Week 6 Blog: Hermits

It was exciting to read about the hermits and how they developed into what we might consider monks. And also how their lifestyles developed into the system of monasteries. As these people sought out the baroness of the desert, they believed that they were living a more primordial existence. By living this "existence" hermits thought that they could deduce life to more of what God expected. It also gave them the ability to clearly see what it was that God intended. Moving away from the hustle of civilization to see the "truth" can be compared to how astronomers use their telescopes in areas where there is no light pollution. To these monks, civilization polluted the pondering of what life is. This distancing of one from the pollution of civilization seems to be somethings that even many intellectuals have sought out--take Thoreau for example, with his seclusion to Walden Pond. For Thoreau, it was impossible to see the simplicity of nature in a civilized world. Even Jesus supposedly went into the desert to ponder and pray.