Categoriile teologice ale „întinării” şi „neîntinării” la Părinţii pustiei sau despre o nouă cultură a trupului în spiritualitatea deşertului
Theological categories of "blemish" and "without blemish" in the Desert Fathers or reflections about a new culture of the body in the desert spirituality

Summary/Abstract: In this article, we intend to bring a small contribution to the knowledge of theDesert Fathers. First, we emphasize the main aspects of the spiritual life in Late Egyptianmonasticism. In this sense, we discuss the category of clean and unclean and how theyfunction within the world of the desert. This binary dynamism is not to be understoodsolely in a sexual fashion. One can consider, for instance, clean and unclean, places,thoughts, practices, relationships, and so on. The dialectic of clean/unclean is akin tothinking of what pollutes and does not pollute. To understand the tension betweenthese polarities helps us to get a better fix on a whole range of monastic tropes: asceticism,the logismoi, the struggle with the demon, the demand for flight from the worldetc. The monastic universe is one of the privileged places where were first developedand then applied the rules governing the patristic culture of the body. The ascetics whoisolated themselves in the desert of Egypt (the fourth century) represent a social groupthat is statistically negligible. But from the mentality point of view, the experience ofthis group fulfills a decisive function in Eastern Christianity.

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