The Syriac Sources for Isaac of Nineveh’s Development of Wonder and Astonishment
The Syriac Sources for Isaac of Nineveh’s Development of Wonder and Astonishment
This chapter shows that Isaac derives his conceptual framework for the concept of ecstasy, along with the technical terms wonder and astonishment, from sources that were originally written in Syriac. In particular, both Ephrem and John the Solitary situate wonder and astonishment within the framework of the future world, which means that Isaac’s desire to frame wonder and astonishment in terms of the mind’s ability to wander into heaven and acquire knowledge of the future world demonstrates his dependence on a trajectory of thought that arises from these two authors. Isaac, however, offers the distinct contribution of describing this connection between wonder and knowledge of the future world with the language of itinerancy. According to Isaac, perfect Christians obtain heavenly knowledge during the moment of prayer, when their minds become itinerant and wander into heaven in order to receive a pledge of the heavenly mysteries from the Holy Spirit.
Keywords: Isaac of Nineveh, John the Solitary, Ephrem, wonder, astonishment, ecstasy, itinerancy, pledge, Holy Spirit
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