1. Spirituality of the Church Fathers:  Studies
2. Spirituality of the Church Fathers:  Classic Texts
3. The Desert Fathers & Early Monasticism:  Studies
4. The Desert Fathers & Early Monasticism:  Classic Texts
5. Byzantine Spirituality:  Studies
6. Byzantine Spirituality:  Classic Texts

 See the Bibliographies for Theology: Early Church (http://camellia.shc.edu/theology) for a more complete listing of books on the Church Fathers, their biographies, theological writings, and historical context. The following are limited to works focused on the spirituality:

• Bernard McGinn, The Foundations of Mysticism: Origins to the Fifth Century, Vol. 1 of The Presence of God (New York: Crossroad, 1991) paperback, $20. This is the first volume of what is to be a 5-volume history of Christian mysticism. This is especially good on Origen, Gregory of Nyssa, Evagrius Ponticus, and Augustine. See also the valuable appendix on 20^th-century views on mysticism.
• Gerald Bonner, "The Spirituality of St. Augustine and Its Influence on Western Mysticism," Sobornost 4 (1982): 143-162, reprinted in God’s Decree and Man’s Destiny: Studies in the Thought of Augustine of Hippo (London: Variorum Reprints, 1987).
• David Brakke, Athanasius and Asceticism (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1998) paperback, $18. NEW, a reprint of Brakke’s Athanasius & the Politics of Asceticism (Oxford, 1995).
• Sebastian Brock, The Luminous Eye: The Spiritual Vision of Ephrem the Syrian, Cistercian Studies 124 (Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publication, 1992) paperback, $15.
• Peter Brown, The Body and Society: Men, Women, and Sexual Renunciation in Early Christianity (New York: Columbia University Press, 1988) paperback, $21.
• Elizabeth A. Clark, Reading Renunciation: Asceticism and Scripture in Early Christianity (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1999) paperback, $17. NEW. Focuses on Jerome, Chrysostom, and Augustine.
• Olivier Clément, The Roots of Christian Mysticism: Text & Commentary, trans. Theodore Berkeley (New York: New City Press, 1995) paperback, $20.
• Gillian Cloke, This Female Man of God: Women and Spiritual Power in the Patristic Age, AD 350-450 (New York: Routledge, 1995) paperback, $25.
• Henri Crouzel, Origen, trans. A.S. Worrall (reprint of 1989 edition: Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1998) paperback, $20.
• Andrew Louth, The Origins of the Christian Mystical Tradition (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1981) paperback, $20. Brief, but masterful.
• Philip Rousseau, Basil of Caesarea, Transformation of the Classical Heritage 20 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994) paperback, $20.
• Dennis E. Trout, Paulinus of Nola: Life, Letters, and Poems, Transformation of the Classical Heritage 27 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999) hardcover, $45. NEW.
• Frederick Van Fleteren, Joseph C. Schnaubelt, Joseph Reino, ed., Augustine: Mystic and Mystagogue, Collectanea Augustiniana (New York: Peter Lang, 1994). A superb collection of essays. See especially Gerald Bonner, "Augustine and Mysticism" & Roland Teske, "St. Augustine and the Vision of God."

• Augustine, Confessions, trans. Henry Chadwick, Oxford World’s Classics (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991) paperback, $7. The Confessions is Augustine’s long meditation on his life and conversion (Bk. 1-9) on his interior life at the time he is writing (Bk. 10) and on the opening verses of Genesis (Bk. 11-13). One of the masterpieces of Western literature. Other translations: that by R.S. Pine-Coffin (New York: Penguin Books, 1961) paperback, $7; by Maria Boulding (New City Press, 1998) paperback, $20.
• Origen, Exhortation to Martyrdom, Classics of Western Spirituality 11, trans. Rowan A. Greer (New York: Paulist Press, 1979) paperback, $18. A fine selection of Origen’s works, including On Prayer, the earliest Christian treatise on prayer and one of the most influential. While essentially a commentary on the Lord’s Prayer, this work also addresses the problem of why one should pray even though God already knows what we need.
• Gregory of Nyssa, Life of Moses, Classics of Western Spirituality 4, trans. Everett Ferguson & Abraham J. Malherbe (New York: Paulist Press, 1978) paperback, $20. Gregory was not only one of the architects of Trinitarian doctrine but was also a mystic. Here he allegorizes the Exodus story, treating it as the story of the journey of the soul to God. Whatever one thinks of it as biblical interpretation, it is a brilliant analysis of the mystical journey to God.
• Augustine of Hippo, Selected Writings, Classics of Western Spirituality, ed. Mary T. Clark (New York: Paulist Press, 1984) paperback, $20.
• Basil of Caesarea, Ascetical Works, Fathers of the Church 9, trans. Monica Wagner (Washington: Catholic University Press of America, 1950).
• Ephrem the Syrian, Hymns, trans. Kathleen E. McVey, Classics of Western Spirituality (New York: Paulist Press, 1989) paperback, $18.
• Ephrem the Syrian, Hymns on Paradise, trans. Sebastian Brock (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1990) paperback, $10.
• Gregory of Nyssa, Ascetical Works, Fathers of the Church 58, trans. Virginia Woods Callahan (Washington: Catholic University of America Press, 1967).
• Joseph W. Trigg, ed., Origen, Early Church Fathers (New York: Routledge, 1998) paperback, $25. NEW.

