"The four desert Fathers who give their names to this volume - Pambo, Evagrius, Macarius of Egypt, and Macarius of Alexandria - were well known some 1600 years ago in Alexandria and the monastic communities of Lower Egypt. They were most famous, perhaps, because the monk (and later bishop) Palladius recounted their Lives - preserved in the Coptic Palladiana - in his Lausiac History. The introduction describes the relationships among Palladius and Evagrius, Origenism, the spiritual and theological ramifications of the Anthropomorphite controversy, and subsequent effects on the Lausiac History and the four Coptic Lives of this volume."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved