Evagrius Ponticus

All works by this author

• On The Thoughts (Gnostikos)

  In Asceticism, Body and Soul, Demons, Dispassion, Morality, Virtue

  
  
  

  Of the demons which are opposed to the practical life, the first during the war to engage in battle are those which are entrusted with the appetites of gluttony, those which suggest avarice to us and those which call us out to the glory of men. All the others march behind these, receiving, in their turn, those who have been wounded by the first. For it is not possible to fall into the hands of a spirit of fornication not having been thrown down by the spirit of gluttony. And it is not possible to disturb the temper if it is not battling for food, money or glory. It is not possible to elude the demon of sorrow having been deprived of all these things or not having been able to obtain them.

  45 min read

• Treatise on the Practical Life (Praktikos)

  In Asceticism, Body and Soul, Demons, Dispassion, Morality, Virtue

  
  
  

  Concerning, then, the practical life and the gnostic life, we are now going to narrate, not as much as we have seen and heard, but as much as we have learned from them to say to others, the practical in one hundred chapters, the gnostic life divided into fifty in addition to six hundred chapters passing through in an abridged fashion; and we have hidden certain things and obscured others, so as ‘not to give holy things to dogs and not to cast our pearls before swine’ [cf. Matt. 7, 6]. These things, however, will be clear to those who have followed in the same track as they.

  26 min read