Argues that Evagrius saw the Psalms as a means to perceive divine meaning in creation and daily struggles, and proposes a reciprocal relationship between spiritual progress (praktike) and contemplative insight (theoretike) through biblical exegesis.
Abstract
Abstract Evagrius believed that that Book of Psalms afforded a vision of the whole creation, including the daily struggles of the praktike, as refulgent with divine meaning. The psalter can serve as a training ground for the Christian contemplative, a kind of workshop in which the gnostikos learns to perceive the divine logoi in the events of salvation history recounted in the psalms. This chapter examines the dynamic relationship between praktike and theoretike, and suggests a reciprocal relationship between spiritual progress and biblical exegesis.