Christianity and Hellenic Civilizations: Evagrius of Pontus ACABS 421 / CLCIV 483 / RELIGION 488 Tuesday/Thursday 10:00-11:30 Thayer 3000

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1 Winter 2014 University of Michigan Christianity and Hellenic Civilizations: Evagrius of Pontus ACABS 421 / CLCIV 483 / RELIGION 488 Tuesday/Thursday 10:00-11:30 Thayer 3000 Evagrius of Pontus (c CE) was a brilliant and influential Christian writer whose work engaged new theories of the cosmos, the human being, and the practice of philosophy. Born in Asia Minor, he held increasingly important positions in the emerging structure of the Christian church, eventually moving to Constantinople; after a few years, he moved again to Jerusalem and then spent the last decade and a half of his life in Egypt. Because he was declared a heretic long after his death, Evagrius extensive writings survive only partially, and what does survive has not often been studied as a part of Christian history. In this course, we will read a substantial portion of his surviving works, which demonstrate his engagement with late ancient ideas about the self, the world, and the divine and his program for a progressive system of Christian practice aimed toward acquiring knowledge of God. When you have finished this course, you should Course Objectives be deeply familiar with the life and writings of Evagrius of Pontus, be able to analyze, in writing, the content of both primary and secondary sources, be capable of contributing actively to class conversations about those sources, be able to construct a well-evidenced analysis of some aspect of Evagrius s work, be able to offer helpful and detailed critique to other writers based on drafts of their work, and be capable of revising and improving your analysis in response to critique of your drafted work. Instructor Prof. Ellen Muehlberger Office hours: Tuesday 11:30-1: Thayer Academic Building For an appointment, sign up here: emuehlbe@umich.edu There are two required texts for the course: Course Texts Robert E. Sinkewicz, ed. and trans., Evagrius of Pontus: The Greek Ascetic Corpus (Oxford, 2003; paperback in 2010, ISBN: ). This title is available on reserve at Shapiro Library and electronically through MIRLYN. David Brakke, trans., Evagrius of Pontus, Talking Back / Antirrhêtikos : A Monastic Handbook for Combating Demons (Cistercian, 2009, ISBN: ). This title is available on reserve at Shapiro Library. We will read several other texts by and about Evagrius and other ancient authors. You can find PDF files of those additional readings on CTools. 1

2 Course Requirements and Grading Your grade in the course is determined by your performance on five assignments. They are designed to be progressive much like Evagrius s program of asceticism! so the early assignments prepare you for tasks that are a small part of the later papers. You ll get an sheet of instructions for each of these assignments as they draw near, but here is a quick overview of what you ll be doing: Assignment 1 (100 points, due 1/21): Analyzing a secondary source For this short (2-page) assignment, you will deconstruct a chapter written in an academic book that we are reading for class. You ll be asked to identify the thesis of the chapter, its supporting arguments, and its evidence and to consider questions like: How does the author construct his presentation of his topic? What choices has he made or not made in his rhetoric? Does the evidence he cites in fact support the argument? Analyzing a secondary source like this is an important skill for your later, larger research. Assignment 2 (100 points, due 2/6): Analyzing a primary source For this short (2-page) assignment, you will deconstruct a primary source, that is, a text from the time period we are studying, rather than from modern authors who describe that time period. Every text has an argument, or an agenda, and your job will be to identify that argument. What does the text assume about the world, about people, or about the divine? What does it advocate? In what context should it be understood? If the text is not familiar to you, you may need to start with a more basic approach, figuring out what special concepts you need to understand in order to make sense of the text. Taking apart a primary source, too, is an important skill for your later research. Paper 1 (150 points, due 2/13): Making an argument about a single primary source In this short (2-page) paper, you will develop a thesis about a primary source, supporting your claim with evidence directly from the text. Paper 2 (150 points, due 2/25): Comparing and contrasting two primary sources to make an argument In this slightly longer (3 page) paper, you will develop a thesis by comparing and contrasting two primary sources, supporting your claim with evidence directly from the texts. Research Project (500 points total, due in stages) Your current language skills (e.g., whether you read ancient Greek, Latin, Coptic, or Syriac) will determine whether you complete this project by working with original-language sources or whether you work with translated sources; I ll determine this together with each of you individually. This project has multiple parts, the completion of which will lead you to writing a final long (9-10 page) paper. First draft (150 points, due 3/31): You will write a long (8-page) draft of an argument on a topic you choose. Though this is a draft, it needs to be formally and rhetorically complete; you should treat it as if you are handing in a final version, making the best argument you can make. It will be workshopped in class on April 3 rd, 8 th, or 10 th. Your critique of others drafts (100 points, to be done 4/3, 4/8, and 4/10): You will read the drafts to be workshopped each of those days and prepare comments to be shared with the writer in class. Type out a version of your comments to hand to me in class; to get full credit, you ll also need to be there and participate in the conversation. Final draft (250 points, due 15 days after your paper has been workshopped): After you get the feedback from the class, you will revise your paper thoroughly for a final draft of 9-10 pages. In addition to the final draft, you should submit a short (300 words) response to the feedback you got, explaining what you did in revision because of that feedback, or if you ignored feedback, justifying that choice. 2

3 Additionally, attendance at class and active participation in our discussions are an assumed part of your performance in this course. I expect that you will read the readings before class and come ready to discuss them in detail. Inattendance at class or lack of preparation and participation while in class can negatively affect your grade. Here is the grading scale: A % A % B % B 86-83% B % C % C 76-73% C % D % D 66-63% D % F 59% and below Course Schedule and Readings Texts marked with an asterisk (*) are available in PDF format on CTools; other texts are in our textbooks. Evagrius s works have many titles. Here, they are given the titles used in the textbooks. For a comprehensive guide to Evagrius s works, including titles and CPG numbers, see Joel Kalvesmaki, ed., Guide to Evagrius Ponticus, winter 2013 edition (Washington, DC, 2013), evagriusponticus.net. Thurs Jan 9 Introduction to the Course Tues Jan 14 Thurs Jan 16 Alexandrian Philosophy Reading: *Origen, First Principles , , and *Origen, Homily 20 on Joshua Schools and Training Reading: *Plutarch, Moralia 593D-594A *Gregory Thaumaturgus, Oration on Origen 4-9 Tues Jan 21 The Passions Reading: *Richard A. Layton, Propatheia: Redefining the Frontiers of the Moral Self, in Didymus the Blind and His Cirlce in Late- Antique Alexandria (Illinois, 2003), Assignment 1 due Thurs Jan 23 Early Fourth-Century Practice Reading: *Antony of Pispir, Letters 1 and 3 *Ammonas, Letters 2 and 10 *Macarius the Great, Letter 1 3

4 Tues Jan 28 Thurs Jan 30 Evagrius s Teacher Reading: *Gregory of Nazianzus, Orations 27 and 36 *Gregory of Nazianzus, Letters 174 and 178 Leaving Constantinople Reading: *Evagrius, Letter on Faith Tues Feb 4 No class Alternate option: attend 4pm lecture by Adam Becker, details to follow Thurs Feb 6 Community Life Reading: Evagrius, To Monks in Monasteries and Exhortation to a Virgin Assignment 2 due Tues Feb 11 Thurs Feb 13 Christ in the Community Reading: *Evagrius, Great Letter How to Start: The Basics Reading: Evagrius, Foundations of the Monastic Life Evagrius, On the Vices Opposed to the Virtues Paper 1 due Tues Feb 18 Thurs Feb 20 How to Start: Advice for Eulogius Reading: Evagrius, To Eulogius How to Start: The Practical Level Reading: Evagrius, The Monk: A Treatise on the Practical Life Tues Feb 25 The Thoughts Reading: Evagrius, On the Eight Thoughts Evagrius, On Thoughts Paper 2 due 4

5 Thurs Feb 27 Sparring with Scripture: Part I Reading: Evagrius, Talking Back (introduction and books 1-2) Tues Mar 4 Thurs Mar 6 No class: Spring Break No class: Spring Break Tues Mar 11 Sparring with Scripture: Part II Reading: Evagrius, Talking Back (books 3-8) Thurs Mar 13 Prayer Reading: Evagrius, Chapters on Prayer Tues Mar 18 Moving Forward: The Gnostic Level Reading: *Evagrius, Gnostikos Thurs Mar 20 Knowledge of God Reading: *Evagrius, Kephalaia gnostica, selections Tues Mar 25 Thurs Mar 27 Reading and Commenting Reading: *Evagrius, Scholia on Job selections *Evagrius, Scholia on Ecclesiastes selections *Evagrius, Scholia on Luke selections *Evagrius, On the Our Father Wise Sayings Reading: Evagrius, Reflections Evagrius, Exhortations 1-2 to Monks Evagrius, 33 Ordered Chapters Evagrius, Maxims 1-3 5

