Flaubert’s The Temptation of Saint Anthony and the Matter of the Experience of Spirituality in the desert

Abstract

The work of Gustave Flaubert The Temptation of Saint Anthony was the object of shared reading on the meetings of the Grupo de Estudos de Filosofia, Espiritualidade e Saúde, connected to Grupo de Estudos de Filosofia da Saúde – UNIFESP/CNPq. The objective of this paper is to bring our reflections about the experience of Anthony in the desert. The Egyptian anchorite lived on the 3rd and 4th centuries and is considered the Father of Christian monasticism. To endure decades of total isolation in the desert ceaselessly haunted by temptations by his own demons, Anthony had to search for strength on his unconditional faith in Jesus. We present the summarized hagiography of Saint Anthony, followed by brief considerations about the Primitive Christianity for placement in the historical moment. We recover desert experiences in the Judeo-Christian and some aspects of the Christian monasticism in the desert. Ending with comments about the desert in The Temptation of Saint Anthony.