L’école d’Édesse

Abstract

The famous School of Edessa (or School of the Persians) has been understood in various degrees of specificity and concreteness during the course of research on it. In this work, the author’s doctoral thesis, Hayes looks at the “school” very broadly in general terms of the Christian intellectual milieu of the city. He goes back to the early personages of Tatian and Bardaisan and discusses early literature such as the Acts of Judas Thomas, Odes of Solomon, and the Clementine literature. Virtually every major Syriac author that had anything to do with Edessa finds mention in the work. When he comes to the School of the Persians proper he naturally spends a lot of time on the Christological controversies and the individuals involved from their respective sides. At the end of the work he traces the history of Edessa into the period of Islamic rule and the Crusades. This broad examination of the intellectual and theological activity of the city that for centuries stood supreme in Syriac Christianity will find a welcome place on the shelves of students and scholars of eastern Christianity.