“The Origins of Syriac Christianity”: First Symposium of the Canadian Society for Syriac Studies
Debra
Foran
Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations
Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute
George A. Kiraz
James E. Walters
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Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute
2002
Vol. 5, No. 1
For this publication, a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
license has been granted by the author(s), who retain full
copyright.
https://hugoye.bethmardutho.org/article/hv5n1crforan
Debra FORAN
“The Origins of Syriac Christianity”: First Symposium of the Canadian Society for Syriac Studies
https://hugoye.bethmardutho.org/pdf/vol5/HV5N1CRForan.pdf
Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies
Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute, 2002
vol 5
issue 1
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 Christianity
Origins
Canadian Society
Symposium
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[1] On
November 24, 2001, the Canadian Society for Syriac Studies held
its first symposium. The conference was organized by the
president of the Society, Dr. Amir Harrak, professor of Aramaic
and Syriac at the University of Toronto, and partially financed
by a grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research
Council of Canada. The symposium was chaired by Dr. Grant
Frame, Associate Professor of Akkadian Language at the
University of Toronto and Assistant Director/Editor of the
Royal Inscriptions of Mesopotamia project. The program of
the day-long conference ranged from an examination of the
spread of Christianity in Syria and Mesopotamia to a review of
modern scholarship on the subject of Syriac Christianity,
demonstrating the scope of scholarship in this field.
[2] After a
word of greeting from the Chair of the Department of Near and
Middle Eastern Civilizations at the University of Toronto,
Professor James Reilly, the symposium began with a paper by the
host, Professor Amir Harrak. His lecture, entitled
“Trade Routes and the Christianization of the Near
East” began with two of the most important Syriac
sources, the Teaching of Addai and the Acts of
Mari. These two documents suggest that the spread of
Christianity in the Near East was due primarily to a programmed
apostolic mission. Prof. Harrak presented an alternative
analysis of these texts, proposing that Christianity was
transmitted throughout Syria and Mesopotamia along trade routes
and with the help of merchants. Other religions and
sects, including Judaism, Manichaeism, Buddhism, and Islam,
spread in this same manner, thus it is not difficult to imagine
Syriac Christianity following the same pattern.
[3] The
second paper of the day, presented by Professor Paul-Hubert
Poirier of the Université de Laval, was entitled
“Faith and Persuasion: On Bardaisan of Edessa’s
Epistemology.” Prof. Poirier presented the Syriac
Book of the Laws of Countries, a dialogue between
Bardaisan and Awida, and then focused his attention on the main
theme of the text, that it is impossible to arrive at a firm
conviction without faith. He reconstructed the
philosophical background of this belief, and concluded by
situating it within a broader scope, that of the Coptic Gnostic
treatise The Interpretation of Knowledge and
Augustine’s aphorism “Crede ut
intellegas.”
[4] Dr.
Robert A. Kitchen offered the third lecture of the symposium
entitled “Becoming Perfect: The Maturing of Asceticism in
the Syriac Book of Steps.” The speaker presented
the mid-fourth century document, which is a collection of
thirty discourses on the spiritual life by an anonymous author,
and then proceeded to decipher it by focusing on the variety of
literary genres employed and what function these different
forms play in the development of an ascetic community.
The Syriac Book of Steps is an exceptional work because it
provides a seemingly accurate picture of asceticism, with all
its inadequacies and accomplishments.
[5] The
fourth speaker of the day was Professor Sydney H. Griffith of
the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC. He
delivered a paper entitled “Christianity in Edessa and
the Syriac-Speaking World: A Review of Past Scholarship and a
Proposal for the Future.” Prof. Griffith presented
an overview of the scholarship surrounding the question of the
beginning of Christianity in the Syriac-speaking world, on the
frontier of the Roman and Persian Empires in Late
Antiquity. A new paradigm for the assessment of the role
of the various sects in the Syriac Christian communities was
proposed, with a particular focus on the works of Ephrem the
Syrian. He then used this paradigm to help interpret
early Christian history in the Syriac-speaking world.
[6] After
this fourth scholarly lecture, the audience was treated to a
performance by the Choir of the Assyrian Church of the East,
Toronto Parish. The choir sang a Syriac poem by Saint
Ephrem the Syrian entitled In Praise of Learning.
This recital provided the spectators with a tangible portrayal
of the Syriac Church and its rituals.
[7] The
fifth paper of the symposium was presented by Ms. Marica
Cassis, a graduate student in the Department of Near and Middle
Eastern Civilizations at the University of Toronto. Her
paper, entitled “The Archaeology of Christian Kokhe: A
Comparative Study,” examined Christian remains from this
very important site in southern Iraq. Kokhe embodies the
permanent presence of the early Christian church in the
Sassanian world. The speaker surveyed the archaeological
material from the nearby site of Seleucia-Ctesiphon, with a
special focus on the Christian remains, and then compared these
findings to the existing information on ancient Kokhe in order
to develop a better understanding of the Eastern Church in the
3rd century.
[8] The
symposium concluded with a presentation by Dr. George A. Kiraz
of the Syriac Computing Institute and Beth Mardutho: The Syriac
Institute. Dr. Kiraz introduced a new project that he has
been involved with, The Syriac Digital Library. This
project endeavors to make a large body of material available on
the Internet in an eLibrary. Various kinds of material
will be digitized, including Bible editions, liturgies,
grammars, dictionaries, patristic writings, journals and
magazines, historical works, and much more. Pictures and
maps will also be incorporated into the eLibrary, and a
database will be established to allow searching these
documents. The Syriac Digital Library has partnered with
Brigham Young University, Brown University, Princeton
Theological Institute, The Catholic University of America, and
several other libraries, providing access to an extraordinary
amount of material to enrich the collection.
[9] This
symposium represents the first event of this type for the
Canadian Society for Syriac Studies. It was without a
doubt a resounding success. This conference provided a
wide array of papers, covering a range of topics. One can
only hope that this was the beginning of a long tradition of
scholarly symposia for the Society.