Abstract

The expression «the grief willed by God» in 2Cor 7:10 posed a problem for monastic writers who were also drawing upon the Stoic tradition of the four disordered passions . This essay examines three treatments of the Pauline expression by Evagrius Ponticus, Diadochus of Photice, and Maximus the Confessor, who strove to interpret 'grief' as both a vice and a virtue . While Evagarius establishes the basic understanding of «the grief willed by God» as a stimulus for repentance, Maximus the Confessor offers a more radical interpretation of grief as a unifying experience of the Communion of Saints