From Booklist
Anthony of Egypt, one of the great early saints, was an ascetic who, when Christianity was just another cult threatening the Roman way, spiritually and politically thumbed his nose at authority by retreating to the desert to live as a "society of one." Cowan personalizes Anthony's story, beginning at Anthony's monastery in the eastern Egyptian desert, which houses some of the world's earliest ascetic and mystical literature, and besides Anthony, he examines the saint's great biographer, Athanasius. In addition, Cowan recounts his own relations with Lazarus, who lives on Anthony's mountain and is referred to as the last anchorite. Lazarus helped Cowan better understand his own reasons for seeking desert solitude. As he unfolds his and Lazarus' story, Cowan places Anthony in the context of an ascetic history extending from the pre-Christian monks said to have inhabited caves by the Dead Sea to John Cassian, who introduced asceticism to Europe in the fifth century. Cowan's exposition of Christian spirituality as it was and could now be lived is wholly engrossing. June Sawyers
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Desert Father: A Journey in the Wilderness with Saint Anthony FROM THE PUBLISHER
The spiritual exploits of Saint Anthony the Great - the prototype of the Christian "Desert Father" - have been immortalized in stories and art since the fourth century. Here is the account of a modern seeker's quest to get beneath the legends that surround Anthony and to determine whether his extreme way of life has something to offer people in today's world. James Cowan's quest takes him to Egypt, to the monastery that still exists near the site of Anthony's hermitage, where he meets the monk who becomes his guide and mentor on the journey.
Art & Photography
Book Info
