A crucial tool for mapping 'the inner': interpreting Paul's theology in 7-8th century East-Syriac ascetic-mystical literature.

Paul of Tarsus is a key figure in Christian culture, but his place in Syriac Christianity has received surprisingly little attention. This project will produce the first full analysis of an issue that so far has been only marginally touched upon by scholars: the reception of Paul’s theology in Isaac of Nineveh (7th c.) and John of Dalyatha and Joseph Ḥazzaya (both 8th c.), the main exponents of 7-8th century East-Syriac ascetic-mystical thought. These authors’ most central reflections are built firmly on crucial aspects of Pauline theology, that they reworked in light of their focus on interiority and on the mind’s transformation in askesis, considering Paul’s thought as an essential tool for interpreting inner experience. The project will examine these authors’ edited and unedited works in Syriac, identifying and analyzing the main clusters of ideas that demonstrate Pauline influence and the similarities, differences and links between their approaches. Their distinctive hermeneutical method and the kind of normativity they attributed to Paul will also be examined. This will make it possible to reconstruct the original ‘map’ of ‘the inner’ these writers outlined, shedding light on a literature that is still partially unknown, but that is crucial to our understanding of Syriac mystical theology. The project will thus offer a contribution to the field of Eastern Christian Studies, but also to that of Bible reception and of the history and phenomenology of religious experience

Keywords:East-Syriac ascetic-mystical literature, Pauline theology, Biblical reception history

Disciplines:Other Middle Eastern literatures, History of religions, churches and theology, Biblical studies