical advice and steps of things to do. My spiritual father has without having read the book also recommended several of the same things. (He's pretty darned smart!) It's the most practical and in depth treatment of Acedia that I have come across - makes John Cassian's Institutes seem like an intro. I would recommend this to anyone suffering or knowing one who is suffering from Acedia.

[Ryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have never had a book so clearly and precisely nail me. I felt like the descriptions and advice were a personal correspondence to me, not a exposition of an ancient monastic theme.

[William Tu · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very useful book, about despondency/acedia, which can be defined as hate for all that is available and desire for all that is not available. It is a restlessness that makes people wish for a change in routine, or living situation, or work, even when things are going well. When despondent, people are unable to enjoy anything that they have access to. This condition, or this demon, has afflicted people since antiquity. In modern days people try to escape despondency through entertainment, but that doesn't cure it. After entertainment fades away, acedia/despondency is back.

The author gives tears in prayer (which can be requested from God) as solution. Another solution is remembrance of death and pondering the end of earthly life and the great judgment. This is because despondency is an exaggerated reliance and expectation on the things of the this earthly life. Another solution is to repeat an intense but short prayer. John Cassian would repeat “O God, come to my aid; O Lord, make haste to help me.”

[Matthew Hudson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fantastic little book. The author, Gabriel Bunge, has made no attempt to be novel, but rather is attempting to pass on the wisdom of Evagrius, who himself is drawing on the monastics and church fathers before him.

Bunge states that there is no greater condition effecting the modern person than Despondency, and I think he is correct. Evagrius description of it is eerily accurate to my own experience, down to the minutiae, in spite of the chasm of both time and circumstances.

If his diagnosis is accurate, then I must trust that his remedies will also hold true. Some seem counter intuitive, while others seem so practical that I am sure they are included in most psychology textbooks. The whole "system," if you could call it that, is undergirded by a sensitivity for the individual soul, an understanding of the serious nature of Despondency, and an unfailing hope in the goodness of God.

I am certain to revisit this book, especially to spend more time contemplating the remedies that Evagrius prescribes.

[J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book was alright it talked about sin and its nature as it began to get into the more specific stuff concerning the specific sin of being despondent [desiring what you can't have and hating what you can have], then the author proposes certain remedies to help the person under its influence to come out of it. This book is a survey, more than something in-depth, because of that reason it can be recommended to anyone who deals with similar issues of being despondent, indolent, and sad so that they to may find more concrete applications for these principles mentioned within the book.

[M.G. Bianco · Rating 5 out of 5]

Despondency, or acedia or restlessness, is the sin infecting an overwhelming number of people today. Fr. Gabriel writes an excellent work here, drawing on the writings of the desert father, Evagrius of Pontus, to help us understand acedia, what it looks like, how to defeat it, and how it helps us on our path to salvation.

[FatherSwithin · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you are struggling with acedia, this is a book to be read with the oversight of your spiritual director.

[Signe · Rating 5 out of 5]

To put this work in popular parlance, an old song written by Don Henley and Glenn Frey comes to mind:

...Now, it seems to me some fine things
Have been laid upon your table
But you only want the ones that you can't get.
Desperado, oh, you ain't gettin' no younger
Your pain and your hunger, they're drivin' you home.
And freedom, oh freedom, well that's just some people talkin'
Your prison is walking through this world all alone.

Don't your feet get cold in the winter time?
The sky won't snow and the sun won't shine
It's hard to tell the night time from the day
You're losin' all your highs and lows
Ain't it funny how the feeling goes away?

Desperado, why don't you come to your senses?
Come down from your fences, open the gate
It may be rainin', but there's a rainbow above you
You better let somebody love you
Let somebody love you
You better let somebody love you
Before it's too late

This very useful book is not a starter for beginners. It will be best understood in the context of a sound Orthodox Christian prayer and praxis. This gem will have to be revisited. The concepts will grow on a person over time. There is a lot to learn from this small book, so this review will attempt to hit the passages that stood out on this reading.

Evagrius Ponticus (c.349-399), digested for us by Father Gabriel Bunge, is a bit different than the writing of St John Cassian who was a disciple of Evagrius during his time in Egypt St John Cassian, who may be a bit more familiar to readers, adapted what he learned from Evagrius for the West when he wrote “On the Eight Vices: Written for Biship Kastor”. The work can be found in the Philokalia: Vol. 1. Evagrius draws some interesting connections between acedia and other vices not made in the Westernized version.

Acedia, also called despondency, listlessness or the attack of the noonday demon, can be summed up as: not wanting what you have, wanting what you can't have.

Father Gabriel makes it clear that it's the basic human condition, not just for desert dwelling anchorites and cenobitic monastics in some remote century. Acedia afflicts people in the city, perhaps to an even greater degree, only they fool themselves through distraction, but it always returns.

To dig a bit into the underpinnings of Evagrius' thought, he refreshingly does not go along with Manichaean dualism. Evil is pseudo-existence, a parasite, which has no eternal fixed principle contrasted with good. God is good and not the author of evil, creation is good, people are basically good as the image of God. However, Father Gabriel acknowledges that many in the modern world no longer perceive personal evil around them and believe lack of spiritual insight to be enlightened modernity. At the same time as spiritual experience with God through prayer wanes, people are losing their sense of personhood. For Evagrius, the struggle against demons is “for the integrity of their own person against any type of distortion through vice”. Again, the natural state for the human being is good. The seeds of virtue given by God can never be completely obliterated in any human being, no matter how low they fall into vice.

The basis of acedia, according to Evagrius, is philautia (self-love), “that all-hating passion, which manifests itself in a thousand ways as a state of being stuck in oneself that renders one incapable of love. Its secret driving forces are anger, aggressiveness, and that irrational desire which distorts all creation in a selfish way.”

This obviously goes against the grain of any typical modern therapy which encourages self-praise, self-satisfaction, and self-esteem, but the definition of self-love also includes gluttony, unchastity, jealousy and crowning them all, pride (St Hesychios the Priest, On Watchfulness and Holiness, Philokalia Vol. I). St. Maximos the Confessor calls self-love the “mother of the all the vices” (Philokalia Vol. II)

Father Gabriel did not expand too much on the topic of philautia in this work. Would be interesting to read a comparison of the current day concept of "self-esteem" to the writing of the Desert Fathers and Mothers and Church Fathers. One of the more influential professors during my college years maintained that “self-esteem” doesn’t mean anything, it’s a false construct—and that coming from an atheist / humanist, albeit a classically trained atheist.

One common monastic advice--which is really advice to all Christians as we are called to the same things--is to be spiritually prepared to die today and also treat the body so it will last many decades. The life of prayer and growing closer to God is not presented as wholesale condemnation of ourselves, yet we pray during Great Lent for God to grant "me to see my own faults and not those of my brother". This is a narrow tricky area as we are expected to repent and develop humility but without morbidity. There is a middle way which Evagrius among many others is imparting to fellow Christians. We are ultimately filled with hope, and we do have spiritual consolation from God from time to time. However, we will likely struggle with these tendencies until the end of our lives. Though some do manage to defeat this vice, there is no resting on laurels in this life.

"Passions [vices] of the soul are by far the most stubborn and pursue the human being until his death; those of the body, on the contrary, withdraw more quickly."

Evagrius Ponticus from the 4th century, and even Don Henley and Glenn Frey from the 20th century, assure us that there is a cure, though not all will want to be cured or to take the cure.

THE CURE

PATIENCE

Patience: a crushing of despondency.

So that, through patience, your reward may rain down upon you more abundantly, your patience must make war through all manly virtues, for with the help of each evil, despondency also fights against you and tries you, in that it observes all your efforts. And the one whom it does not find nailed down through patience; it weighs down with itself and keeps him down. [Eul. 8]

We have already seen that acedia, when it becomes an enduring condition, is not harmless. In an extreme case, it can drive its victim to suicide. Even if it does not get that far, spiritual death still threatens. In the text that follows, Evagrius describes a condition which he calls "hard-heartedness" or "total unconcern" (anaisthesia. He describes it as a "prolonged result of vainglory", and he writes, in addition: if that time had not been shortened, no human being would have survived.". This spiritual death, and expression of a complete victory of the demons and of their passions over the soul, easily turns into acedia as we shall see.

When we give into acedia and take flight, which will look different depending on where we are in life, it is considered a form a cowardice. The fleeing person will likely not recognize it as cowardice as they are seduced by this or that reason why they have to go do this other thing that will distract them and serve only to keep them longer in the grasp of acedia. For a monk this is a simple equation about leaving one's cell and too much idle talk. For a person in the world, it seems much more complicated. An obvious area is the constant drive to want more things, as if they will fix that inner listlessness. We are sucked in by the lure of material goods as well and the intellectual / mental distractions that seem to give us relief. On the other hand, there are untenable situations that can destroy a person. A person could benefit from wise counsel and stay in prayer and watchfulness.


ENDURANCE

In the face of the intensity with which acedia attacks its victim and, as it were, "seizes him by the throat", the first and most powerful remedy therefore sheer endurance. In spite of the apparently overpowering temptation to flee, it is necessary to remain "as nailed down". For the anchorite--and not only for him--it means first of all that one holds out until the attack is over.

Patient perseverance with prayer is the order of the day against the noonday demon. Don’ t give up and leave the arena. Keep thy mind in hell and despair not (St. Silouan of Mt Athos). All who want to enter the arena will be tested and tried. It is how we grow. This vice should not be taken lightly, it is at core a death dealing vice.

Father Gabriel discusses the role of friends and spiritual fathers when dealing with acedia. Within Orthodox Christianity, the term "spiritual father" is often bandied about and doesn't seem to have a fixed meaning. In the American expression of Orthodoxy experienced by this reviewer, one moment a parish priest is simply a Father Confessor, the next moment, with no explanation, he is suddenly designated a "Spiritual Father". For some this term can carry with it a connotation of extensive and profound spiritual development and gifts along with the ability to transmit that somehow to others. For others the term can also have a hidden expectation of 'obedience' to the priest's advice to a degree not found in regular parish settings where a priest makes suggestions, but cannot expect strict obedience as would be found in the monastic setting. Because of this strangely blurred area among a few people, this bit may be helpful to someone suffering from acedia:

Today, particularly in the West, one frequently laments that there are no more spiritual fathers, but one forgets that in the domain of grace it is not the father who makes the son, but, on the contrary, the son makes the father. What is missing in modern western human beings is the spirit of "filiation," from which all spiritual fatherhood comes into being. A description of the spiritual father from the mouth of a famous contemporary Coptic desert father, Father Matta al-Maskin, teaches us why this is so. In a personal letter of the monks of the Macarius monastery it is said about their life:

The spiritual father is above all a human being who has allowed himself to be led by the Spirit and who has become a docile tool in God's hands. Therefore he will not attempt to call the disciple to be an imitator of him, for all of us are disciples of Christ, who himself is the sole master. Never will he stand at his side, escorting him, since he is but a human being and not an angel. Rather he follows him humbly, like a servant, in order to be helpful, when needed, to the one who, like himself driven by the Spirit, follows in the footsteps of Christ. This requires that he, even more attentively than the disciple himself, listen to what the Spirit of God wants for his spiritual son and he thereby entirely disregards what may appear to him as personally advisable. The disciples will hear from his mouth only the word of God, not mere human wisdom.

From such self-effacing service, one always knows how to distinguish a real spiritual father in the Christian sense from any type of self-styled "guru," of which sort of person there is truly no lack today. A real spiritual father will never found a "school". What outlives his own "spirit" is only that share of the Spirit of God, which was awarded to him....

PRAYER

The section on “Acedia and the Spiritual Life” is hopeful in that it provides insight to how acedia, and the corollary to acedia—anger toward a fellow human being, destroys prayer. Evagrius defines prayer as “not only one human occupation among many, but the very action in which man is truly himself”. Prayer is “dialogue with God without any intermediary”.

He gives a helpful warning about the two states of peace that can follow an attack of acedia. The first state will have “humility, along with compunction, tears, a boundless longing for what is godly, and a measureless zeal for work”. The second is only a peace attained with a temporary retreat of demons and is often characterized by vainglory along with arrogance and brings a greater downfall.

Father Gabriel does not mention this, perhaps because he is a monastic and it seems self-evident to him, but if one prays the hours, the sixth hour prayers (12PM) given by the Orthodox Church corresponding with hour the crucifixion of Christ began, include Psalms 53, 54 and 90 numbered by the 70 (LXX) or 54, 55, and 91 in the later Hebrew translation / Masoretic text.

