Stuart Parsons

Evagrius of Pontus

Evagrius of Pontus was one of the defenders of the doctrine of the Trinity in early Christianity. He left his promising theological and ecclesiastical career in 381 CE in order to learn spiritual riches from the mostly illiterate early monks of the Egyptian desert. He eventually became a revered spiritual master himself. He combined his acute theological sensitivities with the insights of these desert ascetics in order to craft much of the intellectual foundation of Christian spirituality and monastic theory.Scholarship is currently devoting new attention to his neglected exegetical writings. His Scholia (i.e. brief comments) on Proverbs is a particularly important one of these neglected works. It occupied a foundational position in Evagrius' community, given that he advised disciples who were just beginning their spiritual journeys to meditate especially on Proverbs. Moreover, it presents many details about his social history and its relation to his theology and his theory of spirituality. This volume presents an extensive introduction to Evagrius and the Scholia on Proverbs in its historical context, an entirely fresh translation from the Greek, the first English translation of this work to appear in print, abundant notes, and Paul Géhin's standard critical edition of the Greek text appearing on facing pages. It also incorporates improvements to the Greek text based on an ancient manuscript discovered after the publication of Géhin's critical edition.