This book is a compilation of Biblical passages to be used (originally by the early Christian hermits whose leaders were the "Desert Fathers") to response to evil thoughts which were attributed to demons (as the introduction notes, many modern Christian would simply think of these as evil ideas not necessarily suggested by personified demons, the demonic origin of the temptations is not relevant to most of the points which are made.) They are organized by the traditional vices -- gluttony (in this case chiefly temptations to break the strict fasting rules) , lust (in this case chiefly responding to sexual fantasies, though there is also an intelligent comment on he dangers of devoting too men attention to women who might come for spiritual counsel) etc. The ones on fasting are in many cases responses to very genuine temptations today. The ones on lust, rather oddly, rarely use Scripture passages specifically condemning lust (aside from the one about looking at women with lust in one's heart popularized by Jimmy Carter) --most are quotations about the Israelites fighting the Canaanites and other pagan peoples, images which I suppose are to be used metaphorically for resisting temptations. Perhaps Evagrius found (as I have) that actually focusing on Biblical passages describing sexual sins was more likely to increase the temptation that diminish it. According to the introduction, he had had a mental and moral collapse caused by desir for a married woman, wich led him from a post in the service of Patriarch John Chrysostom in Constantinople to gong our into the desert. This translation is based on a partial survival of the origina Greek and a complete Syrac version; it does not use much from other surviving ancient versions. ( )

Professor David Brakke brings a contemporary translation of 'Antirrhetikos' ('Talking Back'), authored by a fourth-century monk named Evagrius of Pontus. To whom does Evagrius talk back? As foreign to the modern ear as the answer might seem, Evagrius talks back to demons. Indeed, the book has been a staple for Christians to combat demons ever since.

Complete manuscripts of the book exist only in Armenian and Syriac, which helps explain why Brakke's translation is the first contemporary English translation of the entire text, including Prologue and all eight "books." The demons combated herein are distributed across eight books: gluttony, fornication, love of money, sadness, anger, listlessness, vainglory, and pride (pp. 49-174). Bakke's bibliography (pp. 175-80) identifies early 20th-century and modern translations (German and English) that consist of selected parts from 'Talking Back.'.

In addition, the bibliography provides primary scholarly translations of works from other desert fathers of the same period, and citations for 28 peer-reviewed studies about spiritual discernment and warfare to have been published in the past 20-25 years. These studies have been selected for their significance to monastic practices in the Egyptian deserts of Nitria and Kellia of the same period where Evagrius lived after having emigrated from Constantinople, where he served St. Gregory Nazianzus ("the Theologian") as archdeacon, and following a brief but eventful layover in Jerusalem en route.

The first 40 pages of this book form Brakke's Introduction. Brakke sketches Evagrius's biography, but spares excessive details, because little evidence survives, and biographical events of his years as a Constantinopolitan churchman figure unimportant to the project. Instead, Brakke focuses on distinguishing 'Talking Back' from a style of incantatory magic that had already appeared from oral traditions attributed to various eremetical monks in the third and fourth centuries. Brakke proposes that Evagrius, by having borrowed from Antony the Great and Athanasius the practice of quoting aloud passages from Holy Scripture to combat the demons, stopped the demons at first blush (so-called proto-passion) of a tempting thought.

Brakke further develops Evagrius's astute spiritual psychology to explore the function of the intellect as judge and combatant against proto-passions. In so doing, Brakke demonstrates how Evagrius divided these proto-passions from the intellect's power to resist dwelling upon them, which would entail a sinful act. Such exegesis as Evagrius employs, in the tradition of Philo, Origin, and Didymus the Blind, envelops Brakke's discussion of how monks inherited and concentrated Stoic philosophy for purposes of salvation in Christ.

Brakke summarizes Evagrius's use of 'antirrhesis' as a method of discernment and early intervention, for talking back to demons with Holy Scripture "cuts off" any chance for the seeds of proto-passions to plant roots in the soul and grow. However, as reading the full translation discloses, talking back to demons remained a lifelong, engaging and never perfected task among desert monks who employed what Evagrius taught them. This aspect of faith mixed with doubts about transitions that life brought provides a solid incarnational theology that will seem familiar to any Christian who wages war against evil in the world at large and within.

Each passage from Holy Scripture in the eight books of 'Talking Back' is preceded by a description of a proto-passion. For example, in Book 1 "Against Thoughts of Gluttony," No. 48 (p. 63) identifies a thought:

"Against the soul that is bound by gluttony and supposes that by refreshing the body with delicacies it travels the road of life:"
--"For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few who take it (Matthew 7:14)."

Brakke includes the "Letter to Evagrius" from Loukios, who recognized with respect the practices of Evagrius to battle demons, and asked him "...to compose for me some clear treatise concerning it and to acquaint me with the demons' entire treachery...Send it to us" (p. 45). The result from Evagrius has become a spiritual classic, and this translation ought to become a part of every English-speaking Christian's battle against demons on the road to eternal bliss with Christ. ( )