Despite their centrality to the history of Christianity in the East, Syriac Christians have generally been excluded from modern accounts of the faith. Originating from Mesopotamia, Syriac Christians quickly spread across Eurasia, from Turkey to China, developing a distinctive and influential form of Christianity that connected empires. These early Christians wrote in the language of Syriac, the lingua franca of the late ancient Middle East, and a dialect of Aramaic, the language of Jesus. Collecting key foundational Syriac texts from the second to the fourteenth centuries, this anthology provides unique access to one of the most intriguing, but least known, branches of the Christian tradition.

About the Author

Michael Philip Penn is Teresa Hihn Moore Professor of Religious Studies at Stanford University. He is author of When Christians First Met Muslims: A Sourcebook of the Earliest Syriac Writings on Islam, Envisioning Islam: Syriac Christians in the Early Muslim World, and Kissing Christians: Ritual and Community in the Late Ancient Church.

Scott Fitzgerald Johnson is Joseph F. Paxton Presidential Associate Professor and Chair of Classics and Letters at the University of Oklahoma. He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2018. He is author of Literary Territories: Cartographical Thinking in Late Antiquity andThe Life and Miracles of Thekla: A Literary Study and editor of The Oxford Handbook of Late Antiquity, among other volumes.

Christine Shepardson is Lindsay Young Professor and Department Head of Religious Studies at the University of Tennessee. She is author of Anti-Judaism and Christian Orthodoxy: Ephrem’s Hymns in Fourth-Century Syria and Controlling Contested Places: Late Antique Antioch and the Spatial Politics of Religious Controversy and coeditor of Dealing with Difference: Christian Patterns of Response to Religious Rivalry in Late Antiquity and Beyond.

Charles M. Stang is Professor of Early Christian Thought and Director of the Center for the Study of World Religions at Harvard Divinity School. He is author of Our Divine Double and Apophasis and Pseudonymity in Dionysius the Areopagite: “No Longer I.”

Contents

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Note on Translation, Transliteration, and Nomenclature
Maps by David A. Michelson and Ian Mladjov

Introduction

PART I. FOUNDATIONS

1. Origin Stories
2. Poetry
3. Doctrine and Disputation

PART II. PRACTICES

4. Liturgy
5. Asceticism
6. Mysticism and Prayer

PART III. TEXTS AND TEXTUAL TRANSMISSION

7. Biblical Interpretation
8. Hagiography
9. Books, Knowledge, and Translation

PART IV. INTERRELIGIOUS ENCOUNTERS

10. Judaism
11. Islam
12. Religions of the Silk Road

Appendix A. Translations and Editions
Appendix B. Biographies of Named Authors
Appendix C. Glossary
Index

Reviews

"A courageous work. . . .meant to become a useful point of departure for teaching, learning, and further research on the numerous facets of Syriac literature. I have no doubt that the volume will serve this function in the best way."
— Reading Religion

"This volume represents a broad and accessible introduction to the material of Syriac studies, suitable for scholars of classics and the ancient world looking to familiarize themselves with this important late ancient language and its literary tradition. . . . also well suited for use as a sourcebook for undergraduate teaching."
— Bryn Mawr Classical Review

"This volume is warmly recommended to every library that wants to keep history alive and help its students understand the present and future of an often-forgotten Christianity, through an appeal to the past epitomized in the excellent sources that this book skillfully presents."
— Scripta Classica Israelica

"An essential resource. . . .The rich array of texts succeeds in captivating the audience’s attention and inviting them to further study."
— Religion

"Through the selection of sources and the introductory materials, the editors guide readers through the Christian history of these regions…The result is a landmark volume that will be essential reading for church history seminars, ministers, and laity interested in the origins and history of the faith, and for scholars looking to familiarize themselves with the Syriac tradition."
— RESTORATION QUARTERLY

"The expertise of these editors is unimpeachable, and they have produced an extraordinary volume that is sure to become a standard introduction to Syriac Christianity."
— Fides et Historia

"A remarkable tour of Syriac Christianity over its first 1500 years. This anthology provides a sumptuous array of treasures introduced with elegant clarity and explicated with incisive grasp. At a time when we seek to understand Christian history in global terms, this collection is a game changer."—Susan Ashbrook Harvey, Willard Prescott and Annie McClelland Smith Professor of Religion and History, Brown University

"Invitation to Syriac Christianity is a remarkable resource not only for Syriac scholars and students but also for the public and members of modern Syriac churches, who will thus have easier access to their heritage and traditions. As the first complete anthology of Syriac literature in English translation, it offers unique access to the spiritual realm of the Syriac tradition."—Mor Polycarpus, Archbishop of the Syriac Orthodox Church in The Netherlands

"This book succeeds magnificently in introducing the rarely studied world of a major Christian community. Well-chosen and carefully presented extracts capture the thrill of a brilliant culture placed at the crossroads of Asia. Resonant religious imagery and daring mystical speculations, impassioned theological debate, the heroism of male and female martyrs and ascetics, open dialogue with religious rivals, disabused accounts of the clash of empires: this book has it all. It decisively alters the balance of scholarship in exciting new directions and adds an entire new dimension to the history of religion in late antique and medieval times."—Peter Brown, Professor Emeritus of History, Princeton University

Awards

Best Historical Materials 2023 2024, ALA Reference and User Services Association

About the Book

About the Author

Table of Contents

Reviews

Awards