Vainglory

Evagrius ends his catalog by dividing what later enumerators would put at the head of the list, pride, into the two most treacherous logismos: vainglory and pride. Vainglory he defines as daydreaming about one's own magnificence and imagined glory

This passage supplies Evagrius's canonical definition of vainglory as imagined self-magnificence, distinguishing it from pride while situating both as the summit of spiritual danger in the catalogue of capital sins.

Kurtz, Ernest, Ketcham, Katherine, The Spirituality of Imperfection Storytelling and the, 1994thesis

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the more advanced, already initiated into contemplation, still need to guard themselves against the most subtle and 'spiritual' of the vices, vainglory and pride

Climacus, following Evagrius, establishes vainglory as a specifically 'spiritual' vice that threatens the advanced contemplative rather than the beginner, belonging to the intelligent faculty alongside pride.

Climacus, John, The Ladder of Divine Ascent, 600thesis

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It often happens that having been left naked by vainglory, we turn around and strip it ourselves more cleverly. For I have encountered some who embarked on the spiritual life out of vainglory, making therefore a bad start, and yet they finished up in a most admirable way

Climacus demonstrates the paradoxical psychology of vainglory, showing that even a corrupted motivation can be redeemed, while also noting the vice's tendency to be overcome through a subtler, more self-aware variant of itself.

Climacus, John, The Ladder of Divine Ascent, 600thesis

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Gluttony is the mother of lust, vainglory is the mother of despondency... and the mother of pride is vainglory

This passage from Climacus maps the generative lineage of the passions, establishing vainglory as both the offspring of gluttony and the direct parent of pride, placing it at the center of the pathological chain.

Climacus, John, The Ladder of Divine Ascent, 600supporting

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visits the 'Prison', 122-128; gives in to vainglory, 239; tempted to abandon hesychasm, 267

The index entry for John Climacus himself records that even the author of the Ladder is noted as having personally yielded to vainglory, underscoring the autobiographical dimension of the text's treatment of this vice.

Climacus, John, The Ladder of Divine Ascent, 600supporting

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Gluttony: definition of, 165, 283; origins of, 148, 166; fruits of, 165, 167, 170, 171, 257; allied with fornication... checked by vanity, 166, 167

This index entry reveals the structural cross-referencing in the Ladder by which vainglory (vanity) is positioned as a counter-force to gluttony, illustrating the vice's complex functional role within the system of passions.

Climacus, John, The Ladder of Divine Ascent, 600supporting

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The desert Father Evagrius, to whom I shall devote the next chapter, tried to identify the temptations with various of the eight first movements which he distinguished

Sorabji situates Evagrius's schema of eight first movements — which includes vainglory — within the broader Stoic and Christian debate about pre-passion and sin, giving the Evagrian taxonomy a philosophical-historical context.

Richard Sorabji, Emotion and Peace of Mind: From Stoic Agitation to Christian Temptation, 2000aside

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