Valentin Cosmin Vesa: World and Body in the Writings of Isaac of Nineveh. Asceticism and communication

Isaac of Nineveh, one of the most important Syriac authors, develops in his discourses a kind of „guide” of ascetical-mystical life that brings together the two essential anthropological themes – body and world. During time, these two concepts underwent through difficult relations, from a gnostic extreme to an anthropocentric perspective. Nowadays this relation gets a plus of interest in the context of practice, adding also a religious connotation. In this frame, asceticism created a specific perspective during time of this relation, and nowadays may also bring a specific attitude towards life, in general, a specific response to social, political and physical problems. Isaac of Nineveh is an „expert” on ascetical life, with its both connotations – negative (as self-denial and renunciation), considered as formative, and positive, in terms of freedom, beauty and joy, described as functional, as attaining a spiritual higher state. The first part of this paper will focus on the definition of asceticism, and the most important technical terms colligated to it, as Isaac refers to, and the second section will be dedicated to the ascetic forms and technics, as a possible response to the social and existential problems – the functionality and the scope of ascetical life in the process of transforming the world. This will enable us to get a world view, a personal way to interpret the world, the life, the other and the self. This last goal reveals the possible role of asceticism in the nowadays society, having as source Isaac’s discourses.