Book Review: Encountering Syriac Christianity

The Syriac World: In Search of a Forgotten Christianity

Go east across the Euphrates River and journey to meet the Syriac Christians. They are still there and continue to speak, teach, and worship in both the classical and modern dialects of their own language—Syriac. When you pack your bag, don’t forget a guidebook: Françoise Briquel Chatonnet and Muriel Debié’s The Syriac World. This book touches upon nearly every aspect of the Syriac Christian tradition, bringing its people, religious legacy, language, and history to life. By attending to the Syriac heritage, you will see the Christian tradition and its Aramaic-speaking founder (Jesus) with a fresh pair of eyes. This book is beautifully illustrated with photos and maps, providing a visual journey even for armchair pilgrims.

The Syriac tradition, whose literary heritage is almost exclusively Christian, has gained more attention in the Anglophone world in the past three decades due to increased scholarly focus. Despite this growing recognition of the Syriac tradition in academic circles, a comprehensive book was missing—until now.

In the first few centuries following the death of Jesus, Christian missionaries moved east along the trade routes to Upper Mesopotamia and as far as India. Christian legend teaches that one of the 72 missionaries Jesus commissioned was Addai, who converted the city of Edessa to Christianity. The people of Edessa, modern-day Şanlıurfa (Urfa) in southeastern Turkey, spoke an Aramaic dialect known as Syriac, which became a critical cultural language of Syro-Mesopotamia. The contributions of Syriac-speaking Christians produced the third-largest Christian corpus of texts after Greek and Latin. The standard Bible for the Syriac churches, the Peshitta, is a vital attestation of its prominence, since its text of the Old Testament was translated directly from Hebrew. The enduring legacy of the Syriac-speaking Christians and their resilience in the face of historical adversities is a testament to their enduring spirit.

The Syriac World opens the Syriac tradition in an accessible way with chapters addressing the origins of the Syriac language and community, its distinctively Christian identity and literary heritage, and early legends about the beginnings of the Syriac Christian community. Although Syriac Christians never enjoyed the freedom of their own country, they have made far-reaching contributions to a wide range of fields. The crown jewel of Syriac literature is perhaps theological poetry, demonstrated most profoundly in the works of the fourth-century poet and theologian Ephrem the Syrian. Ephrem wrote hymns about the Bible and composed them for women’s choirs. His hymns illustrate how the Syrians privileged metaphors and images from the Bible and nature to speak about God and God’s interactions with humanity. However, the contributions of the Syriac Christians do not end in the fourth century.

As this book shows, the Syriac Christians studied all branches of learning and offered their study as a holy gift to God. They composed theological texts, established schools and monasteries, studied and translated the Bible, and composed stories about their saints. They worked as doctors, philosophers, and scientists under Muslim rulers. They traveled as missionaries, bringing their language and brand of Christianity with them. This book brings the reader into the monasteries of the Syriac-speaking Christians, places of rich scholarly formation that trained the bishops who would be critical players in the theological controversies of the fifth and sixth centuries. One meets not only the Syrian Christians but also the cultures with which they came into contact. The authors shed light on the rich translation culture of the Syriac traditions: Greek into Syriac and Syriac into Greek, as well as Latin, Armenian, Georgian, Ethiopic, Middle Persian, Arabic, Sogdian, Uighur, Turkish, and Malayalam translation efforts.

The Syrian Christian heritage has persisted since the late antique period, radiating from its geographical roots in Upper Mesopotamia to Iran, Iraq, Syria, the Gulf States, Central Asia, China, and India. Now, Syriac Christians have planted new churches in the diaspora, in dialogue with the modern cultures of Europe and North America. The living heirs of this Syriac Christian heritage include the Syrian Orthodox Church, the Church of the East, the Syrian Catholic Church, the Maronite Church, the Malabar and Malankara Churches of India, and the Chaldean Church. The Syriac World celebrates the persistence of this venerable tradition and its ancient and modern communities that identify with their Aramaic roots and continue to commemorate the heroes and minds who shaped their tradition.

Go east across the Euphrates River and journey to meet the Syriac Christians. They are still there and continue to speak, teach, and worship in both the classical and modern dialects of their own language—Syriac. When you pack your bag, don’t forget a guidebook: Françoise Briquel Chatonnet and Muriel Debié’s The Syriac World. This book touches upon nearly every aspect of the Syriac Christian tradition, bringing its people, religious legacy, language, and history to life. By attending to the Syriac heritage, you will see the Christian tradition and its Aramaic-speaking founder (Jesus) with a fresh pair of eyes. This book […]