Isaac the Syrian

Isaac the Syrian (Arabic: إسحاق النينوي Ishaq an-Naynuwī; ; c. 613 – c. 700), also remembered as Saint Isaac the Syrian, Isaac of Nineveh, Abba Isaac, Isaac Syrus and Isaac of Qatar, was a 7th-century Syriac Christian bishop and theologian best remembered for his written works on Christian asceticism. He is regarded as a saint in the Assyrian Church of the East, the Catholic churches (Chaldean Catholic, Syro-Malabar Church), and Eastern Orthodox tradition. His feast day falls, together with 4th-century theologian and hymnographer St. Ephrem the Syrian, on January 28.
Life
He was born in the region of Beth Qatraye in Eastern Arabia, a mixed Syriac and Arabic speaking region encompassing the south east of Mesopotamia and the north eastern Arabian peninsula. When still quite young, he entered a monastery where he devoted his energies towards the practice of asceticism. After many years of studying at the library attached to the monastery, he emerged as an authoritative figure in theology. Shortly after, he dedicated his life to monasticism and became involved in religious education throughout the Beth Qatraye region. When the Catholicos Giwargis I (661–680) visited Beth Qatraye in 676 to attend a synod, he ordained Isaac bishop of Nineveh far to the north in Assyria.
The administrative duties did not suit his retiring and ascetic bent: he requested to abdicate after only five months, and went south to the wilderness of Mount Matout, a refuge for anchorites. There he lived in solitude for many years, eating only three loaves a week with some uncooked vegetables, a detail that never failed to astonish his hagiographers. Eventually blindness and old age forced him to retire to the Assyrian monastery of Rabban Shabur in Mesopotamia, where he died and was buried. At the time of his death he was nearly blind, a fact that some attribute to his devotion to study.
Legacy
Isaac is remembered for his spiritual homilies on the inner life, which have a human breadth and theological depth that transcends the Christianity of the Church of the East, the Church to which he belonged. They survive in Syriac manuscripts and in later Greek, Arabic, and Georgian translations. From Greek they were translated into Slavonic.
Isaac stands in the tradition of the eastern mystical saints and placed a considerable emphasis on the work of the Holy Spirit.
His melancholic style as well as his affinity towards the sick and dying exerted considerable influence on Eastern Orthodoxy. His writings were continuously studied by monastery circles outside his church during the 8th and 9th century. Moreover, Isaac's conviction that the notion of God punishing men endlessly through the mystery of Gehenna (the lake of fire, or hell) is not compatible with his all encompassing love can likely be seen as the central thematic conflict in his second treatise of mystical teachings.
Isaac's writings offer a rare example of a large corpus of ascetical texts written by an experienced hermit and is thus an important writer when it comes to understanding early Christian asceticism.
Writings
St. Isaac was a prolific writer and composed multiple books which survived antiquity and were translated into Greek, Latin, and Arabic. A short list of his salient works include:
The Ascetical Homilies of Isaac the Syrian
The Instructions of Isaac the Syrian
Headings on Spiritual Knowledge
The Spiritual Warfare
Headings on Spiritual Knowledge
The Mystic Treatise
The Spiritual Alphabet
The Virtuous Life
Universal Reconciliation
Various scholars have noted that Brock's translation of the Second Part of Isaac's writings (discovered 1983) appears to confirm claims of earlier universalist historians such as John Wesley Hanson (1899) that Isaac was an advocate of universal reconciliation. In chapter 39 of the Second Part, Isaac writes, "It is not the way of the compassionate Maker to create rational beings in order to deliver them over mercilessly to unending affliction in punishment for things of which He knew even before they were fashioned, aware how they would turn out when He created them, and whom nonetheless He created." Likewise, in the Third Part, chapter 5, Isaac explains, "This is the mystery: that all creation by means of One, has been brought near to God in a mystery; then it is transmitted to all; thus all is united to Him...This action was performed for all of creation; there will, indeed, be a time when no part will fall short of the whole."
Even in the First Part (Isaac's well-known Ascetical Homilies), however, there are arguably quite a few hints of universalism. For example, see the following quotes and excerpts: "God will not abandon anyone." "There was a time when sin did not exist, and there will be a time when it will not exist." "As a handful of sand thrown into the ocean, so are the sins of all flesh as compared with the mind of God; as a fountain that flows abundantly is not dammed by a handful of earth, so the compassion of the Creator is not overcome by the wickedness of the creatures... If He is compassionate here, we believe that there will be no change in Him; far be it from us that we should wickedly think that God could not possibly be compassionate; God’s properties are not liable to variations as those of mortals... What is hell as compared with the grace of resurrection? Come and let us wonder at the grace of our Creator." Many other relevant passages throughout the corpus of Isaac's writings could be cited in demonstration of his belief in eventual universal salvation.
See also
The Ascetical Homilies of Isaac the Syrian
Anthony the Great
Apocatastasis
Arab Christians
Asceticism
Christian Universalism
Church Fathers
Church of the East
East Syriac Rite
Ephrem the Syrian
John of the Ladder
Monastic silence
Philokalia
Syriac Christianity
References
External links
St Isaac of Nineveh Orthodox Icon and Synaxarion
A collection of resources on St. Isaac
Online edition of the Ascetical Homilies
Saint Isaac of Nineveh Facebook Page, featuring new translations from Syriac and Arabic
Encyclopaedia Britannica's article on Isaac of Nineveh
Syrian Christian saints
Year of birth uncertain
7th-century Syrian bishops
7th-century Christian mystics
7th-century Christian saints
7th-century bishops of the Church of the East
Christian universalist clergy
Christian universalist theologians
Mesopotamian saints
Patristic mystics
Syriac writers
Syrian Christian mystics
Nineveh