The growing scholarly attention in recent years to the religious world of late antiquity has focused new attention on the quest for holiness by the strange, compelling, often obscure early Christian monks known as the desert fathers. Yet until now, little attention has been given to one of the most vital dimensions of their spirituality: their astute, penetrating interpretation of Scripture. Rooted in solitude, cultivated in an atmosphere of silence, oriented toward the practical appropriation of the sacred texts, the desert fathers' hermeneutic profoundly shaped every aspect of their lives and became a significant part of their legacy. This book explores the setting within which the early monastic movement emerged, the interpretive process at the center of the desert fathers' quest for holiness, and the intricate patterns of meaning woven into their words and their lives.

Life is often filled with trial, heartache, grief, and struggle. But, perhaps there’s a treasure to be found in those difficult seasons and that treasure is intimacy with God Himself. That should be reason enough to rejoice. So, how do we take God’s command to Pharaoh in Exodus 5 to “Let my people go so they may hold a festival for me in the desert” as a holy invitation to be stripped down and made whole, while still worshipping the one who allows the stripping? Through vulnerable and transparent stories, Laureen Alexa Trujillo shares her personal testimony of hardship and trial and all that God taught her through suffering. She highlights the faithfulness of God and brings attention to the purpose of her struggle: To learn dependency on God by being exposed to the barrenness of the desert, surrender the false comfort of our personal Egypt, and come out stronger and more refined for the Promise Land we were created to inherit. Through Festival in the Desert Laureen walks you through the question that confronted her: how do we learn and truly embrace the fact that God can and will work all things together for good as we seek Him and choose to love Him through uncertainty, fear, and hardship? The stories and interactive prompts will point us to the heart of the Father, reminding us that God is faithful, present, trustworthy, and more than capable of making a way for us when there doesn’t seem to be one, ushering in freedom, comfort, and renewed hope.

`Give me a word, Father', visitors to early desert monks asked. The responses of these pioneer ascetics were remembered and in the fourth century written down in Coptic, Syriac, Greek, and later Latin. Their Sayings were collected, in this case in the alphabetical order of the monks and nuns who uttered them, and read by generations of Christians as life-giving words that would help readers along the path to salvation.

Aidan explores the ways in which Nietzsche's warning that 'the desert grows' has been taken up by Heidegger, Derrida and Deleuze in their critiques of modernity, and the desert in literature ranging from T.S Eliot to Don DeLillo; from imperial travel writing to postmodernism; and from the Old Testament to salvagepunk.

Invites readers to explore the smallest and most unique southwestern desert, the beautiful Mojave--Provided by publisher.