A life in the spirit and the spiritual life -- Atheism -- Faith -- Dimensions of the spiritual life -- The ascetic art and the dangers of ignorance -- Essential elements of the spiritual life -- The nature or essence of the spiritual life -- The different ages of the spiritual life -- Negations of evil and affirmations of good -- Three aspects of evil and the evil one -- Hell and the infernal dimension of the world -- Human suffering -- The message of Pentecost -- The desert fathers -- Interiorized monasticism. The transmission of the witness ; The universal character of monastic spirituality ; The three temptations, the Lord's three answers, and the three monastic vows ; The vow of poverty in the interior monasticism of the laity ; The vow of chastity ; The vow of obedience ; Christian unity and monastic freedom -- The human being -- The asceticism of the spiritual life -- The ascetic effort -- The progression of the spiritual life -- The passions and the technique of temptation -- The evolution of the spiritual life in the East and in the West -- The passage from the Old Testament to the New -- The charisms of the spiritual life. The spirit of discernment, impassibility, silence, vigilance, repentance and humility ; The charism of "joyful dying" ; Prayer -- Lectio divina : reading the Bible -- The universal priesthood of the laity in the Eastern Church tradition -- The mystical ascent.