Vid en första anblick kan buddhismen och kristendomen tyckas utgöra en tydlig dikotomi inom den religiösa sfären, men undersöks saken närmre så märker vi snart att det utöver alla skillnader även finns många likheter. Föreliggande studie har för avsikt att behandla både likheter och skillnader mellan buddhismen och kristendomen i en konkret aspekt – genom att jämföra den kappadokiske asketen Evagrius Ponticus och den indiske buddhistiska tänkaren och författaren Vasubandhu i deras syn på människors upplevelse av världen.För att finna svar i denna fråga har respektive författares behandling av våra sinnen och vår perception undersökts, detta huvudsakligen utifrån Evagrius Kephalaia Gnostika samt Vasubandhus Abhidharma-kosa och Pañcaskandhaka-prakarana. Deras tankar i ämnet presenteras och analyseras var för sig, för att sedan också tas upp i en komparativ diskussion.Resultatet av denna studie visar att tidigare hypoteser om likheter mellan Evagrius och diverse buddhistiska skolor i många fall är tämligen relevanta. Däremot fungerar dessa likheter sällan som bevis för att Evagrius personligen skall ha influerats av indiska lärosystem. De flesta av hans tankar är snarare ett arv av den grekiska kontext i vilken han växte upp. Samtidigt som det alltså finns likheter kan vi också i resultatet se uppenbara skillnader mellan de olika kontexterna.Hypotesen att Evagrius i sitt författande av Kephalaia Gnostika skulle vara direkt påverkad av Vasubandhu eller andra buddhistiska läromästare går alltså utifrån denna studie inte att bekräfta även om likheterna mellan de två många gånger är närvarande.

This thesis offers an analysis of the vice tradition of the fourth-century monk Evagrius Ponticus. While Evagrius, like others before him, understands that virtue and vice have an affective component, and that these affections are reactions to mental images, for Evagrius these images are veridically thinner than what we find in earlier discussions of passion in ancient philosophy. As a result, vice is less a matter of false reasoning and false perception than it is a matter of the excessive dwelling on representations connected with events of one’s personal history, to the point that the passions aroused at the time of those events become globalized dispositions. Evagrius’s concern with how memories lead us to dwell on these “bad thoughts” proves to be point of contact with psychoanaly which many modern authors, including Michel Foucault, have detected; yet a close analysis of what Evagrius takes to be involved in self-examination reveals that Foucault’s account of the “technologies of the self” fails to take into account Evagrius’s interest in the distinction between the endowed self, that self which is examined, and the ideal self, the goal of the ascetic activity.

This thesis offers an analysis of the vice tradition of the fourth-century monk Evagrius Ponticus. While Evagrius, like others before him, understands that virtue and vice have an affective component, and that these affections are reactions to mental images, for Evagrius these images are veridically thinner than what we find in earlier discussions of passion in ancient philosophy. As a result, vice is less a matter of false reasoning and false perception than it is a matter of the excessive dwelling on representations connected with events of one’s personal history, to the point that the passions aroused at the time of those events become globalized dispositions. Evagrius’s concern with how memories lead us to dwell on these “bad thoughts” proves to be point of contact with psychoanaly which many modern authors, including Michel Foucault, have detected; yet a close analysis of what Evagrius takes to be involved in self-examination reveals that Foucault’s account of the “technologies of the self” fails to take into account Evagrius’s interest in the distinction between the endowed self, that self which is examined, and the ideal self, the goal of the ascetic activity.

