An important element of early Christian teaching about a good life involved avoiding sin and resisting temptation. This emphasis found expression in an instructional book for monks, composed in the sixth or early seventh century C.E. by Saint John Climacus and known as the Ladder of Divine Ascent. Written by an ascetic monk with a reputation for great piety and wisdom, the book advised monks to renounce the world with its many temptations and vices, to nurture the corresponding virtues, and to ascend step-by-step toward union with God. A twelfth-century Byzantine painting or icon was added much later to illustrate the book. There, monks are climbing the ladder of the spiritual journey toward God but are beset by winged demons representing various sins — lust, anger, pride, lying, gluttony, avarice, slander, talkativeness, and bearing grudges, among others — which are described in Climacus’s book. Some have fallen off the ladder into the mouth of a dragon, which represents Hell. Repentance, or the “unbroken remembrance of one’s slightest sins” is the precondition for cultivating the virtues of meekness, forgiveness, selflessness, humility, discernment, simplicity, and many other virtues. But the journey toward “mature manhood” is difficult. “Truly perilous,” Climacus wrote, “is the sea that we humble monks are crossing.”

Questions to consider as you examine the source:

Ladder of Divine Ascent