BOOK REVIEW

PAULY MANIYATTU, East Syriac Theology; An Introduction, Satna, Ephrem’s

Publications, 2007, PP.374, Paperback, Rs.200.

Theological patrimony is one of the important elements of the identity of a Church Sui
iuris. An individual Church is required to have its theological heritage. The Assyrian Church
of the East, the Chaldean Church, and the Syro Malabar Church share the same East Syriac
liturgical and theological traditions, though with some considerable differences. Thus, the East
Syriac theology is the theology of these Churches. Here ‘Faith’ is the key word in the process
of theologization and one cannot draw a sharp divide between theology, spirituality, mysticism
and liturgical experience.

This book is the result of a serious attempt on the part of St. Ephrem’s Theological
College for the promotion of Syriac theology. The articles in this book are based on the
scholarly papers presented at the National Symposium of Syriac Theology conducted by St.
Ephrem’s Theological College. This book on East Syriac theology is edited by Fr. Pauly
Maniyattu, president of Paurasthya Vithyapitham, former Dean of Studies of St. Ephrem’s
Theological College and the first editor of Ephrem’s Theological Journal. He has done a good
job of presenting the scholarly expositions of different people. The scholars who have
contributed to this book are not presenting the East Syriac theology from a historical
perspective. The theology of the Churches of the East Syriac tradition is analysed, especially
given the present generation of believers.

The expositions of the Syriac theologians are presented in the context of today’s
Church, with a critical reflection on their theological conclusions. The articles on the important
characteristics of Syriac theology serve as a good introduction to the study of East Syriac
theology. The book is very educative and enlightening. It provides a rich source material for
the beginners. There are detailed studies on the views of great Syriac theologians like Aphrahat
and Ephrem. Specific studies on Christology, Soteriology, Pneumatology, Ecclesiology,
Mariology, Sacramental Theology, Theology of Eucharist, and Moral Theology help us to
delve deep into the riches of East Syriac theology.

This book consists of an introductory study of Bishop Isidore Fernandez on the

‘Relevance of Eastern Theology’. Here, the author discusses the importance of Eastern
theology for the entire church. He used the cites of pertinent teachings of the Church and also

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the words of Pope John Paul II. Pope says that East and West are the two lungs of the church
to breathe. In this article, the author insists on the need for the whole catholic Church to get
familiar with the Eastern churches. He says the Eastern Churches have played such a vital role
in the history of the church that “the history of the early Church is the history of the Eastern
Churches”.

Bishop Abraham Mattam’s article on ‘The historical setting of East’ is the next one.
This article prepares the ground for understanding and appreciating the Syriac theological
heritage. He discusses the origin and development of the school of Nisibis and its shift to
Edessa. Not only history, he also mentions the structure, organization, directors and the specific
theological position of the school. This information will help us to understand the academic
foundation and quality of East. This school is the classical example of the organized effort of
theologizing in the East Syriac tradition. Thus, the theological works produced from here,
contain the characteristics like scriptural, ecclesial, liturgical, apophatic, and mystical
characteristics.

The Crown of the East, archbishop Joseph Powathil’s article on the ‘Basic features of
Early Syriac Theology’ is a profound study of the important characteristics of East Syriac
theology. He says that the Semitic origin is a uniqueness of the East Syriac theology. He
mentions the reasons for the neglect of the Syriac ecclesial tradition. Because many didn’t
know that Syriac Orient is one of the basic ecclesial traditions. The author points out the
pneumatological, incarnative, eschatological and ascetical dimensions of the East Syriac
theology. The early Syriac theological tradition, as a true representative of a Semitic and
Biblical milieu out of which Christianity is born, can take us to the very origins of Christian
theology itself. While the development of theology in other traditions owes much to heresies,
controversies and particular systems of thought, Syriac theology remains faithful to the biblical
tradition.

The article on the Patristic foundation of the East Syriac theology by Fr. Thomas
Kuzhuppil concentrates on the ‘Patristic Foundations of the East Syriac Theology’. The author
discusses the theology of the imageries, the exegetical method, and the eucharistic theology of
the Fathers. The role of the Holy Spirit in the eucharistic spirituality is properly emphasized.ie,
St Ephrem finds links between the Eucharist and the incarnation using the consecratory role of
the Holy Spirit. Fr. Kaniarakath’s article presents the Biblical theology of Aphrahat and
Ephrem. The author points out Aphrahat’s emphasis on faith as the foundation and Ephrem’s
understanding of the economy of salvation. Each view was discussed in detail. The

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theologizing method of St. Ephrem is the central point of the article by Fr. Ani Kazhikattil. He
analyses the important writings of St. Ephrem and points out the basic features of the East
Syriac theology employed in Ephrem’s writings.