• Douglas Burton-Christie, The Word in the Desert: Scripture and the Quest for Holiness in Early Christian Monasticism (New York: Oxford, 1993) paperback, $25. A detailed study of the biblical spirituality that shaped the Egyptian monastic outlook. It provides a good treatment of matters far beyond its specific focus: asceticism, work, abbas and disciples, etc.
• Columba Stewart, Cassian the Monk, Oxford Studies in Historical Theology (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998) NEW in paperback, $20. John Cassian probably did more than anyone else to translate the desert experience for the West. Following his teacher, Evagrius Ponticus, he stressed wordless prayer and the mystical journey of the soul. St. Benedict, in his Rule, would make Cassian’s memoirs required reading in all his monasteries. This is a brilliant study of Cassian’s spirituality.
• James E. Goehring, Ascetics, Society, and the Desert: Studies in Early Egyptian Monasticism (Harrisburg, PA: Trinity Press International, 1999) paperback, $25. NEW. Goehring has, for the last 15 years, done pioneering work on the origins of Christian monasticism. He has finally gathered his important and sometimes hard-to-find essays into this collection. One does need to know the basics of the history to appreciate how dramatically and skillfully he revises the old picture of the early monasticism.
• John Binns, Ascetics and Ambassadors of Christ: the Monasteries of Palestine, 314-631, Oxford Early Christian Studies (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994) paperback, $25.
• Henry Chadwick, "Pachomios and the Idea of Sanctity," reprinted in History and Thought of the Early Church (London: Variorum Reprints, 1982).
• Derwas Chitty, The Desert A City (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1966) paperback, $10. The classic survey.
• Jeremy Driscoll and Mark Sheridan, ed., Spiritual Progress: Studies in the Spirituality of Late Antiquity and Early Monasticism (Rome: Pontificio Ateneo S. Anselmo, 1994).
• Susanna Elm, Virgins of God: The Making of Asceticism in Late Antiquity, Oxford Classical Monographs (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994) paperback, $18.
• H. Evelyn-White, The Monasteries of Wadi ‘n Natrûn, Part Two: The History of the Monasteries of Nitria and of Scetis (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art Egyptian Expedition, 1932). Dated, but the brilliant starting point for all major studies in this century.
• Graham E. Gould, The Desert Fathers on Monastic Community, Oxford Early Christian Studies (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993) hardcover, $40. See especially the superb introductory chapter.
• Antoine Guillaumont, Aux origenes du monachisme chrétien: Pour une phénoménologie du monachisme, Spiritualité orientale 30 (Bégrolles-en-Mauges: Abbaye de Bellefontaine, 1979).
• Antoine Guillaumont, "L’enseignement spirituel des moines d’Égypte: La formation d’une tradition," reprinted in Études sur la spiritualité de l’Orient chrétien, Spiritualité orientale 66 (Bégrolles-en-Mauges, France: Abbaye de Bellefontaine, 1996) 81-92. A brilliant introduction.
• Irénée Hausherr, Spiritual Direction in the Early Christian East, CS 116, trans. Anthony P. Gythiel (Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 1990; original French edition, 1955).
• Irénée Hausherr, Penthos: the Doctrine of Compunction in the Christian East, trans. Anselm Hufstader, Cistercian Studies 53 (Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 1982). A classic study from the 1950s.
• Harriet A. Luckman & Linda Kulzer, eds., Purity of Heart in Early Ascetic and Monastic Literature (Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 1999) paperback, $22. NEW.
• Philip Rousseau, Pachomius: The Making of a Community in Fourth Century Egypt, Transformation of the Classical Heritage 6 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985) NEW in paperback, $20.
• Marek Starowicyski, ed., The Spirituality of Ancient Monasticism: Acts of the International Colloquium held in Cracow-Tyniec, 16-19^th November 1994 (Cracow: Tyniec, 1995).
• Benedicta Ward, "Traditions of Spiritual Guidance: Spiritual Direction in the Desert Fathers," Signs and Wonders: Saints, Miracles, and Prayers from the 4^th Century to the 14^th (London: Variorum Reprints, 1992).

• Athanasius, The Life of Anthony, Classics of Western Spirituality 16, trans. Robert C. Gregg (New York: Paulist Press, 1980) paperback, $15. This was one of the great religious best-sellers of ancient world and was responsible for popularizing the desert ideal throughout the ancient world. This work would shape all later lives of the saints. A new translation by Tim Vivian and Apostolos N. Athanassakis based on the critical edition by G.J.M. Bartelink is forthcoming from Cistercian Publications in 2000.
• The Sayings of the Desert Fathers: the Alphabetical Collection [Apophthegmata Patrum], trans. Benedicta Ward, Cistercian Studies 59 (Kalamazoo, WI: Cistercian Publications, 1984) paperback, $13. Fascinating Zen-like anecdotes about and one-liners from the simple, unlearned, and often eccentric leaders of the early desert movement.
• Antoine Guillaumont & Claire Guillaumont, eds., Évagre le Pontique, Traité Practique ou le Moine, Sources chrétiennes 170-171 (Paris: Éditions du Cerf, 1971). Evagrius was a friend of the Cappadocians Fathers and would become the first great theoretician of the spiritual life. He stressed the centrality of wordless, imageless prayer, and his writings display a fondness for brief, oracular sayings. Within a year of his death, his friends and disciples—Palladius, Cassian, Rufinus—would be persecuted as "Origenists" and run out of Egypt. Evagrius was condemned 150 years later, and his works circulated under others’ names. This version has a critical edition of the Greek text of his most famous work, the Praktikos, together with a French translation and opens with a superb 100-page overview of Evagrius’ life and teaching. For an English translation, see John Eudes Bamberger, Evagrius Ponticus: Praktikos and Chapters on Prayer, Cistercian Studies 4 (Kalamazoo, WI: Cistercian Publications, 1981) paperback, $7.
• Dorotheus of Gaza, Discourses and Sayings, trans., Eric P. Wheeler, Cistercian Studies 33 (Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 1987) paperback, $12.
• John Cassian, The Conferences, trans. Boniface Ramsey, Ancient Christian Writers 57 (New York: Paulist Press, 1997) hardcover, $40. The first complete translation in a century.
• John Climacus, The Ladder of Divine Ascent, trans. Colm Luibheid and Norman Russell, Classics of Western Spirituality (New York: Paulist Press, 1982)
• John Mochus, The Spiritual Meadow, trans. John Wortley, Cistercian Studies (Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 1992) paperback, $18.
• Theodoret of Cyrrhus, A History of the Monks of Syria, trans. R.M. Price, Cistercian Studies 88 (Kalamazoo, WI: Cistercian Publications, 1985) paperback, $14.
• Robert Doran, ed., The Lives of Symeon Stylites, Cistercian Studies 112 (Kalamazoo, WI: Cistercian Publications, 1992) paperback, $16.
• Lucien Regnault, trans., Les Chemins de Dieu au Désert: Collection Systematique des Apophtegmes des Pères (Solesmes: Éditions de Solesmes, 1992).
• Lucien Regnault, trans. Les Sentences des Pères du Désert, 5 volumes (Solesmes: Éditions de Solesmes). These include Recueil de Pélage et Jean (1966); Nouveau Recueil (1970); Troisième Recueil et Tables (1976); Collection alphabétique (1981); Série des anonymes (1985). The only complete translation of the sayings of the desert fathers from Greek, Latin, Coptic, Ethiopic, Syriac, and Armenian. A must for researchers.
• Armand Veilleux, ed., Pachomian Koinonia: the Lives, Rules, and Other Writings of Saint Pachomius, Cistercian Studies 45-47 (Kalamazoo, WI: Cistercian Publications, 1980-1982) paperback, $15 per volume.
• Tim Vivian, ed., Journeying Into God: Seven Early Monastic Lives (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1995) paperback, $14.
• Carolinne White, trans., Early Christian Lives, Penguin Classics (New York: Penguin Books, 1998) paperback, $13. NEW.
• Vincent L. Wimbush, ed., Ascetic Behavior in Greco-Roman Antiquity: A Sourcebook (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1990) hardcover, $50. Translations of valuable, but hard-to-find sources.

