Apathea - the health of soul

 These early monastic theologians described the health of the soul as apatheia. Though they were influenced by Stoic and Neo-platonic philosophies, they adapted (rather than adopted) the Stoic concept of apatheia.11 This is not simply the leveling out of human emotions or the extirpation of the passions.12 Christian ascetics like Evagrius and Cassian took from the Stoics, Clement of Alexandria, and Egyptian sources such as Anthony, and put their own stamp on this concept.13 For them apatheiais an abiding sense of peace and joy that comes from the full harmony of the passions—an habitual state developed through discipline (ascesis), which is why we can refer to it in terms of virtue. Through various exercises a person trains herself to be in full possession of her affective faculties so that disordered desires are held in check and rightly ordered, and one can experience a state of deep calm—a “repose,” as Cassian calls it.14 According to Evagrius, one of the marks of the presence of apatheia in a person’s life is the ability to remain calm and peaceful even when he has memories of situations or events that tend to stimulate and disorder the passions.15This harmonious integration of the emotional life always remains exposed to the attacks of demons, as we mentioned, so emotional health—apatheia—must be maintained with effort. Of course, this is to be expected: good health is never a given; one must work at it with care. This implies that apatheia can be had (or lost) by degrees; one continually grows in it. Furthermore, it is subject to the limitations of one’s unique constitution.16

Evagrius teaches that the offspring of apatheia is agapē. Maintaining the harmony of one’s passions enables the person fully to love others and God, because the acquisition of apatheia can stamp out anger, sulking, lust, resentment, envy, and all other impediments to self-giving love. It gets at that root of self-love. Without love for others and God apatheia alone is of little value. Evagrius reminds us that the absence of distracting thoughts itself is not true prayer: “It is quite possible for a man to have none but the purest thoughts and yet be so distracted mulling over them that he remains the while far removed from God.”17 Gregory gets quite specific and illustrates for us in his practical teaching about fasting that acquiring apatheia cannot be divorced from agapē:

In this matter we must consider how little the virtue of abstinence is regarded, unless it deserve commendation by reason of other virtues. . . . To sanctify a fast is to show abstinence of the flesh to be worthy of God by other good things added to it [such as giving to the poor what one has abstained from]. . . . A man fasts not to God but to himself, if he does not give to the poor what he denies his belly for a time, but reserves it to be given to his belly later.18

Evagrius puts the equation succinctly: “Agapē is the progeny of apatheia. Apatheia is the very flower of ascesis.”19 And, again, it is this love which counters the self-love that is the root of the deadly sins. 

(...)

The ascetic theologian described the health of the soul as apatheia.33 Though early monastics were influenced by Stoic and Neo-platonic philosophies, they adapted (rather than adopted) the Stoic concept of apatheia.34 It is not simply the leveling out of human emotions or the extirpation of the passions.35 Ascetics like Evagrius and Cassian took from the Stoics, Clement of Alexandria, and Egyptian sources such as Anthony, and put their own stamp on this concept.36 For them apatheia is an abiding sense of peace and joy that comes from the full harmony of the passions—an habitual state developed through discipline (ascesis), which is why we refer to it in terms of virtue. Thus, it fits in nicely with what we have said above about the misguided or inordinate desire that gluttony involves: through various exercises a person trains herself to be in full possession of her affective faculties so that disordered cravings for foods are held in check and rightly ordered, and one can experience a state of deep calm—a “repose,” as Cassian calls it.37 According to Evagrius, one of the marks of the presence of apatheia in a person’s life is the ability to remain calm and peaceful even when he has memories of situations or events that tend to stimulate and disorder the passions.38This harmonious integration of the emotional life always remains exposed to the attacks of demons, particularly in the case of gluttony, which, as we have said, trades on the necessity of nourishment and the pleasurable sensations from which we will never be free.39 So emotional health—apatheia—must be maintained with effort. Of course, this is to be expected: good health is never a given; one must work at it with care. This implies that apatheia can be had (or lost) by degrees; one continually grows into it. Furthermore, it is subject to the limitations of one’s unique constitution. This last point should not be overlooked when it comes to the medical side of eating disorders; we will take this up in a different vein when we discuss discernment in a moment.40Evagrius teaches that the offspring of apatheia is agapē. Maintaining the harmony of one’s passions enables a person fully to love others and God, because the acquisition of apatheia can stamp out anger, sulking, lust, resentment, envy, and all other impediments to self-giving love. Without love apatheia alone is of little value. Evagrius reminds us that the absence of distracting thoughts itself is not true prayer: “It is quite possible for a man to have none but the purest thoughts and yet be so distracted mulling over them that he remains the while far removed from God.”41 Gregory gets quite specific and illustrates for us in practical terms how even acquiring apatheia cannot be divorced from agapē:

In this matter we must consider how little the virtue of abstinence is regarded, unless it deserve commendation by reason of other virtues. . . . To sanctify a fast is to show abstinence of the flesh to be worthy of God by other good things added to it [such as giving to the poor what one has abstained from]. . . . A man fasts not to God but to himself, if he does not give to the poor what he denies his belly for a time, but reserves it to be given to his belly later.42

Gregory refers here to a discipline, namely fasting, by which one gets a handle on gluttonous thoughts and redirects the appetite. It is ascesis that leads to apatheia. Evagrius puts it succinctly:

Agapē is the progeny of apatheia. Apatheia is the very flower of ascesis. Ascesis consists in keeping the commandments. The custodian of these commandments is the fear of God which is in turn the offspring of true faith. Now faith is an interior good, one which is to be found even in those who do not yet believe in God.43

Dennis Okholm

From Dangerous Passions, Deadly Sins