Isaac the Syrian, who is also known as Isaac of Niniveh, belongs to the late seventh century, and was thus roughly a contemporary of St Mildred and the Venerable Bede. He originated from the region of Qatar, on the west side of the Gulf, which at that time was an important intellectual centre for the Church of the East. For a brief period he was bishop of Niniveh (modern Mosul, in north Iraq), but retired to live as a hermit in the mountains of western Iran, where he was connected with the monastery of Rabban Shabur, famous at that time. His extensive writings belong to the end of his life and come down to us in three ‘Parts’, the first of which was translated into Greek at the Greek Orthodox Monastery of St Sabbas, south of Jerusalem, in about AD 800; from Greek his monastic discourses reached Latin and Slavonic (where, in later Russian translations, they have proved very influential). The Second and Third Parts have only recently come to light, and are available in French translations by the late Fr. André Louf in the series Spiritualité orientale. At present only about half of the Second Part is available in English.
Isaac’s teaching lays great emphasis on the love of God, and of the need for human response to this, by way of reflecting this divine love. For Isaac, the whole aim of the Incarnation is to disclose the extent of God’s love:
The entire purpose of our Lord’s death was not to redeem us from sins, or for any other reason, but solely in order that the world might become aware of the love which God has for creation. Had all this astounding affair taken place solely for the purpose of the forgiveness of sin, it would have been sufficient to redeem us by some other means. (Chapters on Knowledge IV.28 = excerpt no. 120 in The Wisdom of St Isaac [Fairacres Publications, 1997]).
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Posted by: patrick | June 30, 2017 at 04:07 AM