Athanasius—The Life of Antony, and The Letter to Marcellinus

Publication Data: Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 1980
Format: softcover
Number of Pages: xxii + 166
Dimensions (l × w × h): 22.8 cm × 15.3 cm × 1.3 cm
Additional Information: black-and-white illustrations
ISBN: 0‒8091‒2295‒2

   
Translation and Introduction by Robert C. Gregg
Preface by William A. Clebsch

A volume of The Classics of Western Spirituality: A Library of the Great Spiritual Masters

“The two early Christian writings brought together in this volume differ considerably in subject and in form. One employs narrative to set forth the career and teachings of a celebrated ‘man of God,’ while the other offers fairly systematic instruction concerning the nature and use of the Psalter. Despite their contrasting purposes and styles, these two lengthy epistles bear the common stamp of Christianity in the patristic age, and readers will soon sense that both works are informed by assumptions, concepts, and energies that are as fundamental to the era of the church fathers as they seem foreign to our own. [...]By the standards of the classical world, the Life of Antony was an immediate literary sensation. It enjoyed broad circulation among literate members of the Church, presumably was read to others, and quickly was made available in translation to those who did not read Greek. [...]The Letter to Marcellinus created no comparable stir. Athanasius’s treatment of the Book of Psalms is provocative in ways quite distinct from the story of Antony, and its subject is, in the strict sense, more esoteric: It contains information and direction intended exclusively for those who make use of the Psalter in their public and private prayer, and do so as Christians.”
—“Introduction”

CONTENTS

Foreword
Preface
Introduction
The Life and Affairs of Our Holy Father Antony
A Letter of Athanasius, Our Holy Father, Archbishop of Alexandria, to Marcellinus on the Interpretation of the Psalms
Notes
Index