The Syriac fathers on prayer and the spiritual life / introduced and translated by Sebastian Brock.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Brock, Sebastian P.

Series:

Cistercian studies series ; no. 101.

Cistercian studies series

Language:

English

Syriac, Modern

Subjects (All):

Prayer.

Spiritual life.

Fathers of the church, Syriac.

Physical Description:

xliii, 381 pages, : illustrations ; 23 cm.

Place of Publication:

Kalamazoo, Mich. : Cistercian Publications, 1987.

Summary:

The textbook and pulpit notion that all Christendom is divided between Greek East and Latin West overlooks an ancient and still continuing third stream of tradition: Syriac Christianity.

Cut off from the rest of the Christian world by theological controversy in the fifth century, Arab conquest in the seventh, and Mongul invasions in the thirteenth, Syrian Christians continued to celebrate the christian mysteries, to meditate on Scripture, and to apply its teachings to their lives.

Some of them, attempting to realize here on earth their baptismal potential to re-enter paradise, chose a life of asceticism and single-minded devotion to Christ. Their reflections created across the centuries a rich literature. Some passed into the byzantine tradition; some remained unknown to other Christians and have never until now been translated into a modern language.

These Syriac fathers offer the modern heirs of both latin and greek Christendom new, yet ancient and enduring, insights on prayer and the spiritual life.

Contents:

I Aphrahat (mid fourth century) 1

Demonstration IV, On Prayer

II Ephrem (d. 373) 29

Translations

(1) Hymns on Faith, no XX

(2) Armenian Hymns, no I

III Book of Steps (late fourth century) 41

(1) Discourse XII, On the ministry of the hidden and the manifest church

(2) Discourse XVIII, On the prayer of tears

IV Evagrius (d. 399) 63

Admonition on prayer

V John of Apamea (first half of fifth century) 77

Letter to Hesychius

VI Philoxenus of Mabbug (d. 523) 101

(1) On the indwelling of the Holy Spirit

(2)-(4) Excerpts on prayer

VII Babai (early sixth century?) 135

Letter to Cyriacus

VIII Anonymous I (sixth century?) 167

On prayer

IX Anonymous II (sixth/seventh century?) 179

X Abraham of Nathpar (fl. c. 600) 187

XI Martyrius (Sahdona) (first half of seventh century) 197

On the Office, on prayer, vigils and reading the Bible

XII Isaac of Nineveh (second half of seventh century) 241

(1) Excerpts from 'Part I'

(2) Discourse XXII, from 'Part I'

(3) Chapters on prayer, from 'Part II'

(4)-(5) Discourses, from 'Part II'

XIII Dadisho (second half of seventh century) 303

On pure prayer

XIV Joseph the Visionary (Abdisho) (eighth century) 313

(1) On spiritual prayer

(2) On the stirrings of the mind during prayer

XV John the Elder (John of Dalyatha) (eighth century) 327

(1) Letter 5

(2) Letter 12

Appendix Prayers of the Mystics 339

(1) John of Apamea

(2) Isaac of Nineveh

(3) Joseph the Visionary

(4) John the Elder.

Notes:

"Selection of excerpts translated from Syriac writers"--Pref.

Includes index.

Bibliography: page xlii-xliii.

ISBN:

0879076011

0879079010

OCLC:

15318114