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The Church Fathers · c. 450–460
On Spiritual Knowledge and Discrimination
Diadochus of Photike · c. 400 – c. 486
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What it is
A hundred chapters on how to tell the movements of grace from the movements of delusion, and the first text to prescribe the continuous repetition of the name of Jesus as the way to occupy a mind that will otherwise wander.
Why it lasted
The bridge between Evagrius and hesychasm, and the earliest clear statement of the Jesus Prayer as a practice. Maximus, John Climacus, and the whole Athonite tradition build on it.
Scripture it works from
Where to read it
Public domain and free to read in full, though not held here. The archives below have it.
These open a search on each archive rather than a direct link, which is the honest way to point at an edition nobody here has checked line by line.
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