[muawiyah]

Way back when Christianity had a couple of manifestations ~ the first was as a community of believers ~ which is the one with which we are most familiar.

The other manifestation was as hermits living in caves in the desert, or alone on top of mountains.

We are so unfamiliar with that particular manifestation there's almost nothing we we know about it yet some of the great thinkers of Christianity's antiquity did exactly that.

So, what happened to those guys in the holes in the ground?

[RJR_fan]

So, what happened to those guys in the holes in the ground?

Fortunately, most of them disappeared, leaving little behind. Simon Stylites might have preened himself on his splendid isolation from all things worldly, but someone had to fill (and empty) little buckets for him. These folks had, I fear, bought into a false, dualistic, Platonic conception of holiness. Since God Himself is a sacred Community, the always and all-sufficient Blessed Trinity, alienation in the name of sanctification is insane, and a form of emotional masturbation.

[Tax-chick]

So, what happened to those guys in the holes in the ground?

They died, just like we will.

It's rather loud around my casa; sometimes a cave looks like an awfully appealing alternative. If I had a chance to do it over again, would I choose "old maid with catz"?