Robert Rodriguez - The Book of Hermits: A History of Hermits from Antiquity to the Present

Robert Rodriguez, 2021. All rights reserved.

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

Names: Robert Rodriguez, author.

Title: The Book of hermits: the history of hermits from antiquity to the present / Robert Rodriguez.

Includes bibliographical references.

Identifiers: ISBN 978-1-7368665-1-1 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: HermitsHistory. | ReclusesHistory | SolitudeHistory |

Subjects: BISAC: HISTORY / World | BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Historical | PHILOSOPHY / History & Surveys / General |

Classification: LCC BJ1499.S6 | DDC 204.247dc23

Published by Hermitary Press (hermitarypress.com).

Cover design by riverdesignbooks.com.

For Noelia, Thomas and Michael

Living in retirement beyond the World,

Silently enjoying isolation,

I pull the rope of my door tighter

And stuff my window with roots and ferns.

My spirit is tuned to the Springseason:

At the fall of the year there is autumn in my heart.

Thus imitating cosmic changes

My cottage becomes a Universe.

The Valley Wind, by Lu Yn (third century, CE)

Preface

Introduction

PART I The Western World: Antiquity and Middle Ages

1. Diogenes of Sinope.

2. Stoics & Epicureans.

3. Early Judaism.

4. Early Christianity.

5. Paul of Thebes, the first Christian hermit.

6. Anthony (the Great).

7. Christian Desert Hermits.

8. Sayings of the Christian Desert Hermits.

9. Simon Stylites: Pillar Hermit.

10. Eremitism Comes to the West.

11. Early Medieval Hermits of Britain.

12. Hermit Revival in the Central Middle Ages.

13. Women Hermits in the Central Middle Ages.

14. Hermit Mystics of England.

15. Beguines and Brethren: Hermits of Continental Europe.

16. Hermits in Medieval Arthurian Lore.

17. The Hermit in Langlands Piers Plowman.

18. The Last Hermits of Medieval Europe.

19. Orthodox Christian Hermits: Greece.

20. Orthodox Christian Hermits: Russia.

21. Hermits in Russia: Pilgrim & Old Believer.

22. Orthodox Christian Hermits: Ethiopia.

23. Eremitism in Medieval & Later Judaism.

24. Eremitism in Medieval and Later Islam.

PART II The Eastern World: Antiquity to the Present.

25. Hermits in Hindu India.

26. Hermits in Jain India.

27. Buddhist Hermits of Tibet.

28. Shabkar: Tibetan Buddhisms Perfect Hermit.

29. Buddhist Hermits of Sri Lanka.

30. Buddhist Hermits of Thailand.

31. Eremitism in Ancient China: Confucianism to Taoism.

32. Eremitism in Ancient China: Han Dynasty.

33. Eremitism in Medieval China: The Poets.

34. Eremitism in Medieval China: The Painters.

35. Eremitism in Shinto Japan.

36. Eremitism in Buddhist Japan: The Poets.

37. The Aesthetics of Eremitism: wabi, sabi, aware, yugen.

38. Aesthetics of Eremitism: Japanese Painting.

PART III The Modern Western World: Renaissance to Romanticism.

39. From Hermits to Solitude in Early Modern Europe.

40. Roger Crab: Early Modern Hermit.

41. In Defense of Solitude: Petrarch to Rousseau.

42. Hermits in Renaissance Art.

43. Eremitism in Eighteenth Century Britain.

44. Eremitism and Romanticism: England.

45. Eremitism and Romanticism: France.

46. Eremitism and Romanticism: Germany.

47. Eremitism and Romanticism: United States.

48. Johnny Appleseed: Americana Hermit.

PART IV The Modern Western World: The Nineteenth Century.

49. Romanticism and Solitude: United States.

50. Romantic Art and Solitude: Early Nineteenth Century.

51. Eremitism and Literature: Britain and Europe.

52. The Temptation of St. Anthony in Art.

53. Philosophers of Solitude: Kierkegaard to Nietzsche.

54. Eremitism in British Literature.

55. Eremitism in European Literature.

56. Philosophers of Solitude: Wittgenstein to Berdyaev.

57. Simone Weil, Philosopher of Solitude.

58. Romantic Eremitism in American Literature.

59. Realist Eremitism in American Literature.

60. West Meets East: Eremitic Journeys.

61. Charles de Foucauld: Hermit of Contradiction.

62. The Renaissance of Eremitism in Hindu India.

63. The Hermit in the Tarot.

64. The Rehabilitation of Hermits in the West.

65. Rehabilitation of Hermits in the United States.

66. Contemporary Men Hermits Around The World.

67. Contemporary Women Solitaries Around The World.

Afterword.

Bibliographical References.

About the Author.

PREFACE.

I started the Hermitary website twentysome years ago because so little information about hermits was available on the web at the time. A web search would typically pull up Hermans Hermits, hermit crabs, or hermit thrush. (Actually, results have not changed much!) Something about Catholic and Orthodox hermits was always to be found, mostly hagiography, hardly challenging the definitive status of older books such as those compiled by Helen Waddell and Benedicta Ward. Not surprisingly, information relating eremitism to larger issues of solitude, psychology, society, and world culture, was quite absent on the web.

My curiosity about hermits piqued in the nineties with books such as Bill Porters wonderful Road to Heaven: In Search of Chinese Hermits, and the sympathetic Hermits: The Insights of Solitude by Peter France. Invaluable studies on the psychology and philosophy of solitude from Anthony Storr and Philip Koch, while not directly addressing historical hermits, rounded out context. I launched Hermitary to tie together hermit and solitude threads. Many threads got tied but many did not (and have not) because of the wealth of information about historical hermits available today.

Why hermits anyway? I might find them historically intriguing, a confirmation of my personality and interests, perhaps, but not everyone will. What is persuasive about hermits is that they have grasped something important to convey to us all.

While each hermit is different, coming from different eras and mind-sets, cultures and geographies, this book hopes to impress upon you the universal wisdom of the historical hermits, their discernment of life, nature, and society. In a world in crisis, among societies beset by alienation, anxiety, and insecurity, a consistent message of self-awareness, mingled with the appropriate degree of self-effacement, is the delicate and soulful fruit of the lives of the hermits, their aesthetics, and their philosophy of life.

I will contend that the hermit ethos is the grand intersection of many sages, writers, thinkers, and poets reflecting on solitude and its valuable role in the lives of all of us. That is why a significant portion of the book is given over to the creative voices in history, philosophy, and literature who were solitaries at heart but not formal hermits.

This books is a popularizationnot in the sense of trying to make hermits popular, but in bridging the gap between scholarly research and what the intelligent reader really whats to know. A mix of history, biography, psychology, art, and philosophizing.

Meanwhile, the Hermitary website complements this book. The web site offers information about current hermit topics, key articles and reviews, plus galleries of hermits and eremitic themes in art, photos, film, musicamong other resources and media that couldnt fit into this book. I hope you will happily avail yourself of the world of hermits.

INTRODUCTION