100-400

in the early Church, encouraged by its congregational worship and cult of

martyrdom, and the effect of gnostic Christianities in shaping what the

emerging Catholic Church decided to emphasise or ignore.The emergence of new positive theologies of

silence: negative theology and its sources in the Platonic tradition; the

development of asceticism in the mainstream Church in Syria from the second

century, and its possible sources: the place of silence in the development of

monasticism and eremetical life in Christianity.The importance of the remaking of monasticism

in Egypt; the vital role of a forgotten theologian, Evagrius Ponticus.

Recorded 24 April 2012 at St Cecilia's Hall, Edinburgh.