6 Mon Mar 31 Tues Apr 1 Thurs Apr 3 First drafts of project due The Culture of Education Reading: *Evagrius, Paraneticus *Evagrius, Protrepticus *Aphthonius, Progymnasmata: On Ethopoeia *Libanius, Exercise in Speech in Character 1-3 Project Workshop: Team Gregory Tues Apr 8 Thurs Apr 10 Project Workshop: Team Melania Project Workshop: Team Macarius Tues Apr 15 Thurs Apr 17 Fri Apr 18 No class Contextualizing Evagrius Reading: The Coptic Life of Evagrius and Palladius, Lausiac History 38 Team Gregory final projects due Tues Apr 22 Weds Apr 23 Friday Apr 25 Evagrius s Influence Reading: John Cassian, Institutes 5 Maximus the Confessor, 2 nd Century on Love Team Melania final projects due Team Macarius final projects due 6

7 ACABS 421/ CLCIV 483/ RELIGION 488: Evagrius of Pontus Winter 2014 Paper #1 Assignment Sheet 100 points (10% of course grade) Due Tuesday 1/21 10:00AM real time Turn in on CTools (click Assignments tab and upload) This first assignment is designed to let you practice analyzing a secondary source that is, a source written by a scholar about a historical subject or text. In this case, you ll be analyzing a chapter from a book: Richard A. Layton s book Didymus the Blind: Didymus the Blind and His Circle in Late-Antique Alexandria. Already, that title tells you several things: first, it s a book focused on a single author, Didymus; that he had a circle and thus likely some school-type model of teaching people; and that he was doing so in the city of Alexandria, where Origen spent much of his life, during late antiquity. Your job is to read the chapter, which is titled, Propatheia: Redefining the Frontiers of the Moral Self, and to figure out what Layton is arguing. In the spirit of making things completely transparent, here are steps you can follow to do that. (In truth, you can follow these steps to make sense of any secondary source, even one that is talking about something you re not very familiar with). *Identify What You Don t Know First, read the whole text, identifying any ideas or subjects that remain unclear by the time you finish reading the chapter, but that seem central to understanding the chapter. *Research What You Don t Know Second, inform yourself about those ideas and subjects: look for resources, whether at the library, on the library website, in books you posses, or on the internet as a whole, that will give you some context for these things. *Figure Out the Main Argument or Thesis of the Piece Third, read the text again, and this time, pay attention to what it is that the text wants to persuade you to believe. Authors write texts to advance new knowledge, so every written piece has a goal of arguing for something. That something is its thesis, and it s often stated pretty plainly at or near the beginning of the piece. *Evaluate the Structure that Supports the Thesis Based on your second reading, notice how Layton has structured the argument: what divisions did he place in his chapter? What does each division attempt to accomplish? How do the divisions work together? *Evaluate the Evidence that Supports the Thesis Look at the specific evidence that Layton uses to support what he s saying; here, the notes will definitely help you. Evaluate how Layton draws conclusions from his evidence. *Relate this Piece and its Thesis to Other Material How does Layton s piece overlap with other things you ve read, or that we ve read together for class? Instructions for writing on the back >

8 The Writing To complete this assignment, after you do these steps, you need to write up your findings. The total size of what you write should not exceed two pages. This isn t a thesis-based argumentative paper; instead, think of it more as a report. You should directly answer the following questions, responding to each with about a paragraph of writing. 1. What did you not understand after the first reading of the chapter, and how did you come by the information you needed to make sense of what you didn t understand? 2. What is the thesis of the chapter, and what are the supporting sub-points of that thesis? 3. What do you make of the evidence Layton used does it support what he is arguing? Can it support other, wider arguments? 4. How does this chapter relate to the primary sources that we have read for class? Explain in detail you can notice similarities, you can describe differences, you can compare and contrast. Please use regular-sized 12point font and standard margins; include your name in the document; and make sure you proofread before you turn it. You may want to bring a paper copy to class for the sake of our discussion, but to turn in this assignment, you need to submit it on the CTools website.

