Dragon’s Wine and Angel’s BreadGabriel Bunge

THE EVAGRIAN IMAGE OF MAN

Man is created in his “intellect” (nous) – his personal core – “in the image of God”: a quality he does not lose as a “fallen image” or a sinner. This “old man, who is destroyed as a consequence of deceitful lusts,” first of all requires a fundamental “renewal in the image of his Creator”, making him a “new creation in Christ”, before he becomes open to accepting God’s grace. This “renewal” occurs in holy baptism, and it is this “new man” who becomes a true “receiver of the knowledge of the Father” through the Son and the Spirit, whose “true image” he really is.

- Monk: the prototype of the “new man”o He first turns away from all actual sins. o Intellect: free of all sins of though and “perceives the light of the Holy Trinity at the

time of prayer”o “One how is separated from all and who is in harmony with all.1”

The historical man is a “spirit in a body” (νοῦς ἐνσώματος): an immaterial, bodiless “spirit-soul” (νοῦς) in a material, “practical” body that serve as an “instrument” (ὂργανον) for the practice of good–but also of evil.- Body consists of four elements- Soul consists of three “parts” or, since these constitute a unity, of three “powers” (δυνάμεις)

o Rational (logistikòn) or the “intellect” (νοῦς) “Governing” power (ἡγεμονικόν): it should take over leadership of the three

powers of the soul.o “Irrational part” of the soul or “soul”

Irascible (θυμικόν) Belongs to the passionate part of the soul It is linked to the heart When inflamed, especially with anger, it is robbed of the divine

“light.” Concupiscible (ἐπιθυμητικόν)

The proneness to the passions is due to the intimate connection between the two irrational powers and the body, which can trigger in us movements of desire and anger.

The passions- Of the body

o Arise from natural needso Easily healed by the appropriate means - » abstinence.

1 On Prayer (Or.) 124.

- Soul, the disease of “love of self” (φιλαυτία)o Occasioned by our own person and our relationship with fellow human beings.

The Vice of Demons

No other evil makes man in particular as much like a demon as anger. For “a demon is a rational nature, which, because of an abundance of anger, has fallen away from the ascetic life.” This vice is not at all “natural,” but “contranatural,” opposed to its own created nature! Evil is never found in man’s being (οὐσία) but always in his “behavior” (ἒξις).

A proud man (es. Peter and Judas) can transfer his dreams of omnipotence to others, whose “prophet” he then becomes and in whose retinue he himself hopes to become great (“the places on the right and the left”). - If these vain expectations are disappointed then anger appears- Wounded love of self suddenly turns into hatred for the “one who failed” and who must now

be destroyed.

Anger in the List of Eight Evil ThoughtsAcedia: the “noonday demon”Is a simultaneous and perduring stirring of irsascibility and desire, whereby the former is angry about what is at hand, while the latter yearns for what is not present…- Appears in contradictory ways:

o Lukewarm, sluggishness, indifference, and even depressiono Conscientious and eager, unrestrained activism and ascetical

maximalism- Can lead to a complete standstill of the spiritual life

The Essential definition of ViceAll vices arise from a perversion of the activities–good in themselves–of the soul’s three powers. It is a form of “unnatural” and secondary working.

Natural workings of man- Rational part applies itself to the contemplation of created things- Concupiscible part desires virtue- Irascible part fights to obtain it

o Courage (manliness), perseverance, Christian love that manifests itself as meekness

o Demons attack by turning our legitimate anger against sin into anger against the sinner.

o The soul’s “hound” meant to kill only the wolves (demons, sin), and not ot devour the sheep.

o Remedy: spiritual love in all its various manifestations.

Anger- A passion that arises very quickly- A boiling over of the irascible part and a movement directed against

whoever has committed an injury or is thought to have done so.o It seizes the mind and portrays to it the face of whoever has hurt it.o Anger makes a soul bestial; through its behavior, it becomes a

“demon”, a “basilisk.”- If not healed, momentary impulse easily turns into resentment:

“remembrance of evil” (μνησικακία) and/or sheer “hatred” (μῖοσo These are short-lived passions that last into old age.

Meekness- Mother of knowledge- Prayer is an offspring of meekness and angerlessness.

Gnostic- One who speaks with God- Experiences a heartfelt intimacy

The Consequences

The things that happen to us in sleep are for Evagrius “the psychologist” naturally of the greatest significance. They are revealers of our present spiritual condition. - Characteristic of an aroused irascibility are fear-inducing nightmares.

Interpersonal contacts are not at all excluded, but relatively seldom in anchorite life. Special conditions had to be fulfilled for withdrawal not only from the world but also from the monastic community itself. Whoever did not get along well with others in community would also not get along well with himself in isolation.

«Withdrawal in love purifies the heart, but withdrawal with hate bewilders it.» (Pachomius)

An Anchorite is one who lives a devout and upright life in the world that exists in his mind. He aims at internal detachment from worldly passions. For to “separate the soul” from the body lies in the power of the man who pursues virtue. This means nothing other than to free her from the tyranny of the passions so as to let virtue live. Under such conditions, premature withdrawal is not without harm.

Disturbed human relationships, such as those wrought by wrath, pride, or also grief (and the depressions linked to these), have the worst consequences for the afflicted person when he finds himself alone.

ANGER AND PRAYER

The surpassing importance Evagrius ascribes to anger in all his writings is based on its utterly negative relation to prayer. They are mutually exclusive, like fire and water.

Negative effects of a psychological nature: obsessive fixation on an object–or worse, on a particular person who has actually or allegedly insulted us and away from whom one cannot tear one’s thoughts precisely during prayer.

Demons do not know our “heart”, from signs (σύμβολα) however they recognize what is hidden there, from whence proceed our good and evil intentions. From these signs, they create the material of their temptations by stimulating our memory and furnishing us with the image of one who has offended us. We then hold this image before our eyes like an “idol” in order to converse with it instead of with God.

At the time of prayer, the intellect should be “free of images” because it is holding converse with the immaterial and formless God. “Undistracted prayer” is the “highest act of the intellect.”

Those who are still held by fits of anger should not strive after knowledge of more divine things. “Self-induced states” which only “spuriously” feels without actually experiencing them. It is pride, hiding behind this anger, that drives us to seek such imitations (ἀνατυπώσει) and not wait to be called (as was Moses by God from the Burning Bush) but rather darinlgy to set foot in the “place of prayer.”

THE BLINDING OF THE INTELLECT

Just as the body has five senses, so too does the intellect have five spiritual senses. The spiritual organ of sight lay bare to the intellect the intelligible things as they are. What’s more, just as our bodily organ of sight is made manifest through our bodily eyes, so too does the intellect have two “intelligible eyes” through which it “beholds” (that is, recognizes) God:

- Left eye: o Indirectly through the “reasons” of created natures

- Right eye: o Unmediatedly and personally that the time of prayer. o Capable of beholding the blessed light of the Holy Trinity

Excited anger destroys this twofold perception.