• DOI:10.1353/earl.2001.0017
• Corpus ID: 170981765

Evagrius the Iconographer: Monastic Pedagogy in the Gnostikos

@article{Young2001EvagriusTI,
  title={Evagrius the Iconographer: Monastic Pedagogy in the Gnostikos},
  author={Robin Darling Young},
  journal={Journal of Early Christian Studies},
  year={2001},
  volume={9},
  pages={53 - 71}
}

• R. Young
• Published 1 March 2001
• Education
• Journal of Early Christian Studies

Although it is one of the keys to his thought, the Gnostikos of Evagrius of Pontus has not yet been thoroughly explored in an essay devoted to it alone; furthermore, it has received almost no attention in English.1 The present article is a preliminary study of two aspects of the book: first, its character as a monastic pedagogy employing “un certain ésotérisme,” and, second, its portrayal of a biblical interpretation proper to that practice of concealment. When the practiced monk, the gnvstikÒw of the title, had begun to receive knowledge appropriate to that status, he was able, in Evagrius’ view, to use the book’s fifty kefãlaia as counsels. Those sentences were arranged to teach him how to use a particular monastic system of education adapted from ancient philosophy and freshly assimilated to Christian teaching. They presuppose that the Bible symbolizes knowledge of all created reality, and hints at the highest knowledge available, the yevr¤a of the Trinity. With this pedagogy he could adapt certain biblical passages to communicate appropriate knowledge but, far more importantly, to rewrite his students as images of Christ.