Welcome to the Desert. In this ten-part teaching series, you can follow Christopher A. Hall into an arid wilderness. His purpose is to share wisdom from a variety of abbas and ammas who found deep transformation there.
In the first video, you will be introduced to the series and learn about why it was that so many early Christians were drawn to the desert as a vital learning space for spiritual growth.
Chris will guide you through important themes for the series. For example: (1) What was the attraction to the desert? (2) What was it about that environment that gave it so much to offer as a learning space? (3) How is it that desert experiences can help a person move from self-deception to greater self-awareness; and how is it that this environment can cause vices to wither and virtues to flourish.
In each of the nine sessions that follow, Abba Chris, will focus on one particular vice and a corresponding virtue. He will describe a key temptation and introduce you to a desert dweller who overcame that temptation and became an exemplar of virtuous living. Then he’ll invite that dusty desert dweller into your living room to offer a few practices to help you apply what was learned in the desert to your life.