Evagrius Ponticus (345–99) is recognised as a foremost authority on the ascetical and spiritual life. His writings were translated by Rufinus into Latin and so were read in the West, but also, among other translations, into Sogdian and so reached as far as Mongolia. The fullest versions were preserved in Syriac. For Gregory bar- Hebraeus, writing in the thirteenth century in Syria, he was the ‘greatest of the gnostics’. His understanding of the nature of the human person and of our approach to encounter with God in prayer shaped the nature of Christian spirituality East and West. However his explorations into the life of the spirit and also its expression in pagan learning led to controversy and some of his more daring and speculative passages were accused of Origenist tendences. As a result he was anthematised at the Second Council of Constantinople in 553. After this, many of his writings were lost, especially in Greek. Their rediscovery has been an adventure story of recent scholarship, with texts discovered preserved under the names of other authors, fragments concealed in other writings and fuller translations especially in Syria. Among these is the important text of the Kephalaia Gnostica where a second version was discovered by Antoine Guillaumont, which contained controversial passages, raising questions as to which came first – an Origenist text later expurgated or a more conventional text which was later embroidered. As a result of this a collection of his texts has become available and their significance better understood.

Evagrius’ thought and writing was shaped by a varied set of experiences. Born in Pontus around 345, the son of a chorepiscopus, he studied under Basil the Great. He spent a little under three years in Constantinople as a deacon with Gregory of Nazianzus, where he was present at the first Council of Constantinople in 381 and was an influential and popular preacher. Then he went as a pilgrim to Jerusalem, a journey embarked on hurriedly after an indiscreet liaison with the wife of a nobleman. Here his meeting Melania the Elder in Jerusalem helped him regain his monastic vocation and he then went to Egypt where he became a disciple of Macarius the Great before settling in the monastic settlement of Kellia. Here he remained until his death in 399 following an ascetic regime – the strictness of which may have been a cause of his relatively early death in his mid-fifties. His life was marked by hospitality and teaching and a stream of visitors came to learn from him.

The letters in this collection are drawn from all these periods and so give insights into his life and influences. There are a total of sixty-four letters. They provide an insight into his various experiences and relationships.

The collection here begins with a longer Letter on Faith. This was written during his time in Constantinople and sets out Nicene Trinitarian theology, addressed to those he had known in Pontus – or it might have been sent later from Jerusalem after he had left Constantinople. It shows him as a teacher of Trinitarian orthodoxy, attacking heretical understandings of the Trinity.

Then there is a set of sixty-two shorter letters varying in length from seven to seventy-five lines, written to those who visited him and those he knew. Just four of them have the names of the recipients given, but others can be identified through the contents of the letters. These show that he retained an extensive set of relationships with former friends in Jerusalem with an estimated twenty-three sent there including some to Melania the Elder and Rufinus. Then others were for those visiting him in the desert. A table with the list of recipients is attached in this book – following on a list in the earlier study by Gabriel Bunge. The letters show the extent of his pastoral and teaching relationships, and how he retained contacts across a wide region.

The collection concludes with another longer letter – the Great Letter. This is not found in the Greek manuscripts and in its entirety in only two Syriac manuscripts. The letter is described as being from St Evagrius to Melania, although this is put in question by references to a male addressee in the course of the letter. There are two distinct parts, the ends of which are marked with an ‘amen’. The first shows how the constitution of humanity as body, soul and intellect leads to an approach to God, where intellects are the ‘body’ of God, the Son and Spirit are the soul and the Father is the intellect. The second discusses intellect and is more scholastic in style. There are some vivid images drawn from experience and nature.

The letters have been preserved in a Syriac translation, although with the Letter on Faith and some shorter extracts also in Greek, which were preserved due to being attributed to Basil, Gregory of Nyssa and Nilus of Ancyra and so escaping the attention of the censor. Here the text of the letters is supplemented with variant readings given. Parallel passages in other texts of the period are also given. Alongside is a French translation. The text of the letters is accompanied by introductory sections providing historical background to the letters and the circumstances of their composition, a description of the teaching and the content, and an analysis of the manuscripts and texts showing the relationships in the stemma of versions. It is a full and complete text of the correspondance of Evagrius.

This volume is an important addition to the collection of the works of Evagrius. A version in the Sources Chréetiennes series was planned around 1940 but never appeared, so this text and translation into French by Paul Géhin is a long awaited addition to the works of Evagrius already published in the series. It is the first French translation of the full text, and so is added to versions in English, Italian German and Polish. It builds on the Syriac text published by Wilhelm Frankenberg in 1912. It provides insights into Evagrius’ teaching and also into its social and ecclesiastical context.