Bar Dayṣān and Mani in Ephraem the Syrian’s HeresiographySyriaca.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/Z7IARMBC/tei
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CREATED: This bibl record was autogenerated from a Zotero record.Robert JosephMorehouseBar Dayṣān and Mani in Ephraem the Syrian’s Heresiographyhttp://syriaca.org/cbss/Z7IARMBChttps://www.zotero.org/groups/a_comprehensive_bibliography_on_syriac_studies/items/Z7IARMBChttps://www.zotero.org/groups/4861694/items/Z7IARMBC2013This project addresses Ephraem's approach to Bar Daysan and Mani in his heresiology. The primary aim is to reveal Ephraem's conception of the threat that Bar Daysanism and Manichaeism posed to Ephraem's own community and to analyze Ephraem's response to that threat by expounding on key texts in Ephraem's polemical writings, the collections of his Prose Refutations and Hymns against Heresies. The focus is on three particular ways by which Ephraem casts his opponents as heretics. First, it addresses his attacks on the credibility of his opponents as teachers. Second, it deals with Ephraem's assertion that the apparently pious actions of his opponents are deceptive. Third, it considers how Ephraem is working to create a certain image of these opponents as heretics in the minds of his community.
With these characteristics of Ephraem's heresiology in mind, the first chapter of this dissertation will provide a historical backdrop of the setting of fourth century northern Mesopotamia, focusing on the socio-religious settings of Nisibis and Edessa, Ephraem's primary residences. The second chapter will discuss the connection between Ephraem's conception of the correct approach to theology and his approach to doing heresiology. The third chapter will focus on Ephraem's claim against the authority of these teachers and their followers to teach, to interpret scriptures, and to perform sacraments. The fourth chapter will look at Ephraem's depiction of these heretics' apparent virtue as malicious vice and their rites as fruitless chores. The fifth chapter will offer an exposition of the characterization of these heretics that Ephraem is aiming to form in the minds of his audience through an evaluation of the imagery he uses throughout his prose and metrical refutations.
Morehouse, Robert Joseph. “Bar Dayṣān and Mani in Ephraem the Syrian’s Heresiography.” Ph.D. dissertation, The Catholic University of America, 2013.
Robert Joseph Morehouse, Bar Dayṣān and Mani in Ephraem the Syrian’s Heresiography (Ph.D. dissertation, The Catholic University of America, 2013).BardesanEphremIV CEIV-VII CEManiManichaeismheresiographyheterodoxypolemic