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Oxford Theology and Religion Monographs: "Working the Earth of the Heart" : The Messalian Controversy in History, Texts, and Language to A. D. 431 by Columba Stewart (1991, Hardcover)

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About this product

Product Identifiers

PublisherOxford University Press, Incorporated

ISBN-100198267363

ISBN-139780198267362

eBay Product ID (ePID)1390504

Product Key Features

Number of Pages352 Pages

Publication Name"Working the Earth of the Heart" : The Messalian Controversy in History, Texts, and Language to A. D. 431

LanguageEnglish

Publication Year1991

SubjectChristian Church / History, Blasphemy, Heresy & Apostasy, Religious, Christianity / Literature & the Arts

TypeTextbook

AuthorColumba Stewart

Subject AreaReligion, Philosophy

SeriesOxford Theology and Religion Monographs

FormatHardcover

Dimensions

Item Height1 in

Item Weight19.7 Oz

Item Length8.7 in

Item Width5.7 in

Additional Product Features

Intended AudienceScholarly & Professional

LCCN91-009974

Reviews'This is an important book for the history of the Messalian controversy and even more so for the history of Christian spirituality by the light its main chapters throw on the specialized terminology and imagery of Syrian spirituality.'ADRIS Newsletter, 1991-1992, 'This is an important book for the history of the Messalian controversy and even more so for the history of Christian spirituality by the light its main chapters throw on the specialized terminology and imagery of Syrian spirituality.'ADRIS Newsletter, 1991-1992'a major step toward exposing the origins and milieu of Messalianism in syrian christian culture'Cistercian Studies Quarterly, Vol. 28, 1993, No. 1'In this new and brilliant study, Fr Columba Stewart attempts to get behind the stereotypes that have haunted discussion of the Macarian Homilies and make a fresh start. As befits such an important work of scholarship, the text is very nearly immaculate, with no mistakes at all that I could detect in the Greek.'Andrew Louth, Journal of Theological Studies, Vol. 44, No. 1, April 1993'The author draws succinct conclusions that are by no means overstated. What we see with clearer traits thanks to the author's meticulous exposition is an imperial Church still in the process of endowing itself with structures, liturgical and spiritual norms, doctrinal definitions and a clear and stately role in the world ... This is an impressive work with far reaching implications which ... open up vistas for a genuine and profound ecumenism ... thepublication does honour to Oxford University and its press.'Anthony Ward, S.M., Ephemerides Liturgicae 108 (1994)

SynopsisThis study provides a complete reassessment of the Messalian controversy of the fourth and fifth centuries. The Messalians were a ascetic group whose extraordinary claims and graphic spiritual vocabulary were considered heretical by the early Christian church and the group was condemned at the Council of Ephesus in 431. Stewart reconstructs the history of the controversy from its beginnings and shows for the first time that the pseudo-Macarian vocabulary can be traced to a Syriac milieu, thus demonstrating that the controversy was not a question of heresy, but simply a misperceived cultural difference., A complete reassessment of the Messalian controversy of the 4th and 5th centuries AD, showing that it was not a question of heresy, but rather of misperceived differences of culture and spiritualism. Stewart reconstructs the history of the controversy from its beginnings, and considers in depth the spiritual vocabulary which lies at the root of it., This study provides a complete reassessment of the Messalian controversy of the fourth and fifth centuries AD. The Messalians were an ascetic group, their name (of Syriac derivation) meaning 'praying people'. Their extraordinary claims and graphic spiritual vocabulary were considered heretical by the early Christian Church and were condemned at the Council of Ephesus in 431.Dr Stewart reconstructs the history of the controversy from its beginnings, carefully avoiding all previous suppositions and flawed methodologies. He considers in depth the spiritual vocabulary which lies at the root of the controversy and which can also be found in the Greek pseudo-Macarian writings. He proves that the pseudo-Macarian vocabulary can be traced to a Syriac milieu and demonstrates this by comparisons with such early Syriac texts as the writings of Ephrem, Aphrahat, and especially the anonymous Liber graduum. In this light, the claims of the Messalians are shown to result from the influence upon Greek Christian culture of an equally orthodox tradition, the Semitic Syriac culture of the Christian East. Christian writers of both cultures were determined to show others a way to 'work the earth of the heart', an image favoured by pseudo-Macarius for its evocation of the patient labour of asceticism. The controversy was thus not indeed a question of heresy, but of misperceived differences of culture and of spiritual idiom.

LC Classification NumberBT1417.S74 1991