Christian History articles from November 1999

Christian History archives from November 1999

Spiritual Wisdom of the Desert Fathers.(Brief Article)
November 1, 1999... On fasting Abba John the Short said, "If a king wants to take a city whose citizens are hostile, he first captures the food and water of the inhabitants of the city, and when they are starving subdues them. So it is with gluttony. If a man is...

Best kept secret at CHRISTIAN HISTORY.(Brief Article)
November 1, 1999... We recently surveyed our readers about their Internet practices and were shocked to discover that very few (a fraction of a percent!) subscribe to our weekly CH Online Newsletter. And about 50 percent have never even heard of it! Let's...

What's happening at CH?(Brief Article)
November 1, 1999... With this issue we welcome two new staff members. Elesha Coffman is our new assistant editor. She is a graduate of Wheaton College (with a degree in literature) and has been with our parent company, Christianity Today, Inc., for the last...

The Best There Ever Was.
November 1, 1999... Modern Christian hermits still look to him for inspiration, as did the entire Middle Ages, but today we hardly know him. What did the illiterate recluse, known as Antony of the Desert, do to earn such adulation? Crossing the dry Egyptian...

The Life Changing "Life of Antony".
November 1, 1999... Athanasius's biography was not only a best seller in its day, but a book that made people stop and think--and act. News of Antony of Egypt, especially his sacrificial solitude, spread widely long before he died. At Rome, Marcella, a...

Exorcizing the Desert.(Brief Article)
November 1, 1999... The stories of desert fathers' skirmishes with demons pointed to a larger struggle--and victory. Athanasius tells us that Antony, locked in his cell, repeatedly battled noisy, foul-smelling demons that took the shapes of lions, bears,...

Alone in the Desert.
November 1, 1999... Why thousands of early Christians took up the monastic way, and what their life was really like. In October 346, Alexandria was abuzz with word of Archbishop Athanasius's return from six years of exile. In that city, his Arian opponents...

Diet for a Large Soul.(Brief Article)
November 1, 1999... What monks meant by "fasting," and what they ate when they didn't. Desert fathers specialist Benedicta Ward notes that monks were forced to order their dress, sleep, sexuality, and eating because of "the nature of life in the desert,"...

ANTONY AND THE DESERT FATHERS.(Brief Article)
November 1, 1999... Pioneer years (251-312 c. 251 Antony is born; Paul of Thebes begins living in the desert c. 271 Antony takes up "the discipline," learning from scattered Christian hermits in Egypt c. 275 Chariton settles in Fara, becoming the...

Ascetic Agitators.
November 1, 1999... The early monks not only prayed in the desert but sometimes rioted in the cities. the Roman philosopher Celsus warned his second century audience that if the "seditious rebels" called Christians were allowed to prosper, they would...

Worldly Monk.(Brief Article)
November 1, 1999... Jerome was a disciplined ascetic who was on top of current affairs. Eusebius Hieronymus Sophronius, a.k.a. Jerome, was probably the greatest Christian scholar in the world by his mid-30s. Perhaps the greatest figure in the history of...

Holy Land.
November 1, 1999... Sabas just wanted to pray where Christ had lived and died but ended up establishing the most famous monastery in the Judean Desert. One night in the year 478, a 40-year-old monk from Cappadocia (in what is now central Turkey) was praying...

GETTING THEIR ACT TOGETHER.
November 1, 1999... Monasticism was more or less a solitary affair until these four came along and taught monks how to live in community. THE MONKS' MONK John Cassian (c.365-c.435) John Cassian was only a teenager when he, with his friend...

Spiritual Pragmatists.
November 1, 1999... For the desert fathers, theology was not the study of God but the study of how to become like God. After being released from conscription in the early 300s, a 20-year-old Egyptian named Pachomius became a disciple of an old hermit and...

DISCOVERING THE DESERT PARADOX.
November 1, 1999... What so many in the early church found after they abandoned their loved ones and sought God in a seemingly God-forsaken landscape. It is difficult to fathom today why the desert fathers did what they did, or why the church, East and West,...

ANTONY AND THE DESERT FATHERS.(Christianity)(Brief Article)
November 1, 1999... The topic of this issue confronted us with three major problems, each of which we tackled, as we are wont, by examining books. Ancient documents The first problem had to do with the veracity of the fantastic stories told about the...