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Tuesday, August 11th 2009
2:19 PM
The desert fathers
It has been said there is no comment on monasticism which we hear more frequently than that the hermit life was a selfish one, and therefore essentially remote from the spirit of Christ... The hermits are called selfish because they aimed at being good and not at being useful.
The charge derives its real force from the fact that philanthropy, that is, usefulness to humanity, is our chief conception of what religion is. We appeal to the fact that Christ went about doing good, and we hold that the true imitation of Him consists in doing as He did rather than in being as He was. The hermits thought differently. Philanthropy, in their view, was an incidental result as if it was a by-product of the religious spirit. Here, no doubt, there is a great gulf fixed between us and them. There is a difference of ideal.
--Wisdom of the Desert, by James O'Hannay
The charge derives its real force from the fact that philanthropy, that is, usefulness to humanity, is our chief conception of what religion is. We appeal to the fact that Christ went about doing good, and we hold that the true imitation of Him consists in doing as He did rather than in being as He was. The hermits thought differently. Philanthropy, in their view, was an incidental result as if it was a by-product of the religious spirit. Here, no doubt, there is a great gulf fixed between us and them. There is a difference of ideal.
--Wisdom of the Desert, by James O'Hannay
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