Jewish Influences on the "Heliand" Gilles Quispel
JEWISH INFLUENCES ON THE "HELIAND" BY GILLES QUISPEL Utrecht University When I last saw my good friend Erwin Goodenough, some weeks before his death, he told me with impressive courage about the nature of his illness and mentioned his intention to write now the book about St. Paul, which he ever had in mind when he was working at the Jewish Symbols. Few of us do not have such a last perspective for their work, a last and decisive word that is never spoken and inspires us during our whole life. So the present writer would like to write, but probably never will do so, a "History of the Churches". Not of the Church, but of the Latin, Greek and Syrian Churches. In such a book conventional labels would be avoided. Calvin would be just an extreme representative of African, Augustinian theology, Nestorianism nothing more than a reform, due to Barsauma, of the indigenous Syro-Palestinian Semitic type of Christianity, Messalianism nothing but an interesting and perfectly legitimate revival of a very old and very Syrian spirituality. Then a phenomenological description of these three varieties of re ligious experience would be possible. Latin Christianity was so practical and unspeculative as the Romans always were, only interested in the great realities of existence, guilt and grace, sober and efficient in its cult as the Old-Roman pagan Prayerbooks once were, stressing order, obedience, stability, all good, old, conservative Roman virtues, aiming at a theocratic order of society, the rule of God's commandment over the whole world. Tu regere imperio populos, Romane, memento.
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