Introduction

Abstract

Abstract This chapter proceeds in two parts, posing questions for the study of reading followed by an outline of the book. The first half of the chapter draws on the work of Robert Darnton and Roger Chartier to frame the key questions about Syriac contemplative readers which guide the book as a whole. The second half of the chapter provides a summary of the other chapters of the book. The main questions which drive this book are: What were the intellectual roots of contemplative reading as practiced in the Church of the East? What ascetic disciplines and theologies provided the ideals and assumptions underlying Syriac contemplative reading? How was contemplative reading learned and taught in East Syrian monastic communities of the sixth and seventh centuries? Who are notable examples of Syriac contemplative readers in the Church of the East “who have left a record of their reading”? How was the relationship of the reader and text perceived by Syriac readers? What was the goal of contemplative reading? Finally, what can surviving physical evidence from manuscripts or textual layout reveal about how Syriac contemplative readers used their books? Out of necessity, these questions adopt a working definition of “reading” as “encounter with texts”. This definition is merely a starting point; the questions themselves are designed to circle ever closer to a contextual definition of reading specific to the traditions of East Syrian asceticism.