A Syrian-Christian Perspective on the Supernatural / Silke Trzcionka
Whenever anyone looks with envy upon beautiful objects, the ambient air becomes charged with a malignant quality, and that person’s breath, laden with bitterness, blows hard upon the person near him. This breath, made up of the finest particles, penetrates to the very bones and marrow, and engenders in many cases the disease of envy, which has received the appropriate name of the influence of the evil eye.1 And so Heliodorus, in his novel Aethiopica, presents a perspective on the topic that will form the supernatural focus of this presentation − the evil eye. Providing a context...
Read MoreLady Wisdom as the Created Co-Creator in Syriac Proverbs/ Alan Moss
Abstract The characteristics of Wisdom in the Syriac translation of the Bible may be explored by comparing the Syriac text with the two recognised sources, Hebrew and Greek. In the main, Syriac Wisdom is very similar to Hebrew Wisdom and many of the Greek innovations are not employed. She was made before the universe to work with God and to be close to humans. In Syriac her role in creation is more evidently in parallel God’s own constructive activity. Canonical Wisdom in Syriac may be understood as a distinct biblical portrait, not as a collage of sources. The poem where...
Read MoreIs the Deification of Man an Unchristian, Unbiblical Doctrine? Kerry A. Shirts
This paper will explore the idea using Biblical and extra-biblical materials showing how new research from the Dead Sea Scrolls as well as from the Syriac Christian perspective has opened the field into interesting possibilities not thought feasible by many in Western Christianity until now. Crispin H.T. Fletcher-Louis has noted that the Qumran writings held a belief in an angelmorphic or divine humanity, which is rooted “in the prelapsarian identity of Adam, which is then recovered by Israel, her patriarchal heroes, her lawgiver, mediatorial figures such as the priest, king and...
Read MoreSimon of Taiboutheh Posted by Macrina
This is my report of the second conference from the colloquium on the Syrian Fathers in Ghent last weekend. Please see my earlier disclaimer regarding the accuracy of my reporting and translations! Dom André Louf, ocso is abbot emeritus of the abbey of Mont des Cats in France and author of several books, including Teach us to Pray, The Cistercian Way and Grace can do more. He is now a hermit and translates Syrian texts. He was responsible for the French translation of the second series of St Isaac’s homilies. Our information concerning the life of Simeon comes from two Syrian chroniclers...
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