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Patristic and other early church writers

The early writers (the "church fathers") should be seen less as crabby dogmatic theologians and more as mystics. They, and the early monastic writings comprise a great, and unappreciated treasure of advice on Christian life.

Early Church Fathers is an Internet site with some information (and the texts) for many patristic authors. Three of the many key authors from this period include:

	The Philokalia. A four-volumn collection of early monastic writers. More popular within the Eastern Orthodox church, these are foundational works for Christian spiritual life. [ More ]
	Pseudo - Dionysius: The Complete Works A deep meditation on the Trinty. [ More ]
	Evagrius Ponticus The Praktikos & Chapters On Prayer Translated, with an introduction and notes, by John Eudes Bamberger, OCSO Cistercian Studies Series: Number four Cistercian Publications, 1981 Some of this is also in the Philokalia, but the importance of Evagrius deserves mentioning another source, albeit a hard to find one. His influence was indirect, on Cassian, for example, rather being known directly. Thus, his name is hardly known now. But he is one of the earliest authors to highlight the notion of dispassion as a goal of the spiritual life and talk about it.