A Place of the Shekinah': Contextualising Isaac of Nineveh's Homily on the Cross in the Religious Cosmography of Late Antique Mesopotamia (original) (raw)
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The Christology of St. Isaac of Niniveh and the East Syriac Theology of the 7-8th centuries
Studia Universitatis Babeș-Bolyai Theologia Orthodoxa
Isaac of Niniveh is one of the most prominent East Syriac author, whose dates go to a complex historical and religious time (7-8 th centuries)the Arab conquest and the West Syriac proselytism, and yet a period of flourishing theological literature. His discourses have a practical perspective and they may be easily lectured as a gnoseological-mystical itinerary, communicated in a technical language, in a line of a specific tradition(s). Theologically speaking, the possibility of achieving divine knowledge can be expressed only within the Christological frame, as Christ is the perfect Man and perfect God, and any human knowledge resides in Him. In consequence it is dependent on the way one expresses the relation between Christ's two natures (communicatio idiomatum). Isaac of Niniveh does not systematically deal with Christology, but one may identify in his discourses an attitude, a phraseology and a mystic theology, in consequence, described as divine knowledge, perception and vision. In this paper we will deal with Isaac's Christological perspective in the frame of the Christological disputes of his time, and, in consequence, we will search for identifying the type of mystics he professes.
(Texts and Studies in Eastern Christianity; XXI), Postscript by Hartmut Leppin., 2021
The studies composing this book are written by twenty nine scholars from USA, Switzerland, Sweden, Russia, Netherlands, Italy, Israel, Great Britain, Germany, France, Belgium and Armenia. They explore the transmission of apocrypha in Ethiopia, Egypt, the Holy Land, Syria, Iran, Armenia, Asia Minor, the Balkans, the Slavic world and Italy. Frequently rejected by Churches, apocryphal texts and legends had their own process of development, often becoming a medium of literary, artistic and ritual elaboration. Apocrypha also inspired esoteric thinking. Kindred apocryphal themes can be observed in Judaism since Late Antiquity. The book investigates the common roots of such traditions, as well as the interactions of Judaism and Christianity with Mystery cults and with the religions of Iran. Dissenting groups, such as the Samaritans, the followers of John the Baptist and the mediæval dualists, are also considered. Local adaptations of Biblical stories reveal the interests of the narrators, the painters and their intended audiences, which often conceived of themselves as living not in a post-Biblical era, but in direct continuity with Biblical heroes. Reviews: P. Lanfranchi, in Rivista di Storia e Letteratura Religiosa 58/1 (2022), 139-42; M.H. Sellew, in Church History. Studies in Christianity and Culture 92/2 (2023), 417-19; Network for the Study of Esotericism in Antiquity (17.06.2021).
Isaac of Nineveh and Syriac Thought
The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God." -1 Corinthians 1:18 "To discover the literature of the Syrian Fathers is to discover a lost treasure." -Dom Cuthbert Brogan, OSB
Les études sur la prière dans le christianisme ancien tendent à privilégier les aspects spirituels, liturgiques ou doctrinaux ; mais l’histoire de la prière se prête aussi à un examen sous l’optique de l’histoire de la culture. Un exemple à cet égard intéressant est offert par l’échange de lettres entre l’hésychaste Euthyme et Barsanuphe. La vaste correspondance des deux reclus de Gaza, Barsanuphe et Jean (première moitié du VIe siècle), contient de nombreuses références à l’expérience de la prière – fondamentale aussi dans cette forme de vie monastique –, entre autres parce qu’elle est étroitement liée à la pratique de la direction spirituelle. Toutefois les prières ont généralement tendance à se modeler sur l’exemple de la Prière de Jésus, et à devenir de brèves formules sinon de véritables prières jaculatoires. Euthyme, au contraire, élabore ses questions à Barsanuphe en forme de prière, avec des textes nourris de passages bibliques, théologiquement et littérairement assurés. Un profond examen de ces prières révèle les divers contenus de la culture monastique de Gaza : à côté de la Bible, source prioritaire d’inspiration, apparaît la littérature apophtegmatique et ascétique du monachisme ancien, ainsi que des traces d’un savoir profane, telles les notions de sciences naturelles et de médecine, utilisées pour interpréter le texte sacré et pour communiquer des enseignements spirituels.