Zugl.: Erfurt, Univ., Diss., 2008

Evagre le Pontique a exposé sa philosophie ascétique, centrée sur la notion d'une liste de vices à combattre et de vertus correspondantes, dans plusieurs traités, dont certains ont déjà fait l'objet d'éditions critiques. Le présent travail consiste en une introduction, une édition, et une traduction de deux textes occupant une place particulière dans l'œuvre d'Evagre. Le traité adressé au moine Euloge, et celui qui décrit les Vices opposés aux Vertus, qui apparaît comme un appendice au précédent dans une bonne partie de la tradition manuscrite, présente des spécificités en termes de style et de doctrine qui ont pu faire douter de son authenticité. Une étude approfondie des témoins manuscrits, à la fois de l'original grec et des différentes versions en langues orientales, syriaque, arabe, arménien, géorgien et éthiopien, qui en sont conservées, a permis de confirmer l'authenticité du traité et d'en établir un texte sûr. Ils ont en effet subi de nombreux aléas au cours de leur transmission; outre les dégâts matériels, les œuvres d'Evagre ont surtout circulé en grec sous le nom de Nil d'Ancyre, en raison de la condamnation qui a frappé Evagre, pour son Origénisme supposé, au concile de Constantinople II en 553. Le commentaire accompagnant l'édition permet d'évaluer la proximité de la pensée d'Evagre avec celle du docteur Alexandrin, ainsi que de mettre en lumière la genèse, l'expression et la postérité de la doctrine évagrienne par excellence, celle de la liste des vices, dans le contexte philosophique et ascétique où elle a pris naissance. / Evagrius Ponticus expounded his ascetic philosophy, centered on the notion of a list of vices and corresponding virtues, in several treatises, several of which have already been critically edited. The present work consists of an introduction, an edition, and a French translation of two texts which stand out, to a certain degree, within the Evagrian opus. The treatise addressed to the monk Eulogius, along with its appendix describing the Vices opposed to Virtues, which appears adjoined to the former in a majority of manuscripts, display stylistic and doctrinal characteristics which have often called its authenticity into question. A detailed study of the manuscript testimony, both of the Greek original and of the various oriental versions (Syriac, Arabic, Armenian, Georgian and Ethiopic), has allowed us to confirm the treatises' authenticity and to establish their text reliably, as it can be seen to have suffered considerable turmoil during its transmission. Aside from material damage, Evagrius' works, in the Greek medium, were mainly distributed under the name of Nilus of Ancyra, owing to Evagrius' condemnation for alleged Origenism, at the council of Constantinople II in 553. The accompanying commentary aims at addressing the proximity of Evagrian thought with the legacy of Origen, as well as highlighting the formation, formulation, and posterity of that most remarkable of Evagrian doctrines, the list of vices, and the philosophical and ascetic context wherein it originated.

L'acédie alliée à la mélancolie nous permet de rendre compte de la totalité de la nature humaine, en tant qu'elle est composée d'une âme, d'un esprit et d'un corps. Ces deux pathologies distinctes autant par leur inscription dans un temps et un espace particuliers et déterminés, ainsi que par les dimensions de l'être humain auxquelles elles s'attaqueront se verront ici rapprochées de sorte à faire émerger un paradigme qui fera de la folie pathologique un moyen d'accès au divin. La mélancolie, de par son bagage grec antique qui faisait d'elle l'apanage des hommes de génie, contaminera au XIIIe siècle l'acédie au point que celle-ci ne sera plus envisagée sous la perspective d'une passion, d'un vice - le plus redoutable de tous – mais une grâce, cherchée et convoitée par les saints hommes de cette époque, selon Guillaume d’Auvergne. Pour ce faire, l'acédie se révélera être une pathologie de la volonté en tant que celle-ci se voit éteinte, asphyxiée devant un idéal inaccessible qui épuiserait en elle tout dynamisme, idéal de l'impassibilité que l'on retrouve sous les traits de l'ange chez les Pères du désert et celui de la performance que l'on retrouve sous les traits du surhomme à notre époque, deux modèles qui se voient être pervertis dès leur conception et dévoilés comme tel par l'acédie. D'une maladie mortelle, celle qui vient autant emporter le corps de l'ascète que la vie de son âme, se révèle protéger l'individu d'un mal encore plus redoutable, celui de l'orgueil, en venant par la même occasion préserver la puissance de la volonté de l'individu en celle de Dieu par le truchement d'une grâce divine. Eau de mort pour le commun des mortels, elle devient eau de vie, porteuse d'une grâce efficace, pour les fous de Dieu dont la folie n'a d'égale que leur amour ; l'acédie devenant par là-même la maladie de l'amour fou de Dieu. / Acedia combined with melancholy allows us to account for the totality of human nature, insasmuch as it is composed of a soul, a spirit and a body. These two distinct pathologies, as much by their inscription in a particular and determined time and space, as by the dimensions of the human being that they will attack, will be brought together here in such a way as to bring forth a paradigm that will make pathological madness a means of accessing to the divine. Melancholy, by its ancient Greek heritage, which made it the prerogative of men of genius, will contaminate acedia in the thirteenth century to the point that it will no longer be considered from the perspective of a passion, a vice – the most awe-inspiring of all – but a grace, sought for and coveted by the holy men of that time, according to William of Auvergne. For this to happen, acedia will prove to be a pathology of the will inasmuch as it is extinct, asphyxiated in the face of an inaccessible ideal that would exhaust all dynamism, ideal of the impassibility that we find under the features of the angel of the Desert Fathers and that of the performance that we find under the features of the übermensch in our time, two models that become perverted from the time they were conceived and unveiled as such by the acedia. From a mortal disease, the one that takes away both the body of the ascetic and the life of his soul, is revealed to protect the individual from an even more dangerous evil, that of pride, by coming at the same time to preserve the power of the individual's will in that of God through the means of divine grace. Water of death for the common man, it becomes water of life, bearer of an efficacious grace for the fools of God, whose madness is matched only by their love ; acedia thereby becoming the disease of God's love.

