Yushi Nomura has put together a collection of roughly 100 sayings from the 4th and 5th century monks that we now collectively refer to as the Desert Fathers. In addition, each saying is illustrated with Japanese style brush drawings, which gives this collection a distinctive flavor when compared to either the collections by Thomas Merton or Helen Waddell.
This is not a comprehensive collection of sayings. Rather it serves as a superb introduction to this body of Christian literature. The sayings of the Desert Fathers are characterized by their pithy and direct nature. You will not find abstract theologizing here; the desert was a place where the hard realities of living the Christian life - humility, hospitality, forgiveness, failure, mindfulness of everyday things - were confronted every day.

Originally published in 1982, this new edition from Orbis includes a wonderful epilogue based on Henri Nouwen's unpublished lecture notes for a course on "Desert Spirituality and Contemporary Ministry" that he taught at Yale in the early 1980's. It was Nouwen's course that introduced Nomura to the literature of the desert and began the process that led to this book.

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ISBN: 9781570753718
Catalogue code: N/A
Publisher: ORBIS BOOKS - published 23/06/2003
Format: Paperback