Simple and Bold: Ephrem’s Art of Symbolic ThoughtGorgias Dissertations 26, Early Christian Studies 6Syriaca.org: The Syriac Reference PortalThe National Endowment for the HumanitiesThe International Balzan Prize FoundationDavid A. Michelsoncbsc_adminRecord added to Zotero bycbsc_adminSyriaca.org: The Syriac Reference Portalhttp://syriaca.org/cbss/SR9CC2Z7/tei
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CREATED: This bibl record was autogenerated from a Zotero record.Keesden BiesenSimple and Bold: Ephrem’s Art of Symbolic Thoughthttp://syriaca.org/cbss/SR9CC2Z7https://www.zotero.org/groups/a_comprehensive_bibliography_on_syriac_studies/items/SR9CC2Z7https://www.zotero.org/groups/4861694/items/SR9CC2Z7Piscataway, New JerseyGorgias Press2006Gorgias Dissertations 26, Early Christian Studies 6Ephrem the Syrian is known as one of the greatest Christian poets and as a unique author whose mode of thought is usually described as “symbolic.” In this work, Kees den Biesen explores the literary, intellectual, and theological mechanisms at work in Ephrem’s writings with the specific aim of identifying the exact nature of his “symbolic thought” and evaluating its contemporary relevance.
Critically reviewing modern research into Ephrem, den Biesen develops the avenues opened up by scholars such as Robert Murray, Sebastian Brock, Tanios Bou Mansour and Phil Botha, and elaborates a comprehensive approach that integrates a variety of methods into a genuinely theological methodology. He exemplifies and fine-tunes this methodology through an analysis of the polarity “word vs. silence” in Ephrem’s madraše and of the way Ephrem constructs his thought in the epistemological treatise comprised in the First Discourse for Hypatius.
On the basis of these innovative explorations, den Biesen examines the most important scholarly interpretations of Ephrem’s theology. With great vision, den Biesen then proposes his own comprehensive understanding of the nature and merits of Ephrem’s symbolic thought. Thanks to his mastery of the art of the word and his familiarity with the world of sacred ritual, Ephrem develops open symbols and concepts into a carefully articulated system whose intelligence far surpasses the cleverness of analytic and logic thought. Ephrem’s symbolism constitutes a linguistic, artistic and intellectual model for a Christian theology that wishes to overcome today’s rationalism and fundamentalism and wisely express and celebrate the mystery of God and life.
Biesen, Kees den. Simple and Bold: Ephrem’s Art of Symbolic Thought. Gorgias Dissertations 26, Early Christian Studies 6. Piscataway, New Jersey: Gorgias Press, 2006.
Kees den Biesen, Simple and Bold: Ephrem’s Art of Symbolic Thought, Gorgias Dissertations 26, Early Christian Studies 6 (Piscataway, New Jersey: Gorgias Press, 2006).EphremIV CEIV-VII CEknowledgepoeticsprimary sources [Syriac] - English translationsilencesymbols