Letter to Melania (Texts and Translations of Transcendence and Transformation)

In a text known as the Letter to Melania, or the Great Letter, Christian monastic philosopher Evagrius of Pontus (345–399) delivers a moving meditation on the power of language (spoken and written), the composition of humanity in light of the three persons of God, and the final restoration or apokatastasis when all creatures will be reunited with their creator. Evagrius wrote in Greek, but after his posthumous condemnation in 551, many of his writings, including this letter, survive only in Syriac translation. The first complete edition of the text, which is based on all known Syriac copies, is presented here alongside a new translation, a Syriac-English glossary, and commentary.