Visio mystica im Spannungsfeld frühchristlicher Überlieferungen

The question of whether the spiritual tradition of early Egyptian monasticism can be traced back to Origen and the Alexandrian school or if there were several early monastic traditions in Egypt has been a controversial topic of discussion in recent years. Dmitrij Bumazhnov attempts to deepen our knowledge about the monastic origins by analyzing the notion of the mystical vision in the 7 letters allegedly written by St. Anthony the Great. The comparison with other monastic texts of the 4th century shows that at least two fundamentally different understandings of the visio Dei - one Platonic and one biblical - were represented in the Nile valley, a fact which partly explains the outbreak of the Origenist controversy in the Egyptian monasteries in 399. The study also questions the current consensus on the authenticity of the letters. Whereas the letters 1 and 2-7 are by different authors, it is probable that only letter 1 was written by St. Anthony.