3.29 TS – Evagrius Ponticus and Ascetic Miscellanea in Byzantium’s Neighbours

The Thematic Session aims to examine the reception of one of the most prominent authors and founding fathers of ascetic doctrine and literature, Evagrius Ponticus and the miscellanea that contain his works. Although his role in establishing the theoretical foundations of monasticism is undisputed, and his legacy, translated into several languages of the Christian East, has received quite some scholarly attention in recent years, there are still many gaps in our scholarly knowledge of his legacy, its reception, and the trajectory of his works. In this Thematic Session, scholars specialising in different literary traditions neighbouring Byzantium will examine and discuss questions concerning Evagrius’ translations from Greek and related topics such as the movement of texts and manuscripts, the establishment of a monastic language through the translation of Greek ascetical works, the relations between the translated works and other original works and traditions. Furthermore, the Thematic Session seeks to combine approaches from different disciplines, such as linguistics, textual criticism, patristics, cultural studies and, last but not least, late antique philosophy, without which any attempt at a scholarly approach to ascetic miscellanea would be considered fruitless. Last but not least, the Thematic Session will shed light on the ways in which the Byzantine legacy was projected onto the multilingual paradigm of the early Christian realm. Thus, a holistic approach aims at clarifying these questions by offering an interdisciplinary perspective for discussion.