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The Library of Paradise: A History of Contemplative Reading in the Monasteries of the Church of the East

Online ISBN:
9780191873522
Print ISBN:
9780198836247
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
Book

The Library of Paradise: A History of Contemplative Reading in the Monasteries of the Church of the East

David A. Michelson
David A. Michelson
Associate Professor of the History of Christianity, Vanderbilt University
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Published online:
20 October 2022
Published in print:
13 October 2022
Online ISBN:
9780191873522
Print ISBN:
9780198836247
Publisher:
Oxford University Press

Abstract

This book tells the story of contemplative reading, a spiritual discipline practiced in the Syriac Christian monasteries of the Church of the East in sixth- and seventh-century Mesopotamia. These ascetics practiced a form of contemplation which moved from reading, to meditation, to prayer, to the ecstasy of divine vision. The book proceeds in two parts. The first part crafts a methodology. The second, longer part is an historical narrative of the development, definition, and diffusion of contemplative reading. The book adapts methodological insights from prior scholarship on the history of reading, including studies on early medieval lectio divina. Another methodological chapter undertakes a cautionary case study of the British Library manuscript collection and identifies how future scholarship can overcome cultural and racial prejudices which have sometimes obscured the history of Syriac monastic readers from view. The second half of the book employs this methodology to narrate the evolution of East Syrian contemplative reading over three historical phases: the establishment of the practice, the articulation of its theology, and the maturation and spread of the tradition. Individual chapters focus on the role of ascetic reading in the monastic reform of Abraham of Kashkar, the commentaries on Evagrius of Pontus written by Babai the Great, and the monastic handbooks of ʿEnanishoʿ of Adiabene and Dadishoʿ of Qatar. A concluding chapter points the way forward for further scholarship by noting the long legacy of East Syrian contemplative reading through its reception into Sogdian, Arabic, and Ethiopic monastic libraries.

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