Demons and the Making of the Monk

David Brakke is Joe R. Engle Chair in the History of Christianity and Professor of History, Ohio State University.

• * Part One: The Monk in Combat *1. The Single One: The Monk against the Demons *2. The New Martyr and Holy Man: Athanasius of Alexandria's Life of Antony *3. The Gnostic: Evagrius Ponticus *4. The Vigilant Brother: Pachomius and the Pachomian Koinonia *5. The Prophet: Shenoute and the White Monastery * Part Two: War Stories *6. "The Holy and Great Fathers": Monks, Demons, and Storytelling *7. Ethiopian Demons: The Monastic Self and the Diabolical Other *8. Manly Women, Female Demons, and Other Amazing Sights: Gender in Combat *9. From Gods to Demons: Making Monks, Making Christians * Afterword: The Inner Battle * Abbreviations * Notes * Selected Bibliography * Index

David Brakke's Demons and the Making of the Monk...is a very sharply focused study of spiritual combat between monks and demons in fourth- and early fifth-century Egypt. Satan takes a back seat in this story: Brakke concentrates instead on the emergence of the monastic project ('The monk is now such a familiar figure that it is difficult to remember that he did not always exist'), and examines how conflict with demons was essential to the formation of this freshly minted religious identity...The book comes to life...in the second half, which is devoted to analysis of the monks' graphic stories about their encounters with demons.