• Andrew Louth, Denys the Areopagite, Outstanding Christian Thinkers Series, (Harrisburg, PA: Morehouse Publishing, 1989) paperback, $10. Denys the Areopagite (also called Pseudo-Dionysius) was a 5th- or 6th-century Syrian monk writing under the pseudonym of St. Paul’s Athenian convert. He composed a set of treatises that have powerfully shaped mystical currents both in the Greek East and the medieval West; they even influenced the development of the Gothic cathedral. Louth offers an excellent introduction to complex matters.
• Moshe Barash, Icon: Studies in the History of an Idea (New York: New York University Press, 1992) paperback.
• Alexander P. Kazhdan, ed., The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, 4 vol. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991).
• Vladimir Lossky, The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church (reprint of 1953 edition: Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1997) paperback, $14.
• John Meyendorff, Byzantine Theology: Historical Trends and Doctrinal Themes, 2nd ed. (New York: Fordham University Press, 1987) paperback, $16.
• Jaroslav Pelikan, Imago Dei: The Byzantine Apologia for Icons (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990).
• Tomas Spidlik, The Spirituality of the Christian East: A Systematic Handbook, Cistercian Studies 79 (Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 1986) paperback, $25.
• Columba Stewart, "Working the Earth of the Heart": The Messalian Controversy in History, Texts, and Language to A.D. 431, Oxford Theological Monographs (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991).
• Kallistos Ware, "The Origins of the Jesus Prayer: Diadochus, Gaza, Sinai," in C. Jones, G. Wainwright, E. Yarnold, eds., The Study of Spirituality (New York: Oxford University Press, 1986) 175-184.

• Andrew Louth, ed., Maximus the Confessor, Early Christian Fathers Series (London: Routledge, 1996) paperback $20. Maximus was a 7^th-century Byzantine monk and a brilliant theologian who was brutally tortured because of his devotion to Chalcedonian christology. He lived in exile in the Latin West and became one of the last to bridge the gap between East and West. This is a good study of his life and work and includes a valuable selection of his works.
• The Pilgrim’s Tale: Russian Spiritual Literature, Classics of Western Spirituality 90, ed. Aleksei Pentkovsky, (New York: Paulist Press, 2000) paperback, $20. NEW. This classic of Russian Orthodox spirituality, popularized some years ago in J.D. Salinger’s Franny and Zooey, brings alive the experience of praying the Jesus prayer. The Jesus prayer is the Eastern Christian tradition of ceaselessly repeating the name of Jesus, usually with a phrase such as "Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, a sinner." This popular piety, similar to—yet simpler than—the rosary, flows from a concern to fulfill the Pauline admonition: "Pray without ceasing."
• Maximus Confessor, Selected Writings, trans., George C. Berthold, Classics of Western Spirituality (New York: Paulist Press, 1985) paperback, $10.
• Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain, A Handbook of Spiritual Counsel, Classics of Western Spirituality (New York: Paulist Press, 1989) paperback.
• Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain & Makarios of Corinth, Philokalia: The Complete Text, 4 vol., trans. G.E.H. Palmer & Kallistos Ware (Faber & Faber, 1988-1995) paperback, $16 per volume.
• Nils Sorsky, The Complete Writings, Classics of Western Spirituality, ed. George Maloney (New York: Paulist Press, 2000) paperback. NEW.
• Pseudo-Dionysius, The Complete Works, Classics of Western Spirituality 54, trans. Colm Luibheid (New York: Paulist Press, 1987) paperback, $17.
• Pseudo-Macarius, The Fifty Spiritual Homilies and the Great Letter, trans. George A. Maloney, Classics of Western Spirituality 75 (New York: Paulist Press, 1992) paperback, $18.
• Symeon the New Theologian, Discourses, Classics of Western Spirituality, ed. C.J. de Catanzaro (New York: Paulist Press, 1980).