Dreams, Virtue and Divine Knowledge in Early Christian Egypt

Explores the significance of dreams in early Christian Egypt, using sources from Philo and Origen to Athanasius and early monks.

Bronwen Neil (Author), Doru Costache (Author), Kevin Wagner (Author)

9781108481182, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 25 April 2019

222 pages, 1 b/w illus.
23.5 x 15.7 x 1.6 cm, 0.44 kg

'This volume is based on meticulous research in the primary Christian, Jewish, and classical traditions and on deep engagement with the secondary sources … Recommended.' M. M. Hawkins, Choice

What did dreams mean to Egyptian Christians of the first to the sixth centuries? Alexandrian philosophers, starting with Philo, Clement and Origen, developed a new approach to dreams that was to have profound effects on the spirituality of the medieval West and Byzantium. Their approach, founded on the principles of Platonism, was based on the convictions that God could send prophetic dreams and that these could be interpreted by people of sufficient virtue. In the fourth century, the Alexandrian approach was expanded by Athanasius and Evagrius to include a more holistic psychological understanding of what dreams meant for spiritual progress. The ideas that God could be known in dreams and that dreams were linked to virtue flourished in the context of Egyptian desert monasticism. This volume traces that development and its influence on early Egyptian experiences of the divine in dreams.

1. An introduction to Greco-Roman traditions on dreams and virtue Bronwen Neil
2. The development of an Alexandrian tradition Bronwen Neil
3. Sleep, dreams and soul-travel: Athanasius within the tradition Doru Costache
4. Synesius of Cyrene and Neoplatonic dream theory Kevin Wagner
5. Expanding beyond the Egyptian ascetic tradition Bronwen Neil.

Subject Areas: History of religion [HRAX], Religion: general [HRA], Religion & beliefs [HR], Ancient history: to c 500 CE [HBLA], History: earliest times to present day [HBL], African history [HBJH], Regional & national history [HBJ], History [HB], Humanities [H]