Revisiting the Orthodoxy of Evagrius Ponticus in the Kephalaia gnostika

RUBÉN PERETÓ RIVAS

San Juan

Congreso; II Congreso Internacional de Estudios Patrísticos; 2017

Universidad Católica de Cuyo

The discussion on the orthodoxy of Evagrius Ponticus was revived due to two books by renowned specialists: Augustine Casiday in 2013 and the English translation of the Kephalaia gnostica, with an introduction and annotations by Ilaria Ramelli in 2015. There are two other publications that propose a more restrained view of Evagrius?s doctrinal position, framing him within the context in which he writes, searching an integrating or holistic view both of his asceticism and mysticism, and of his Christology and eschatology. I refer to Psalmody and Prayer in Evagrius Ponticus by Luke Dysinger, and Evagrius Ponticus The Making of a Gnostic by Julia Konstantinovsky. The latter, from my point of view, is a work that carefully synthesizes not only his teaching but the whole of Evagrius?s personality, it sensibly weighs all his statements, even the most complex, and proposes solutions that I consider accurate.The object of this paper is to discuss Evagrius?s orthodoxy by analyzing the objections raised by Casiday as to which of the two versions of the Kephalaia Gnostica concurs with Evagrius?s original version.