PSALM 90

He that dwelleth in the help of the Most High shall abide in the shelter of the God of heaven. He shall say unto the Lord: Thou art my helper and my refuge. He is my God, and I will hope in Him. For He shall deliver thee from the snare of the hunters and from every troubling word. With His shoulders shall He overshadow thee, and under His wings shalt thou have hope. With a shield will His truth encompass thee; thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night, nor for the arrow that flieth by day. Nor for the thing that walketh in darkness, nor for the mishap and demon of noonday. A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousands at thy right hand, but unto thee shall it not come nigh....

The reader may note that Psalm 90 was used as a temptation of Christ by the evil one during his 40 day fast in the desert:

...Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold, and thou shalt see the reward of sinners. For Thou, O Lord, art my hope. Thou madest the Most High thy refuge; No evils shall come nigh unto thee, and no scourge shall draw nigh unto thy dwelling. For He shall give His angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. On their hands shall they bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. Upon the asp and basilisk shalt thou tread, and thou shalt trample upon the lion and dragon. For he hath set his hope on Me, and I will deliver him; I will shelter him because he hath known my name. He shall cry unto me, and I will hearken unto him. I am with him in affliction, and I will rescue him and glorify him. With length of days will I satisfy him, and I will show him My salvation.

[Laura Fabrycky · Rating 5 out of 5]

Clear, concise, thorough, and compassionate study of Evagrian approach to acedia.

[Jackson Tejada · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book offers great advice for those dealing with acedia. I would highly recommend it.

[Saint Katherine BookstoreVA]

OrthodoxWiki defines acedia (Gk: ακήδια, Latin: accidie) as “literally fatigue or exhaustion, but in technical usage refers to the spiritual and physical lethargy which can plague those pursuing the eremitic [hermit’s] life. The reference in Psalm 90 to the "demon of noonday" is traditionally identified as acedia. It can take the form of listlessness, dispersion of thoughts, or being inattentively immersed in useless activity.”

Based on this definition, acedia could be discussed as a specific variety of depression that pushes the monastic to abandon his pursuit of God. Isn’t it, then, simply an artifact of reclusive contemplatives, lives that seem so far removed from our own as to border on the irrelevant? When homilists so often feel the need to use the Sunday sermon to answer the congregation’s “So what?!”, what could the writings of Evagrius the Solitary, a fourth-century Egyptian monk, possibly have to say to us today regarding the discontent of the modern individual?

Fr. Gabriel answers “Everything!” A fine interpreter of Evagrius, Bunge weaves a very convincing argument that the despondency so real to Evagrius and his brothers in their spiritual struggles there in the desert is at the root of the spiritual dissolution of the 21st century:

"There is hardly a text in this chapter that the modern reader does not feel existentially addressed one way or the other. Acedia is an omnipresent phenomenon linked to being human. Time, place, and life circumstances change its concrete manifestations, but of its nature, the phenomenon is timeless." (85)

Acedia, as detailed in the book, leads one away from God, towards spiritual death, and perhaps even suicide. Evagrius knew it to be the last and most fierce attack against the Christian soul, but ever so subtle and deceitful. The faithful person can be led to abandon his faith due to what is at once a debilitating lethargy toward the spiritual life and a fierce restlessness wherein any new point-of-view or worldly indulgence seems infinitely more attractive than time spent seeking God. But Fr. Gabriel brings out the ancient, orthodox view that all human beings are spiritual beings, good by nature, and created in the image and likeness of God. So acedia is then part of the trial of all human beings who turn away from God, finding no peace in this life and no hope for the next.

In such a brief review, it’s impossible to do justice to the profound analysis and personal reflection, and ultimately, the prescription for hope and victory in Fr. Gabriel’s writing. He and Evagrius exemplify y the ongoing truth of the Church as spiritual hospital and Christ as the Great Physician.

[Adrian Tanase · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have finally finished reading "Despondency: The Spiritual Teaching of Evagrius of Pontus on Acedia" and it took me about 2 months to read it. I have read many spiritual books, many Christian Orthodox books, but this one is a combination of western culture thinking combined with old Greek philosophy and understanding about the soul and human thinking, in trying to decrypt "despondency", which is titled Acedia or Akedia (in Greek).

Akedia is a state of being where one is paralyzed and cannot do anything or function normally as a human being, because of the way we usually sin and because of the way our mind understands this world. Also, this happens because of the way the usual man is rooted in his unconscious, in his human-materialistic thinking, where greed, ignorance, anger and all these non-virtues abound.

This book takes you through all the little bits and pieces of understanding our soul and rational mind, goes even further to our conscience and to the mystical aspect of The Holy Trinity, experienced as God the Father, in his three-fold aspect. It is a very good read for the passionate of spiritual books, for the one that is on a spiritual path, be it Buddhist or Christian, it will definitely ring a bell to both, as there are aspects of the human psyche and our soul described in this book that resonate with everybody alike.

I strongly recommend this book to the one that has a spiritual practice going, like meditation and/or prayer, but any other else (e.g. agnostics or atheists) would not understand it, because they do not usually walk this road. I will give it 5 stars and will read it again and again until I can say I am now fully understanding it and also practicing what it's being said in this excellent, mind-shifting book.

[Jeannine · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm not even sure where to start this review. I picked this up after reading Richard Rohr's book on the Enneagram. He had quoted Evagrius somewhere, so I did a quick search and found this on Amazon. Reading this during the shelter in place order and feeling like I'm in a period of involuntary semi-monastic life made this into a more relevant and timely read than I expected. So much of it rang true for where I find myself in my own spiritual journey as well as dealing with the frustration of the easing of restrictions, followed by another spike in COVID-19. While there are many quotes that I could draw on, this one seems to be most appropriate, "Just as an athlete cannot be crowned if he does not contend in the wrestling match, so too can no one become a Christian without a struggle." Reading this helped me to understand the struggle with despondency when in a period where everything you once thought was true is no longer there to fall back on. The solutions that Evagrius proposes for dealing with despondy and acedia are relevant now, regardless of the time he was writing or the period of history in which he found himself.

[Nicholas]

The world of the desert fathers and their demons is an unfamiliar one these days, and I anticipate that some readers will struggle to enter it. But if the last several chapters of this book, dedicated to an exegesis of the teachings of Evagrius of Ponticus, are scholarly and footnoted enough to feel a bit academic and dry, the first couple chapters do an excellent job of conveying the importance of the desert experience to a contemporary audience. "The struggle against the demons is basically a struggle for the integrity of [one's] own person against any type of distortion through vice," Bunge states in a typically trenchant sentence; and we enter the desert not to escape these demons but to encounter them "more nakedly." If this posture IS unfamiliar to readers, they would do well not to miss the other classical theological argument Bunge reproduces: sin is always personal, so a relationship with a personal God will be important, even necessary, for healing, particularly in a contemporary age that wants to depersonalize (and demythologize) the universe and the notion of sin itself.

[Johnathan Rhoades · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent book if dealing with lassitude, depression, and the like stemming from a disordered heart toward God. It is a little all over the place and at times somewhat obtuse as to what point the author is trying to make. I think I did some filtering out of parts that leaned a little “intellect/reason as separate from (and superior to) body” (though again, some parts are a bit obtuse and I may have misunderstood the meaning) but overall it is a book that I see myself coming back to quite regularly for a reminder of the truth.

[Jay Bird · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked the idea of this book as a topical work focusing on just one of the eight thoughts. However, Bunge filters Evagrius through the lens of modern Christianity, using theological terms, language, and concepts that would have been foreign to Evagrius and, in the process, giving an incorrect impression of Evagrius as an original thinker.

[Randall Herman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Needed & Insightful

This look at the teachings of Evagrius Ponticus on acedia is always timely. Acedia is a spiritual sickness present in all generations. Whether new to spiritual writings or not, all readers will benefit from this book.

[Henrietta H · Rating 4 out of 5]

Superbe

This is a wonderful introduction to St. Ravenous of Pontus. My faith and spirit roots have been sprinkled with thirst quenching water, I still need more.

[Valerie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I will read this book again and again for spiritual growth---away from the self toward true personhood in the Orthodox Christian journey. So much in one book to ponder and to practice.

[Cristina Rold · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quanta saggezza!

[Lly_th · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every adult who self diagnose as ADD/ADHD needs to read this. Glory to God.

[Ted · Rating 2 out of 5]

One needs to really familiarize oneself with the very technical terms and concepts Evargrius uses to appreciate his writing. I wasn't convinced putting forth the effort was worthwhile. There are many other monastic writers from the Patristic age who speak more forcefully to me.

[LemontreeLime]

unable to finish this right now, homework too powerful and pressing....