Chapter 4 Habit as a Spiritual Discipline in Early Christianity
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This essay provides a brief overview of the role of habit in the context of spiritual disciplines as found in Greco-Roman antiquity and in the thought of the Desert Fathers. The essay begins by surveying Pierre Hadot’s argument that ancient philosophical schools such as Stoicism and Epicurianism should be understood not simply as intellectual movements but as promoting ways of life that included the practice of spiritual disciplines and habit formation. This Greco-Roman environment influenced the formation of spiritual disciplines in the Christian monastic tradition, and this can be seen clearly in the writings of Evagrius of Pontus and his argument for the importance of prayer in combating the Eight Thoughts.