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The “Anchorite Within”: Basil of Caesarea's Erotapokrisis 7 and The

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The “Anchorite Within”: Basil of Caesarea's Erotapokrisis 7 and The Religion &Theology Religion & Theology 17 (2010) 268–288 brill.nl/rt The “Anchorite Within”: Basil of Caesarea’s Erotapokrisis 7 and the Ascetic Challenge to Christian Identity Stephen R. Lloyd-Moffett Philosophy Department, Bldg. 47, Room 37, California Polytechnic State University, 1 Grand Ave., San Luis Obispo, CA, 93407-0327 United States of America [email protected] Abstract Basil the Great has traditionally been seen as an opponent of solitary asceticism. It is however noteworthy that the form of hermitic life, which he discourages is nowhere to be found in Cap- padocia at the time. Instead his opponent is a parody or imagined extreme serving to highlight the dangers of an isolated, privatized Christian identity that he worries may be creeping into fourth century Christian asceticism. Keywords Cenobitic life, anchoritic life, rhetorical devices, Basil the Great Basil of Caesarea is the “enemy of the hermits,” according to a recent com- mentator.1 This judgment is grounded exclusively on Basil’s commentary found in Erotapokrisis 7 of the long rules of the Asceticon, in which anchorites are presented as not only antithetical to the Christian mission but nearly non- human due to their complete rejection of the social world. No patristic writ- ing, East or West, seemingly dismisses the anchoritic life with such disdain.2 The tendency of interpreters – ancient and modern – is to project later monas- tic debates onto Basil’s text. Thus this passage must be a debate about a ceno- bitic life versus an anchoritic one, the monastery versus the cave. However, this essay argues that Basil’s concern is not so much with a competing monastic 1 Augustine Holmes, A Life Pleasing to God: The Spirituality of the Rules of St. Basil (Cistercian Studies 189; Kalamazoo: Cistercian Publications, 2000), 146. 2 There is evidence within the Pachomian corpus that a polemic between the anchorites and the cenobites was beginning to occur in the Egyptian context at this time. See the Bohairic Life of Pachomius, Sancti Pachomii vita bohairice scripta (CSCO 89, Scriptores Coptici 7; ed. L.-Th. Lefort; Leuven: Peeters Press, 1925), 105, 128. See also Cassian, Conferences XIX, 8. © Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2011 DOI: 10.1163/157430110X597854 S.R. Lloyd-Moffett / Religion & Theology 17 (2010) 268–288 269 framework but with religious identity: he is concerned with an inner disposi- tion that he feared was emerging among certain elitist ascetics that tended to privatize and stratify Christianity. He is using an imagined extreme isolationist anchorite – who probably never existed in Cappadocia or perhaps anywhere – as a rhetorical strawman to demonstrate its opposite: his communal theol- ogy for the church as a whole which he feared was in jeopardy due to the elit- ist tendencies of some ascetics in his area. His goal was not primarily to lure ascetics away from the caves but to lead them to realize their common purpose in the broader Christian community. 1. Basil’s Argument in Erotapokrisis 7 On the surface, Basil appears to be convincing his disciples to avoid the temp- tation of the anchoritic life.3 “I observe,” he argues, “that a life spent in com- pany with those of the same mind is of greater advantage in many ways.”4 He then goes on by presenting (though not systematically) a series of arguments demonstrating this advantage. His arguments are as follows:5 1) It is easier to care for one’s bodily needs and livelihood since humans were not created to be self-sufficient. [Long Rules 7.2–4] 2) Thelogos of Christian love is antithetical to the inevitable self-interest and self-pleasing that comes with the anchoritic life. [Long Rules 7.5, 26] 3) Isolation does not allow for the necessary presence of others to rebuke one regarding one’s faults. [Long Rules 7.6–7, 27] 4) The commandments can only be partially upheld without a community. [Long Rules 7.8] 5) The opportunity to practice the virtues is impossible if an ascetic looks only after his private desires. [Long Rules 7.9–12, 29–33] 6) The full spectrum of gifts from the Holy Spirit can only be found in a com- munity such as represented by the early apostles described in Acts because no single individual possesses them all. [Long Rules 7.13–19, 37–9] 7) Life in community provides protection against the enemy and social pres- sure to conform to virtue. [Long Rules 7.20–24] 3 The historical origins of Erotapokrisis 7 lies in a series of questions posed to Basil while visit- ing ascetic communities sometime in the mid 360s, before he became a bishop. The initial liter- ary version was probably composed after returning to ecclesial life in Caesarea in 365. It is preserved in a translation by Rufinas and in an early Syriac translation. An augmented and slightly reworked version was composed sometime in the 370s. For the development of the manuscript, See Anna M. Silvas, The Asketikon of St Basil the Great (Oxford: Oxford University Press 2005), esp. chapters 1, 5, 6. 4 Long Rules 7.1 (translation Silvas, Asketikon, 180–1). 5 Fedwick produces a similar list, Paul Jonathan Fedwick, The Church and the Charisma of Leadership in Basil of Caesarea (Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies, 1979), 21–2..
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