Isaac of Nineveh's Ascetical Eschatology by Jason Scully (Review)

Isaac of Nineveh's Ascetical Eschatology by Jason Scully (review)

Grigory Kessel

Journal of Early Christian Studies, Volume 28, Number 1, Spring 2020, pp. 151-153 (Review)

Published by Johns Hopkins University Press DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/earl.2020.0006

For additional information about this article https://muse.jhu.edu/article/750940

[ This content has been declared free to read by the pubisher during the COVID-19 pandemic. ] BOOK REVIEWS 151 scholars can make use of it as a historical source for late antique studies. The book not only appeals to specialists who appreciate Forness’s thorough research, but the author’s didactical writing style and clear structure also allow the inter- ested graduate student to profit immensely. Forness’s conclusions go beyond the immediate post-Chalcedonian context of Jacob of Serugh and he correctly claims that the “present monograph aims principally to provide a model to integrate late antique homilies into historical narratives of late antiquity” (18). Volker Menze, Central European University

Jason Scully Isaac of Nineveh’s Ascetical Eschatology Oxford Early Christian Studies Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018 Pp. 264. $93.00.

The book under review represents a considerable reworking of the author’s PhD thesis, submitted in 2013 at Marquette University under the supervision of Bishop Alexander Golitzin (the Orthodox Church in America). The study of the literary heritage of the seventh-century Syriac monastic author Isaac of Nineveh appears to have gained momentum, as witnessed by editions, translations, and studies that are published regularly. One of these has appeared in the same series as this one (Patrik Hagman, The Asceticism of Isaac of Nineveh [Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010]). J. Scully offers a fresh source-critical interpretation of the core of Isaac’s spiritual doctrine. In his view, the ascetic teaching of Isaac can be fully understood only in the context of his cosmological vision and “[t]herefore, for Isaac, the entire purpose of asceticism is the attainment of the eschatological life of the world to come even while still in this life. [. . .] Every aspect of Isaac’s thought is rooted in his eschatology” (xxiv). Thus, according to Scully, the way to comprehend Isaac’s spiritual message is through the study of his cosmological and eschatological ideas. It is this objective that the author attempts to achieve in five chapters, each centered on a particular author as Isaac’s source and inspiration. In Chapter One (1–26), we read about Isaac’s dependence on Evagrius Ponti- cus’s ascetic terminology as preserved in the Gnostic Chapters that was available to him through the earliest (probably fifth-century) translation, which unlike the later one (from the sixth century), provides the more sanitized version of the text, with distinct (and later condemned) cosmological teaching left out. Chapter Two (27–47) deals with Isaac’s dependence on Theodore of Mopsuestia in his teaching on human mortality, which lays the foundation for eschatology. Besides the authentic works of Theodore, the author also adds to his analysis the works of Narsai as a faithful follower of the Theodorean tradition. Chapter Three (48–72) explores the influence of John the Solitary on Isaac’s eschatology and in particular, his ideas about the way of life of the new world that Isaac embeds 152 JOURNAL OF EARLY CHRISTIAN STUDIES in the ascetical system. In Chapters Four (73–91) and Five (92–116) the Syriac and Greek sources are examined for such essential notions in Isaac’s doctrine as wonder and astonishment (each being assigned to a particular stage in a monk’s spiritual development). The author shows the original synthesis of ideas drawn from the works of Ephrem of Nisibis, John the Solitary, Pseudo-Dionysius, and Evagrius. Before approaching the notion of wonder as the central concept of Isaac’s teaching, Scully makes a brief excursion into Isaac’s moral psychology in Chapter Six (117–34), where he examines Isaac’s possible dependence on Pseudo- Macarius in order to explain how one can attain spiritual insights through wonder. The final chapter (135–50) brings us to the discussion of wonder, the notion that marks the entrance into the spiritual level of the ascetical life. The conclusion (151–61) not only provides a summary of the research—with due reiteration of the central significance of the notion of wonder—but also makes a case for the influence upon later Syriac authors, such as John Dalyatha and Joseph ˘Hazzaya. The foregoing analysis allows Scully to put forward a very interesting conclusion (153): [. . .] Isaac’s spiritual writing is not just pious sentimentalism, but a complex psychological evaluation of the transformation that occurs when the