460 Scrinium IV (2008). Patrologia Pacię ca
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Sebastan Bџќѐk, Fire from Heaven: Studies in Syriac Theo logy and Liturgy (London: Varorm Reprnts, 2006) (Varorm Col lected Stdes Seres, 863) XIV + 352 pp. ISBN-10: 0-7546-5908-9. The readers of Scrinium will need no introduction to Sebastian Bџќѐј whose studies make a major contribution to various aspects of Syriac scholarship, ranging from the language and history of the Syriac-speaking world to the history, theology and ritual of the Syr- ian Churches. The Fire from Heaven represents the fourth volume of reprinted articles by Sebastian Brock from the famous Collected Stud- ies Series. Besides the obvious usefulness for Syriac scholars to have articles which were previously published in diě erent editions and pe- riodicals now in one work, for a more general audience of scholars in Patristic and Byzantine Studies and in Church History, the entire collection serves as a perfect introduction to the ecclesiastically di- vided Syriac spiritual tradition that developed a distinctive outlook in its early stages independently from Greek-speaking Christianity. The appearance of this volume is even more timely since the present schol- arly paradigm more and more oĞ en requires viewing the Mediterra- nean and Middle Eastern worlds of late Antiquity with their ethnic and doctrinal variety not as a set of separate entities that need to be studied one-by-one but as one Christian civilization developing in an active and complex interaction across languages, cultures, theological and geographical divisions. The collection consists of three major sections: a theological part on the Christology and theological terminology employed in the Church of the East, the specię c terminology of the invocations to the Holy Spirit in the Syriac liturgical tradition and its underlying doctrines, and three publications of Syriac sources containing brief exegetical pieces of liturgical rites. Although the articles were published on dif- ferent dates and in diě erent places, they are assembled in a perfect logical order constituting a continuous narrative in the course of the Sebastian Brock 461 volume with each subsequent one developing the theme of the previ- ous one. Each article of the leading scholar in Syriac Studies contains not only a pertinent historical overview of materials presented serving as a good reference tool, but in addition contains apt methodological considerations that may enrich a scholar from ę elds other than Syriac Studies. Part 1. The Christology of the Church of the East The ‘Nestoran’ Chrch: a Lamentable Msnomer. The ę rst article serves as an introduction to the whole section on Christology. It is argued that the name “Nestorian Church” sometimes applied to the Church of the East is thoroughly misleading. The au- thor investigates the reason for the sobriquet, aptly pointing that the “Ecumenical Councils” being summoned by the Byzantine Emperors for seĴ ling ecclesiastical controversies within the Byzantine Empire, were of no direct concern for the Church of the East located within another, Persian Empire unless the Church of the East subsequently decided to recognize their decisions as it happened with the creed and canons of the First Council of Nicaea eighty ę ve years aĞ er the Coun- cil was held. Consequently, the rejection of the Council of Ephesus by the Church of the East happened in fact not due to a doctrinal deci- sion (since no deę nition of faith was issued by the Council) but due to its irregular procedure, and the Council of Chalcedon was viewed by the Church of the East only as an unsatisfactory compromise. Indeed, Nestorius was respected by the Church of the East as “a martyr for the Antiochene Christological cause” and an anaphora aĴ ributed to Nestorius exists in the Church of the East yet none of his works except the apologetic Bazaar of Heraclides was translated into Syriac and no traces of Nestorius’ doctrinal inĚ uence can be traced in the formation of the Christological tradition of the Church of the East. Instead, in the ę Ğ h century the School of Edessa that aĴ racted many students from the Persian Empire enhanced the interaction between Christians on both sides of the Byzantine-Persian border. Within the milieu of the School with its strict Antiochene Christology many works of Theodore of Mopsuestian in the 420s were translated into Syriac, and aĞ er the closing of the School by Emperor Zeno in 489 many teachers moved across the border to Nisibis, whose School became a channel for dis- seminating the theological inĚ uence of Theodore of Mopsuestia in the East making his theology a norm of orthodoxy much the same way as Cyril of Alexandria served as the norm of orthodoxy in West Syria for Severus of Antioch.