9 ACABS 421/ CLCIV 483/ RELIGION 488: Evagrius of Pontus Winter 2014 Paper #2 Assignment Sheet 100 points (10% of course grade) Due Thursday Feb 6th 10:00AM real time Turn in on CTools (click Assignments tab and upload) This second assignment is designed to let you practice analyzing a primary source that is, a source written by someone in antiquity. In this case, you ll actually be analyzing two pieces that come as a pair: Evagrius s To Monks in Monasteries and Communities and the Exhortation to a Virgin. Already, those titles tell you several things: first, monks and virgins are important roles for Evagrius; second, that he s going to give some sort of advice, at least in the exhortation, and third, that some of the people he s advising live and practice not by themselves, but in communities or monasteries. Your job is to read these pieces and to figure out what they are meant to accomplish. In the spirit of making things completely transparent, here are steps you can follow to do that. *Figure Out the Genre of the Piece Take a quick glance through Sinkewicz s introduction of the text and at the text itself. What kind of text does this seem to be? Is it a letter, a sermon, a novel, a list, or something else? The form of the text tells you a lot about its content, because the form is usually something common and agreed upon within a culture: it helps determine not just what an author writes about, but sometimes even how he or she writes. *Identify What You Don t Know Now, read the whole text, identifying any ideas or subjects that remain unclear by the time you finish reading, but that seem central to understanding what you have read. *Research What You Don t Know Then, inform yourself about those ideas and subjects: look for resources, whether at the library, on the library website, in books you posses, or on the internet as a whole, that will give you some context for these things. Note: I expect you to try a different type of resource this time; be specific about what you use. *Figure Out the Text s Agenda and Any Hidden Agendas Every text exists to persuade its readers of something. There might be explicit persuasion, but don t miss the implicit persuasion: often, what a text takes for granted is not a reflection of the world itself, but of what the text hopes the world would be like. Try to put in your own words what you think this text is creating, both explicitly and implicitly. *Break that Agenda into Manageable Pieces The text will likely have an overall agenda, but often you can deconstruct that agenda into smaller pieces. Here, try to list four or five smaller points about the text s agenda. *Relate this Piece to Other Material What ideas does this piece share in common with other primary sources you ve read, or that we ve read together for class? Instructions for writing on the back >

10 The Writing To complete this assignment, after you do these steps, you need to write up your findings. The total size of what you write should not exceed two pages. This isn t a thesis-based argumentative paper; instead, think of it more as a report. You should directly answer the following questions, responding to each with about a paragraph of writing. 1. What ideas were unfamiliar to you before you read the piece, and how did you learn enough about them to make sense of what you were reading? 2. What is the genre of this piece of writing, and how did knowing that help you make sense of it? 3. What does the text persuade the reader to think, explicitly? 4. What implicit or unstated assumptions does the text expect of a reader? Please use regular-sized 12point font and standard margins; include your name in the document; and make sure you proofread before you turn it in. You may want to bring a paper copy to class for the sake of our discussion, but to turn in this assignment, you need to submit it on the CTools website.

