Fire from Heaven by Sebastian Brock

Fire from Heaven by Sebastian Brock

This fourth collection by Sebastian Brock focuses on three areas: the christology of the Church of the East, the distinctive phraseology of the invocations to the Holy Spirit in the Syriac liturgical tradition, and two important early Commentaries on the Liturgy. The inclusion of the Church of the East into ecumenical dialogue in recent years has stimulated a renewed study of its christology, which has often been badly misunderstood. A close study of the formative texts of the fifth to seventh centuries indicates that the traditional characterisation of this Church as 'Nestorian' is not only unsatisfactory, but also thoroughly misleading. There follows a series of studies of the wording of the many invocations to the Holy Spirit to be found in Syriac liturgical texts. These bring to light a number of intriguing features, some of which can be traced back to the Jewish roots of one strand of early Syriac Christianity. Syriac also preserves one of the earliest Commentaries on the Liturgy; dating from the fifth century, it proved influential in all three Syriac liturgical traditions, and was even translated into Sogdian. This short text, and another longer work by Gabriel of Qatar (fl. c. 600), are introduced and translated in full.

'Besides the obvious usefulness for Syriac scholars to have articles which were previously published in different editions and periodicals how in one work, for a more general audience of scholars in Patristic and Byzantine Studies and in Church History, the entire collection serves as a perfect introduction to the ecclesiastically divided Syriac spiritual tradition that developed a distinctive outlook in its early stages independently from Greek-speaking Christianity' Scrinium 'Sebastian Brock's scholarship is, as always, ground-breaking and of outstanding quality, and given that his work is frequently published in a diverse range of journals and Festschriften, some more easily found in libraries than others, the convenience of having these articles collected together in a single volume will clearly recommend it to Syriac scholars and to libraries with an interest in Syriac Christianity, Patristic theology, or liturgical studies.' Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies

Sebastian Brock was Reader in Syriac Studies at the Oriental Institute, and is Professorial Fellow of Wolfson College, University of Oxford, UK.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780754659082
ISBN 10	0754659089
Title	Fire from Heaven
Author	Sebastian Brock
Series	Variorum Collected Studies
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Hardback
Publisher	Routledge
Year published	2006-05-28
Number of pages	368
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.