Βίος

From the works of Philo.¹ "The church of Christ establishes two styles of life, the one supernatural and above the common human way of life, not accepting marriage nor the procreation of children nor the possession of property, but differing altogether from the common customary way of life of the ordinary man." And a little farther on: "but the second and inferior is more human and quite incomparable to the first, which [allows] to join in chaste marriages and procreation, to be concerned with just stewardship and for military men to give orders, to attend to agriculture and commerce and the other public conduct with piety; for such men times of ascetic effort and instruction and hearing the holy scriptures are also set aside, and a second level of piety is assigned, providing a benefit appropriate to a life of this kind."² Of saint Athanasios: "there are two ways in life and two life-styles, the one more moderate and ordinary, bearing fruit thirty-fold, but the other angelic and other-worldly, bearing the perfect fruit a hundred-fold. In the same way the life of old was divided into two, into the sublime life of the Pharisees and the inferior worldly life."³
But according to philosophers [there are] three moral choices of lifestyle: the life of contemplation, the life of action, and the life of reason.⁴