11 ACABS 421/ CLCIV 483/ RELIGION 488: Evagrius of Pontus Winter 2014 Paper #1 Assignment Sheet 150 points (15% of course grade) Due Thursday Feb 13th 10:00AM real time Turn in on CTools (click Assignments tab and upload) This first paper asks you to make a sustained argument a thesis about a primary text. Because this is such a short paper, state your thesis quickly (you can even dispense with the usual paragraph of introduction and make the thesis the first sentence of your paper). The rest of your writing should be an argument that supports your thesis, using evidence directly from the text. As for the text, you have a choice: You can write on either one of the assigned texts for Thursday s class (Foundations of the Monastic Life, pp in Sinkewicz, or On the Vices Opposed to the Virtues, pp in Sinkewicz). You can approach the writing of this paper any way that you want, but here are some suggestions, in case you need them, for how to write a thesis-based paper about a single text. First, use the kind of analysis you ve done for the earlier two papers. Read the text you re working on, figure out what you don t know, and find a way to inform yourself about it. Then, read it again, and notice both what it explicitly says and what it implicitly assumes. If you can make a judgment about the genre of the text, do it who was the text written for? And, what does that tell you about how it was used? Second, generate the kinds of observations we ve been making together in class. In our conversations, we talk about the texts we have read, but really, what we are doing is making a set of observations based in evidence from the text. Pretend that you have to come up with, say, ten observations to add to the next class conversation, and that you ll be required to use direct citations from the text to do so. Then, write down those observations on scratch paper, in note form, whatever is helpful to you, but something more concrete than just thinking about them. As you re working on this stage, don t limit yourself to one topic yet; make lots of observations about lots of different things about the text. Third, evaluate your observations, and look for a common topic among them. Sometimes paper assignments will tell you both what text to write about and what topic you should write about (imagine an assignment like, Write an essay about the presence of demons in Evagrius s Foundations of the Monastic Life: what is their function in the text? ) This assignment, however, does not. Instead, you get to decide what topic to write about. That may seem like too much freedom, but you can do it: you ve just made a bunch of different observations, and now you need to see whether there aren t several of them that are related to each other. Your job in this paper is to build a single thesis, but normally, the kinds of observations we make in class are not big enough to sustain a whole paper---they re more like the building blocks of a paper. So, look for building blocks that might fit together among the observations you ve just generated. In a paper of this length, three or four of them is probably sufficient; if you don t immediately see three or four things in your notes that you could weave together into a larger argument, go back to the second step and read the text again, looking for more observations. Once you do find three or four, you can leave the rest of your observations behind and concentrate on just those you have chosen to work with. More on the back >

12 Fourth, write a thesis. Once you ve found three or four observations that seem related, you need to create a thesis that does the job of explaining their relationship. It should be one sentence that states something new and non-obvious about the text you re writing about; it should also be something that is supported by the evidence you ve noted in the observations you ve chosen to work with. And, finally: write the paper. This seems like a lot of legwork before you get started writing, but developing a thesis first, before you write the paper, actually makes writing the paper much easier. Once you have a thesis, decide what logical order your supporting observations should come in; don t hesitate to use persuasion. This assignment is not like the others we have done so far: instead of reporting, you are arguing, so imagine trying to persuade your classmates that your thesis is correct. Give it a title, and don t be afraid to use something catchy often a title can be as much a part of the persuasion as the writing. Other little details: Please use regular-sized 12point font and standard margins; include your name in the document; and make sure you proofread before you turn it in. You may want to bring a paper copy to class for the sake of our discussion, but to turn in this assignment, you need to submit it on the CTools website.

13 ACABS 421/ CLCIV 483/ RELIGION 488: Evagrius of Pontus Winter 2014 Paper #2 Assignment Sheet 150 points (15% of course grade) Due Thursday Feb 25th 10:00AM real time Turn in on CTools (click Assignments tab and upload) This second paper asks you to make a sustained argument a thesis about two primary texts (On the Eight Thoughts and On Thoughts) in the space of three pages. You may have done what s called a compare and contrast assignment for other classes. A compare and contrast essay is a standard kind of writing assignment in humanities classes: you use close reading of a text or texts to make observations about the similarities and differences you see between two things. Here s the trick, though: a good compare and contrast essay does not stop with listing the similarities and differences, but instead makes a larger observation based on selected similarities and differences. That larger observation is your thesis. Often, compare and contrast assignments will tell you what ideas or concepts you need to work with. This paper, though, is more advanced: it asks you to determine what ideas or concepts in On the Eight Thoughts and On Thoughts to compare and contrast. You can approach the writing of this paper any way that you want: if you ve found the step-by-step instructions from earlier assignments helpful, by all means, use them. A few formal details: Your paper should have the structure and usual parts of a formal academic piece of writing. Does your paper have an interesting title? Does it have standard 1 margins all around? (Or, have the margins gotten bigger over time?) Is it in a standard font, like Times New Roman 12point, double-spaced? Did you proofread carefully? Is the paper fully three pages, and no more? Again, did you proofread carefully?