[pt] O monaquismo antigo é um fenômeno de complexidade notável. Os Padres do Deserto foram homens e mulheres que viveram a vocação à perfeição deixada por Jesus de maneira bastante peculiar. O abandono dos centros urbanos para ir ao encontro do deserto marca a passagem de um cristianismo público, próprio dos mártires, ao cristianismo particular, próprio dos monges. No deserto, este espaço de solidão, silêncio e abnegação, homens e mulheres viveram em busca de seu aprimoramento, seja na busca de virtudes, seja no abandono dos vícios. Para os Padres do Deserto, as paixões são campo do combate em busca da perfeição, ideal herdado desde o testemunho dos mártires. A teologia dos Padres do Deserto trata com muita profundidade de temas relativos à vida interior. A recuperação da teologia destes autores é justificada pela relevância de suas análises das paixões humanas, para as quais a ascese e a oração serviram de remédio. / [en] Ancient monasticism is a phenomenon of remarkable complexity. The Desert Fathers were men and women who lived out the call to perfection left by Jesus in a very peculiar way. The abandonment of urban centers to go into the desert marks the transition from a public Christianity, characteristic of martyrs, to a private Christianity, characteristic of monks. In the desert, this space of solitude, silence, and self-denial, men and women lived in pursuit of their own improvement, whether in the pursuit of virtues or the abandonment of vices. For the Desert Fathers, passions are the field of combat in the pursuit of perfection, an ideal inherited from the witness of the martyrs. The theology of the Desert Fathers deals very deeply with themes related to the inner life. The recovery of the theology of these authors is justified by the relevance of their analysis of human passions, for which asceticism and prayer served as a remedy.

This thesis studies ritual interactions between saints and the landscape, animals and elements during a three-hundred year period from 410 AD. Such interactions include negotiations about and with birds and other animals, exorcism of the sea, lakes and rivers, and immersion in these natural bodies of water for devotional purposes. Although writers of the period lacked a term such as 'nature' to describe this sphere of activity, it is demonstrated that the natural world was regarded as a dimension of creation distinctively responsive to Christian ritual. Systematic study of the context in which these rituals were performed finds close connection with missionary negotiations aimed at lay people. It further reveals that three British writers borrowed from Sulpicius Severus' accounts of eastern hermits, reworking older narratives to suggest that non-human aspects of creation were not only attracted to saints but were changed by and participated in Christian ritual and worship. Natural bodies of water attracted particularly intense interaction in the form of exorcism and bathing, sufficiently widely documented to indicate a number of discrete families of ritual were developed. In northern Britain, acute anxieties can be detected about the cultural and spiritual associations of open water, requiring missionary intervention to challenge pre-Christian narratives through biblical and liturgical resources, most notably baptism. Such a cosmological stretch appears to have informed a 'Celtic' deviation in baptismal practice that emphasised exorcism and bodily sacrifice. Nature rituals were a systematic response to the challenges of the British intellectual and physical landscapes, revealing the shape of an underlying missionary strategy based on mainstream patristic theology about the marred relationship between humans and the rest of creation. St Ambrose emerges as the most influential theologian at the time when the early church was shaping its British inculturation, most notably led by St Germanus' mission in 429.

The basic aim of the thesis is to investigate whether the Romans of the East (Byzantines) during the 6th to the 8th centuries were interested in the Latin west and the imperial rule over it. In the first part of the work, the various discourses concerning the origins of the Justinianic conquest or reconquest of Africa and Italy articulated in the contemporary sources are identified and evaluated; the only one which cannot be shown or supposed to have been officially articulated is the discourse of a source of Pseudo-Zachariah Scholasticus which makes African and maybe also Italian exulants complaining in the imperial court about the local rulers responsible for the Vandal and Gothic wars. After some other preliminary studies (e.g. concerning the so-called problem of Theodericʼs constitutional position), it is concluded that the emperor Justinian was not interested in an ideologically founded restoration of the empire, but made the western wars because of his contacts with western aristocrats. In the second part of the thesis, the presentation of the Justinianic western wars and western events or realities in the works of the Byzantine historians from Marcellinus Comes and Procopius to Theophylactus Simocatta (the 6th to the early 7th centuries) is investigated and an attempt is made to explore...