The Body and Its Senses in Ephrem’s Madrashe contra haereses and Madrashe de fide: Polemics and Epistemology

The Body and Its Senses in Ephrem’s Madrashe contra haereses and Madrashe de fide: Polemics and EpistemologyHugoye: Journal of Syriac StudiesSyriaca.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/YLYMIBQS/tei

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2024-08-15-04:00

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CREATED: This bibl record was autogenerated from a Zotero record.MichelleFreemanThe Body and Its Senses in Ephrem’s Madrashe contra haereses and Madrashe de fide: Polemics and Epistemologyhttp://syriaca.org/cbss/YLYMIBQShttps://www.zotero.org/groups/a_comprehensive_bibliography_on_syriac_studies/items/YLYMIBQShttps://www.zotero.org/groups/4861694/items/YLYMIBQSHugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies25:22022417-453In his vast corpus of madrashe, Ephrem sometimes makes seemingly inconsistent valuations of the body and its senses, praising them as vehicles for experiencing God on the one hand and degrading them as foul, lowly, and incapable of understanding God on the other. This article compares Ephrem’s different assessments of the body and senses in his Madrashe contra haereses 42-44 and Madrashe de fide 27, 41, 70, and 75. It will offer a twofold solution to understanding their conflicting views of human corporeality by attending to Ephrem’s polemical rhetoric and epistemological underpinnings. I argue that, while Ephrem shifts his valuation of the body and its senses in accordance with his polemical agenda, his recognition of the body’s centrality in acquiring knowledge remains consistent. This argument advances our understanding of the perception-centered epistemologies of many late ancient Christians, who drew from broader Greek and Syrian philosophical contexts. Freeman, Michelle. “The Body and Its Senses in Ephrem’s Madrashe Contra Haereses and Madrashe de Fide: Polemics and Epistemology.” Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies 25:2 (2022): 417–53. Michelle Freeman, The Body and Its Senses in Ephrem’s Madrashe Contra Haereses and Madrashe de Fide: Polemics and Epistemology,” Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies 25:2 (2022): 417–53.EphremHymns against HeresiesHymns on FaithIV CEIV-VII CEanthropologybodyhymnographyknowledgepoetrypolemicsenses