Valentina Duca: PAULINE ECHOES IN ISAAC OF NINEVEH (7TH CENTURY): AN INITIAL INVESTIGATION

In the 7th-8th centuries, within the East Syriac church, a remarkable flourishing of literature on the inner life occurred. Written in Syriac, an Eastern form of Aramaic, this literature developed at the time of the rise of Islam, within a form of Christianity which was regarded as heretical by the Western and Eastern Orthodox churches. All of the authors who produced this literature led a solitary life, and were all influenced by John the Solitary, a 5th century Syriac writer who was profoundly marked by the thought of Paul of Tarsus. This paper examines the role of Pauline thought in the edited and unedited corpus of Isaac of Nineveh (7th century), the best-known of these authors. Some of Isaac’s essential ideas, such as the importance of the experience of one’s ‘weakness’ (2Cor 12:1-10) in relation to the ‘Power of God’ (i.e. the Holy Spirit) and his view of the relationship between ‘the law’ (that he interprets as ascetic observances) and Grace (Romans; Galatians), are deeply reminiscent of Paul’s reflections. Also, Isaac’s understanding of faith (Romans; Galatians), kenosis (Phil 2:7), and ‘becoming crucified’ (Gal 2:20) echoes that of Paul. The paper will also attempt to examine the reasons for Isaac’s choice of Paul, showing that this is rooted in the nature of Paul’s writings, which focus on the relationship between the individual and God and demonstrate an understanding of the inner life as a transformative process that makes possible its ascetic reworking.

Valentina Duca: PRIDE IN THE THOUGHT OF ISAAC OF NINEVEH

Isaac of Nineveh, or Isaac the Syrian, a 7thcentury solitary belonging to the Church of the East, became a point of reference for the whole orthodox tradition. The central value of humility in his writings has recently been pointed out by scholars. This paper analyses Isaac’s conception of pride, the attitude opposite to humility, through a close reading of passages selected from his ‘First Part’ and from his recently rediscovered ‘Second Part’. A particular emphasis is placed on the Syriac text and on the specific vocabulary Isaac employs. The paper also aims, through an analysis of Isaac’s quotations of earlier monastic writings, to identify the background and sources of his conceptions, especially the ‘Apophthegmata Patrum’ and Palladius’ ‘Historia Lausiaca’, examined in the Syriac version of ‘Enanisho‘, a contemporary of Isaac. It will be argued that pride can be understood as a flight of the individual from negativity: looking only for spiritual fulfilment, the person forgets the necessary relationship with the painful aspects of life. This can also lead, in Isaac’s descriptions, to a loss of one’s mental stability and of the sense of reality, and can only be opposed by a positive limitation of desire which leads the person back to his real status of human creature.