Tim Vivian – författare

The Monastic in Each of Us offers eight chapters on early-monastic themes relevant for spiritual seekers today. In August 2024, at the invitation of Abbot James Wiseman, the author gave seven retreat talks for the brothers at St. Anselm’s Abbey in Washington, D.C., on early-monastic spirituality and its relevance for us today. The revised talks here, with an additional chapter, offer more accessible discussions both for a general non-monastic audience and monastic readers. Chapter 1, "The Desert Fathers and Mothers and the Ascetic Tradition," offers an introduction to the early monastics and their teachings on asceticism and spirituality. Chapters 2 and 3 cover "Ego and Humility & The Path to Transformation" and "Some Monastic and Universal Virtues."Chapter 4, "A Fire That Burns Without Consuming," offers an imagined conversation with Mary Margaret Funk, O.S.B, author of Thoughts Matter: Discovering the Spiritual Tradition, on the importance of early-monastic spirituality for today. Chapters 5 and 6 discuss some major themes: asceticism, sin, the passions, thoughts, and the importance of community. Chapter 7 focuses on Poemen, an early monastic, and the theme of judging to discernment to compassion. The concerns these chapters look at, and the practices given and hope offered are human and still speak to us today.The final chapter offers brief discussions of what the early monastics call the eight "principal thoughts": gluttony/greed, sexual immorality, love of money, gloominess, anger, acedia, self-importance, and excessive pride. Thoughts, and their discernment, are key in early monasticism, and can be for us. As John Chryssavgis stresses, "our thoughts" can "inhibit us in our relationships with others and with God. Disclosing our thoughts to a ‘physician’ is a step in the direction of trust and community. It is less a way of dealing with the past, than of directing our future."

The Sayings and Stories of the Desert Fathers and Mothers offers a new translation of the Greek alphabetical Apophthegmata Patrum, The Sayings of the Desert Fathers. For the first time in an English translation, this volume provides: extensive background and contextual notes significant variant readings in the alphabetical manuscripts and textual differences vis-à-vis the systematic and anonymous Apophthegmatareference notes to both quotations from Scriptures and the many allusions to Scripture in the sayings and stories. In addition, there is an extensive glossary that offers information and further resources on people, places, and significant monastic vocabulary. Perfect for students and enthusiasts of the desert tradition.

2025 Catholic Media Association Second Place Award, History of Theology, Church Fathers and MothersRevised edition of Tim Vivian’s Becoming Fire continues to inspire readers with ancient wisdom for modern Christian contemplation.The sayings of the desert monks of the fifth and sixth centuries continue to inspire readers with their wisdom, and those who read them as the ancients did, slowly and reflectively, still learn from the insights they offer. In this revised edition of Becoming Fire: Through the Year with the Desert Fathers and Mothers, Tim Vivian arranges these stories in short daily readings and invites readers to savor the monks' advice as guides to Christian living. This volume provides:sayings and stories for each day of the year to use for lectio divina.saints and revered persons from the Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Anglican, and Episcopalian traditions.sayings from the Philokalia and the fourth-fifth century monastic writers Neilos of Ancyra and Hyperechios, among others.In addition, there is a glossary of important monastic terms with cross-references to the fuller glossary in volume two of The Sayings and Stories of the Desert Fathers and Mothers (Cistercian Publications, 2023). Perfect for students and enthusiasts of the desert tradition and desert monasticism.

“Give me a word, Father.” From the time of Saint Antony–at least0younger monks would ask older, experienced monks, abbas or ammas ( 'fathers' or 'mothers'), for a saving word, for advice, for wise counsel on how to live. In this book, Coptic scholar and priest Tim Vivian shares personal accounts of journeys to present-day monasteries in Egypt, and translations of ancient texts exemplifying the 'words,' the insights that have guided desert monks for nearly two millennia. Those who study the monastic tradition professionally and those who search it spiritually will find matter for reflection here.

Four translations of major accounts of the life of the fourth-century Egyptian desert father St. Bishoi, in one volumeSaint Bishoi of Scetis (d. ca. 417) enjoys tremendous popularity throughout the Christian east, particularly among the Copts. He lived during a remarkable era in which a litany of larger-than-life monastics lived and interacted with one another. Even then, Bishoi stood out as the founder of one of the four great monasteries of Scetis (Wadi al-Natrun): those of Macarius, John the Little, Bishoi, and the Baramus. Yet in spite of Bishoi’s prominence, the various recensions of his hagio-biography have received sporadic, scattered attention.The Life of Bishoi joins other Lives of eminent monastics of early-Egyptian monasticism: the Lives of Antony, Daniel, John the Little, Macarius, Paphnutius, Shenoute, and Syncletica. These Lives are vital for what they tell us about monastic politeia (way of life), spirituality, and theology, both of the early monastics and of those who later wrote, translated, and revised the Lives. They appeared first in Greek and Coptic, and later generations translated and revised them into Syriac, Arabic and Ge‘ez (Ethiopic).This definitive volume contains the first English translation of the Greek, Syriac, Arabic, and Ethiopic Lives of Bishoi, each translation accompanied by an introduction that focuses on certain aspects of the source text. It also has the first transcription and English translation of an important Greek text. The General Introduction provides rich context about the texts and textual traditions in the various languages, and thoroughly revises our knowledge about the Syriac tradition, the translation of the Syriac text here now consequently providing what is the best translation in any modern language. CONTRIBUTORSTim Vivian, California State University, BakersfieldMaged S.A. Mikhail, California State University, FullertonRowan Allen Greer III (1935–2014), an Episcopal priest and Walter H. Gray Professor of Anglican Studies at Yale Divinity School, was author of Broken Lights and Mended Lives: Theology and Common Life in the Early Church and Anglican Approaches to Scripture: From the Reformation to the Present. Robert Kitchen is a retired minister of the United Church of Canada, living in Regina, Saskatchewan. He read for the D.Phil. (Oxford) in Syriac Language and Literature and has taught Syriac studies in Sweden and Austria. Apostolos N. Athanassakis was Argyropoulos Chair in Hellenic Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara.