Without the City: Pachomius

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The Institute for Global Outreach Development International

Genesis

Without the City: The Challenge of Pachomius

Finding God in People

           

       Submitted To:

Professor Shaun Galford

  By:

                                            Geoff Hartnell

              Date:

         November 17th, 2011

Table of contents:

Introduction & Thesis.....................................................................................................................................3

The Beginnings……………………………………...............................................................................................3

The Roman Empire…………….………………………………………………….................................................3-4

The Vocation of Pachomius…………………………………..........................................................................5-6

A Different Way………………………………………………………………………………………………………..6-7

Conclusion............................................................................................................................................................7

Bibliography………………………………............................................................................................................8

Introduction and Thesis

"Let us live and die with this man and he will lead us straight to God." Pachomius was a different man in light of the fourth century, a man who claimed that God resided outside of the city walls and a man who lived to show his fellow brothers that serving one another was the greatest one could do. The spirit of God was said to have rested on Pachomius and men were drawn to him. In a time of political and religious unrest under the rule of Constantine, Christians were seeking a different way and Pachomius offered a means different from what they had seen before. God was at work in the world in the most unexpected of places; many were looking towards the large, grandiose, ornate buildings for God rather than the small, marginalized, overlooked places where God had been throughout history. Pachomius lived a life that offered an alternative and showed a glimpse of something larger than himself through loving God, loving his brother and helping others to do the same. Although many were looking towards the city to find God, Pachomius offered a way of serving and loving God through serving and loving fellow man.

The Beginnings

        Pachomius was born around the year 286 to pagan parents in Thebaid, a small village located in the southern part of Upper Egypt. It was there where he received an exceptional education from a secular school that aided in his formation of his mind as a youth. At the early age of twenty Pachomius was forcibly drafted into the roman army during what was a civil war. During his time in the Roman army he found himself in the midst of prisons first within Alexandria. Upon transfer the group rested in Thebes were they filled a local prison, which happened to be visited by Christians. It was during this time he was introduced to Christians and was so impressed by the examples these men gave in loving their neighbor that he converted and vowed to the ascetic life upon finishing his service. To his benefit the war, and thus his service, ended before any fighting was required. This was the moment Pachomius had awaited.

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The Roman Empire

It is important to note the state Egypt was in that caused such individuals, as Pachomius, to leave the city and start something different. Egypt had been under Roman domination and Christians, throughout the third and the beginning of the fourth century, were persecuted for their religious practice.  Rome in 300 CE brought forth Diocletian’s government reconstruction where he introduced four emperors, rather than one, in hopes this would assist with ensuring “an orderly process of succession” and hoping “that this would aver the frequent civil wars that racked the empire over the question of succession”. ...

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