The Wisdom of the Desert ed. by Merton
The Wisdom of the Desert: Sayings from the Desert Fathers of the Fourth Century (1960)
edited and translated by Thomas Merton
81 pages - New Directions
This is a little collection of sayings of the desert hermits of the 4th century who separated themselves from society and went into the desert regions of Egypt, Palestine, Arabia and Persia. Merton has selected these himself, not to any scholarly or doctrinal purpose, but just picking what he thought might be good and pleasing. Merton includes a twenty-some page introduction, which was the part I enjoyed most. The selections themselves are from the Verba Seniorum, and they range from enlightening to mundane to puzzling. It's very similar to anthologies of Taoist or Zen sayings.
It's interesting to read through, but doesn't give a lot of information about the Desert Fathers themselves, or the wider world they existed in, which was something I was curious about. I guess I'll need to find another work that deals with that.
edited and translated by Thomas Merton
81 pages - New Directions
This is a little collection of sayings of the desert hermits of the 4th century who separated themselves from society and went into the desert regions of Egypt, Palestine, Arabia and Persia. Merton has selected these himself, not to any scholarly or doctrinal purpose, but just picking what he thought might be good and pleasing. Merton includes a twenty-some page introduction, which was the part I enjoyed most. The selections themselves are from the Verba Seniorum, and they range from enlightening to mundane to puzzling. It's very similar to anthologies of Taoist or Zen sayings.
It's interesting to read through, but doesn't give a lot of information about the Desert Fathers themselves, or the wider world they existed in, which was something I was curious about. I guess I'll need to find another work that deals with that.