A Syriac Case for the Reception of Hebrews: Isaac of Nineveh's Ascetic-mystical Corpus
R. Burnet (ed.), "The Letter to the Hebrews" (BETL) Leuven: Peeters Publishers (proceedings of LXX Colloquium Biblicum Lovaniense, Leuven, 22-24 July 2021), 2024
The reflection of Isaac of Nineveh (7th c.), the best-known representative of the 7-8th century East-Syriac ascetic-mystical movement, is profoundly marked by his reading of the Pauline epistles. Among these, Hebrews (that he attributes to Paul, as is usual in his tradition) occupies a prominent place. A monk and solitary, Isaac does not approach the letter as a scholar or an exegete, but as a spiritual master, as material essential for interpreting the experience of interiority and guiding others toward it. Thus, he uses the letter to build his distinctive understanding of the contemplative experience. This essay examines several elements of this re-elaboration of Hebrews, highlighting how Isaac, although re-framing, in a different context, Hebrews’ insights, grasps essential concepts and the overall dynamic of the letter. Through an examination of Isaac’s edited and unedited writings and of the Syriac version of Hebrews, attention is thus paid to vital issues such as the alterity ‘old’ / ‘new’, the unique mediation of Christ, and the meaning of faith. Through this analysis, it will be possible to appreciate also the originality of Isaac’s reflection: his stressing of the value of the frail flesh, through which salvation occurs, that shows a clear understanding of the crucial role of ‘the human’ and ‘the bodily’ in the salvation process, and his view of faith as inner, intimate “persuasion”, a condition of trust that indicates a way of knowing that is different and other to the cognitive.
Polemics and Personal Experience: from the Perspective of Isaac of Nineveh
J. Verheyden - D. Müller (eds.), Radical Asceticism: Between Good Faith and Provocation, BETL XXX, Leuven-Paris, Peeters, 2025
Isaac of Nineveh has been often presented, in both the scholarly and non-scholarly discourse, as a non-polemical writer. This article aims to deconstruct this oversimplified interpretation, that Paolo Bettiolo has been the first to challenge, in a recent study. While we do not find in Isaac polemics on dogmatic and political issues nor direct attacks against his opposers, we nevertheless find very firm stances, especially on the issues of radical mercy, the necessity of separation from ‘the world’, and the need to avoid fleeing from temptations. This indicates Isaac’s strong awareness of (possible) critique. My study not only aims to analyze the areas in which Isaac is “argumentative”, however, but also to examine how his capacity to make polemical or assertive statements was born, and in what lie its roots. Through examining the passages in which Isaac expresses a “claim to the truth”, I investigate the way in which the inner certainty of what he perceives as “truth” developed for him, a certainty that gives him the strength to argue for what he considers important. In retracing the way in which Isaac describes the birth of this internal certainty, I particularly focus on his distinctive emphasis on listening to, interpreting, and trusting personal experience; that is to say, on the need to appropriate this experience for oneself. This process also reveals the nature of the “truth” that is discovered in this way, and what Isaac means by this term.
Isaac the Syrian in the late 600s wrote extensively on ascetic practice, frequently using a cluster of related terms derived from the Greek concept of the hero's struggle. He sees the Christian ascetic practice as a struggle, fight, combat, and warfare, and as using a sword in the arena and stadium of life to defeat the adversary and attacker. These terms evoke a rich metaphorical world which has not been analysed, yet which conveys the pinnacle of Syrian asceticism. Isaac's writings have been researched for his understanding of love, prayer, grace etc, but not for what he writes about spiritual growth as an internal battle. His Ascetic Discourses reveal a thought-world that very much continues the earlier Greek tradition and is thus an important aspect of Late Antiquity. Isaac's writing is also important because he writes in the context of early Islam where Sufi Muslims wrote of a similar internal struggle. Isaac uses the Syriac term agona, the cognate of the Greek agōn, a central concept in Greek ascetic thinking. This term is in turn translated into Arabic as jihad both in the Arabic Bible and in translated Syrian ascetic writings. Thus Isaac's metaphorical language can be compared to that of early Sufis and reveals a surprising level of connection between the two religions. This paper analyses Isaac's struggle metaphors at length and briefly notes connections to early Sufi Muslim writings.