Fr. James Palackal’s article is an attempt to trace out the ecclesiology in the East
Syriac tradition. The author points out the limitations of the early Syriac ‘Ecclesiology’. The
concept of covenant is presented as the key to understanding the early Syriac church. In this
article, the East Syriac tradition is explained through themes like the Church of the nations, the
body of Christ and corporate personality, the Church as the bride of Christ, the origin of the
Church from the side of Christ, the Church as a mother, Mary and the church, Church as ship
coming to the harbour, and the house on the rock.

Fr. John Thoppil gives a precise and brief account of the Christological position of the
Church of the East and compares it with the Christological positions of the Antiochene and
Alexandrian traditions. The Christological views of important authors like St. Ephrem, Narsai
and Babai the Great are presented to verify the orthodoxy of the Christological teaching of the
East Syriac tradition. The article on the ‘Syriac Portraits of Christian Salvation’ by Fr. Thomas
Kollamparampil is one complementing the article on Christology. The Syriac Soteriological
understanding is exposed here, analysing numerous texts of the fathers. The Adam-Christ
complementarily is a central theme in the Syriac soteriology presented here.

Fr. Thomas Neendoor’s article is a brief study of East Syriac Pneumatology. The
author examines the pneumatological understanding of the early Church and reaches certain
conclusions regarding the understanding of the early Syriac Church on the Holy Spirit,
analysing the Biblical, patristic and liturgical sources in the East Syriac tradition. The author
also presents the various symbolism of the Holy Spirit and the work of the Spirit in the
Sacraments of Baptism and Eucharist. Thus, the author also presents a liturgical pneumatology.
Fr. Jose Kochuparampil, discusses ‘The Theology of Raze’ in the East Syriac tradition. Here
author explain the trinitarian, ecclesial and also liturgical dimension of the mysteries of the
church. The important thing is that the author discussed these things based on the patristic,
liturgical and canonical sources.

The humble attempt to understand the significance of the eucharistic celebration in

the ecclesial life of the East Syriac tradition can be seen in the article of Pauly Maniyattu. The
East Syriac tradition has its theology of the Eucharist based on the entire space-time of the
Qurbana. Thus, the space, time, persons, objects, words and actions of the celebrations of the

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Qurbana contribute to the theological understanding of the Eucharist. The Syriac tradition
assigns to the Blessed Virgin Mary a very special place in the Church. James Puthenparampil
discusses the sublime views of the Fathers, especially of St. Ephrem and Jacob of Serugh on
the Blessed Virgin Mary in his article on the Syriac Mariology.

In the article on moral theology, Fr. Dominic Vechoor discusses the notion of
Christian morality against the background of the moral theology of the Eastern Churches in
general, and particularly of the East Syriac tradition. Eastern moral approach is a relatively new
area of study in Catholic moral theology, we may not always find sufficient supporting
literature from Catholic authors. Imageries of Christian baptismal life, purity of heart as the
basic virtue, ascetic lifestyle, sacramental character of the created world, the healing imageries
related to Christian life etc are mentioned in this article. This article concentrates specifically
on the East Syriac tradition and its understanding of moral life as contributing to Catholic moral
theology. However, the hidden pearls of the East Syriac moral theological reflections are to be
rediscovered still further.

The articles of this book serve as brief introduction to different branches of East Syriac
theology and would surely provide us with some clear ideas about the characteristic features of
the theology in the East Syriac tradition. This book has a wide scope. East Syriac theology is
more precious and developed by numerous great theologians, starting from the time of the
fathers. There is a vast amount of literature dealing with this theology. But the reality is that,
the question about the relevance of such theological works today in the mainstream
theologizing of the Catholic Church. The central goal of this book is to highlight the potentiality
of the East Syriac tradition to contribute to a paradigm shift in the theologizing of the Church
today. Most of the articles in this book deal with specific theological themes. The different
articles are indeed attempts at introducing the various aspects of East Syriac Theology.

The theological expositions in this book are very limited. Since they are based only on
some of the important sources of East Syriac theology. The authors have made use of biblical,
liturgical, patristic and canonical sources to a limited extent. However, a good number of texts
of the liturgical prayers, commentaries and patristic texts could not be included, mainly because
they are not yet made available for theological research.

Though the printing and layout of the book are done perfectly, it is paperback and the
quality of the paper is not up to the mark compared to the thick content inside it. The language
of the book is English written simply. The table of contents and food notes shows the scientific

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authenticity of the work. The book starts with an introduction in which the author clearly states
the significance and purpose of his work. I am sure that, through its publication, the Syriac
world benefited significantly. It will go a long way in helping students to deepen their
knowledge of East Syriac. Being a scholarly work, I also hope that it will be a useful reference
book for future researchers.

Submitted By: Reg.No:881