ACADEMIC THEOLOGY AND MONASTIC THEOLOGY – TWO CONTRASTING APPROACHES IN THE EAST SYRIAC COMMUNITY BETWEEN THE 6TH TO 7TH CENTURY
ACADEMIC THEOLOGY AND MONASTIC THEOLOGY – TWO CONTRASTING APPROACHES IN THE EAST SYRIAC COMMUNITY BETWEEN THE 6TH TO 7TH CENTURY

Summary/Abstract: By the end of the 6th century and the 7th century the life of the East Syriac community is characterized by a complexity of dogmatic controversies and conflicts of authority that shaped a specific mystical itinerary. There are three constitutive elements during this period: the school of Nisibis, the monastics and the institutional Church. Not all the time the three institutions cooperated well because of their different theological approaches and occasional internal disputes. This idea can be synthetized in what we might call the relation between the academic theology and the monastic spirituality. In this paper I will analyse some representative moments and characters for this period so that to picture the complexity of the ecclesiastical (theological, spiritual and liturgical) life in the East Syriac Church, in a difficult and decisive historical time, and yet a time of flourishing of religious literature.

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