Vth Syriac Symposium
Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute
George A. Kiraz
James E. Walters
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Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute
2007
Vol. 10, No. 2
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https://hugoye.bethmardutho.org/article/hv10n2crkitchen
Vth Syriac Symposium
https://hugoye.bethmardutho.org/pdf/vol10/HV10N2CRKitchen.pdf
Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies
Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute,
vol 10
issue 2
Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies is an electronic journal dedicated to the study
of the Syriac tradition, published semi-annually (in January and July) by Beth
Mardutho: The Syriac Institute. Published since 1998, Hugoye seeks to offer the
best scholarship available in the field of Syriac studies.
Syriac Studies
Syriac Symposium
Toronto
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University of Toronto, Ontario, June 25-27,
2007
[1] The Vth
(North American) Syriac Symposium was held at the University of
Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, June 25-27, 2007, for the
first time outside the United States, adopting the theme of
“Syriac as a Bridge Culture.” Previous
Symposiums were conducted at Brown University (1991), Catholic
University of America (1995), University of Notre Dame (1999),
and Princeton University (2003). Professor Amir Harrak
headed the organizing committee to provide an excellent
conference in terms of the range and quality of papers
presented, the convenience of living and conference quarters at
New College, University of Toronto, as well as a range of
extra-curricular activities.
[2] The
Symposium keeps expanding with over 80 participants from at
least 10 countries who listened to 55 papers and presentations,
and generally spent most of their days conversing on matters
Syriac during meals, coffee breaks and special events.
[3] Sidney
H. Griffith of Catholic University of America gave the opening
lecture, “Syrian Christian Intellectuals in the World of
Islam: Faith, the Philosophical Life, and the Quest for
Interreligious Convivencia in Abbasid
Times.” Other plenary speakers were: Elisabetta
Valgiusti of the Association ‘Salva i Monasteri’,
Rome, who presented a lecture and film produced by her,
“Syriac Christianity in the Iraqi Exodus: A People of
Prophets Between Hope and Hopelessness”; John H. Corbett
of University of Toronto-Scarborough, presented the first of a
series of papers on the Book of Steps, “The
Ascetic Life as Holy War: The Biblical Basis of the Book of
Steps”; Lucas Van Rompay of Duke University,
presented a magisterial review of “Severus, Patriarch of
Antioch (512-538), in the Greek, Syriac, and Coptic
traditions”; and Craig E. Morrison of the Pontifical
Biblical Institute, Rome, addressed directly the
conference’s theme, “The Bridge from Judaism: The
Jews in Ephrem’s Commentary on the
Diatessaron.” The plenary papers will be
published in the 2007 volume of the Journal of the Canadian
Society of Syriac Studies.
[4] The
papers presented offered a striking range and diversity of
topic and theme. Sessions were held on the use of the
Bible in Syriac exegesis, focus on specific books, history of
medieval and modern Syriac churches, hagiography and
asceticism, textual studies of the Peshitta, Modern Syriac and
Neo-Aramaic, studies of the Assyrian Christians in the
20th century Near East, studies of various Syriac
liturgies, architecture and Syriac inscriptions, the
relationship between Syriac Christianity and Islam and
Judaism. The Fifth International Forum on Syriac Computing
revealed as always remarkable new developments in computer
tools, programs, and resources for the needs of Syriac
scholars.
[5]
Socially, the conferees were not neglected. Gorgias Press
and the Canadian Society for Syriac Studies co-hosted an
evening reception at the Department of Near and Middle Eastern
Studies a short walk away. At the close of the academic
portion of the Symposium, conferees were transported to the
Cathedral Church of Saint Mary for a Syriac Vespers presided by
His Grace Mar Emmanuel, Bishop of the Assyrian Church of the
East in Canada (and a new doctoral candidate at the University
of Toronto, working on Johannan bar Penkaye), followed by a
banquet in honor of the Symposium participants in the spacious
Sharrukin Hall in the church.
[6] At the
closing session, Lucas Van Rompay’s offer to host the
VIth Syriac Symposium at Duke University, Durham, North
Carolina, in 2011 was gratefully accepted. The steering
committee of the Symposium - Sidney Griffith, Susan Ashbrook
Harvey, Kathleen McVey, and George Kiraz - augmented their
numbers to include Amir Harrak, Lucas Van Rompay, and a
representative of the Dorushe Graduate Student Association.
[7] The
abstracts of the papers presented at the Vth Syriac Symposium
can be accessed here.