Among these, acedia was considered the most insidious. Together these make up the paradoxical emotion of acedia.Įvagrius of Pontus included acedia among the eight trains of thought that needed to be overcome by devout Christians. These conditions generate a strange combination of listlessness, undirected anxiety, and inability to concentrate. Rather, acedia arose directly out the spatial and social constrictions that a solitary monastic life necessitates. But they did not think it affected city-dwellers or even monks in communities. It sounds like apathy, but Cassian’s description shows that acedia is much more daunting and complex than that.Ĭassian and other early Christians called acedia “the noonday demon”, and sometimes described it as a “train of thought”. What would Seneca say? Six Stoic tips for surviving lockdownĮtymologically, acedia joins the negative prefix a- to the Greek noun kēdos, which means “care, concern, or grief”. Yet, the name that so aptly describes our current state was lost to time and translation. Constantly in and out of his cell, he looks at the sun as if it were too slow in setting. Such bodily listlessness and yawning hunger as though he were worn by a long journey or a prolonged fast … Next he glances about and sighs that no one is coming to see him. A mind “seized” by this emotion is “horrified at where he is, disgusted with his room … It does not allow him to stay still in his cell or to devote any effort to reading”. John Cassian, a monk and theologian wrote in the early 5th century about an ancient Greek emotion called acedia. We’re bored, listless, afraid and uncertain. We keep meaning to go outside but somehow never find the time.

We get distracted by social media, yet have a pile of books unread. The news seems worse every day, yet we compulsively scroll through it.

Zoom cocktail parties have lost their novelty, Netflix can only release so many new series. With some communities in rebooted lockdown conditions and movement restricted everywhere else, no one is posting pictures of their sourdough.

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