Geography and philosophy – space, time and being: the symbolism of the ideal man in the religious being from Athanasio of Alexandria in Vita Antoni

Abstract

The philosophy of Western monasticism was born on the fringes of the official Church, especially when the Church had just become imperial. The search for a lived space referenced in the symbolism of the desert and for an ideal Christianity was also influenced by the hagiography of St. Anthony, in a broad space-time relationship. Athanasius of Alexandria, the Coptic bishop, when faced with the embryonic counterfeits of the friction between Church and State, projects in Vita Antoni an ideal presupposition of being Christian as humanity. This anthropological symbolism will crystallize in a trajectory of lived space and time, directly influencing Western civilization from an idealism that develops as a materiality and phenomenon in the deserts: the monasteries and the fuga mundi lifestyle. In the late period of the history of religions, a "father of the church" emerges who boldly describes the nuances of the pious character of the one who will one day be considered the father of monks, St. Anthony. This proposal analyzes the phenomenon of fuga mundi and its articulation with the locality of the monastery, from the perspective of Athanasius of Alexandria, with reference to the biography of Saint Anthony, observing its practical manifestations and how this enunciation occurred in the geohistory of Western Christianity, as well as identifying how this symbolic perspective influenced the Christian religious tradition. The methodology used in this work was applied research, using as a method the systematic analysis of the work of Athanasius of Alexandria and the hagiography present on St. Anthony, considering the evidence of socio-anthropological and symbolic aspects and the scientific convergence of geography, philosophy and the science of religion as an analytical proposal that unites categories such as space, time and being.