Dialectic in The Desert: Meditations on the Sages

by Simon Richardson, Jeff Hood

As we begin our journey into the wisdom of the desert, we need to ask why do this? Why listen to the voices of sages, long dead, who did the extraordinary, even ridiculous, thing of going into the desert to live? Most of the sayings we will dwell on, show us, the lives of the Desert Sages were and are utterly alien and remote – what good can these distant words provide us in our 21st century reality? Perhaps it is the very oddness and disconnectedness that will reveal God to us. In the end, the Desert Sages firmly believed that the intended destiny for each human is to blaze with the Spirit, utterly consumed and ravished by the love of God. Surely, that's something worth meditating on in any century...


The Rev. Dr. Simon Richardson is a priest in the Church of England, UK. He has served parishes in England and Northern Ireland, and is currently Priest-in-Charge of a group of parishes in Norfolk.


The Rev. Dr. Jeff Hood is a Baptist pastor in Little Rock, Arkansas, USA. In addition to his work in public theology, Dr. Hood serves as the Dean of The New Theology School.

Paperback

Published February 9, 2022