mind experiences God. Along with Evagrius and Augustine, Isaac provides one of the few Patristic accounts of what human beings can expect to happen in their souls and minds when they experience God in this world. This psychological evaluation of the spiritual life is one of Isaac’s greatest legacies. In other words, at the center of Isaac’s teaching stands his own spiritual experience, which he tried to express and expound using the variety of sources available to him. It is this personal experience that guided him in his choice of sources and their synthesis. This underlining of personal experience is undoubtedly a very interesting perspective on Isaac, but at the same time it remains somewhat subjective and can hardly be scrutinized and verified. Personal spiritual experience, especially in pre-modern society, is always formed and mediated by the complex system of ideas imposed by its encompassing tradition. This very mediation makes it difficult, if not impossible, to distinguish between experience per se and the tradition that is the only medium through which this experience can be reflected upon and expressed. In this respect, a further vista of research onto the world of Isaac of Nineveh might be a comprehensive comparison with contemporary East Syriac authors of the seventh and eighth centuries, all representatives of the same monastic tradition. Such a comparative study may better help to situate Isaac of Nineveh within the context of East Syriac monastic culture, and also to distinguish the originality of his teaching more clearly. Any reader of Isaac of Nineveh knows Isaac to have been familiar with many other patristic authors beyond those covered in this book. It would, therefore, be interesting to see further studies that could shed light on Isaac’s reception of Athanasius of Alexandria, Basil the Great, Mark the Monk, Abba Isaiah, and the Apophthegmata patrum. Throughout the book, the author justly emphasizes (and sometimes even overemphasizes) the fact that Isaac had access to the Greek authors in Syriac BOOK REVIEWS 153 translations. Consequently, any research on the Greek sources must be based not on the original Greek text, but rather on the Syriac versions thereof. The book is well-written and the arguments are clearly explained. The narrative is abundant in quotations from the sources (with original text provided in the footnotes), the English translation of many of which is not otherwise available. It is therefore regrettable that there is no special index of quotations that would make the book decidedly more user-friendly. A number of errors in Syriac have been missed, as well as some typographical errors in English and inaccuracies in transliteration. The presentation of the Syriac has occasionally suffered from typesetting issues that should not have been problematic for the publisher to solve. The influence exerted on Isaac of Nineveh by Greek and Syriac authors such as Evagrius, John the Solitary, Theodore of Mopsuestia, Pseudo-Macarius, and Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite has already been dealt with in the scholarship, but it is for the first time here that we have a study of Isaac’s reception of these authors and of their significance for the latter’s ascetic system. The author is to be commended for making this aspect of Isaac’s theology better studied and understood. Grigory Kessel, Austrian Academy of Sciences & University of Manchester

L. L. Welborn The Young against the Old: Generational Conflict in First Clement Lanham, MD: Lexington Books/Fortress Academic, 2018 Pp. 276. $110.00.

In this volume Welborn attempts to reconstruct the historical and ecclesiastical contexts for the writing of 1 Clement. Chapter One (“Prolegomena”) critiques previous scholarship and sets forth Welborn’s hermeneutical principles. He rejects suggestions that the author did not know the situation in Corinth, that the author misrepresented the situation, or that the letter was not written in response to a real situation. Instead, he believes the letter can and should be read in light of a particular historical circumstance. His reconstruction will seek to address “the context of the conflict, the object of strife, the motives of the rebels, and the identities of the instigators” (3–4). Failure to deal with these details has characterized previous scholarship and led to overly generalized results. In addition, he argues that the context for the letter should first be reconstructed from internal evidence, rather than from theorized models of early Christian history (e.g., debate over charismatic authority or con- troversy over the developing role of the bishop). The best theory should explain the greatest number of features of the text. Although critical of some aspects of previous scholarship, Welborn agrees that certain historical elements have been definitively established: the author’s