Preaching Christology in the Roman Near East: A Study of Jacob of Serugh. By Philip Michael Forness

Abstract

The amazingly prolific Syriac poet Jacob of Serugh, who lived at the height of the christological controversies of the late fifth and early sixth centuries, has the distinction of being recognized as a saint in both the Maronite (Chalcedonian) Church and the Syrian Orthodox (Miaphysite) Church. Attempts to pin his allegiance down were for a long time a matter of dispute, and the course of the controversy has been described by the author of the present monograph in a separate article (‘Cultural Exchange and Scholarship on Eastern Christianity: An Early Modern Debate over Jacob of Serugh’s Christology’, Journal of Eastern Christian Studies 70 [2018]). It was only with the publication (in 1937) of his letters that Jacob’s dislike of the Chalcedonian dogmatic formulation finally became apparent. In this careful and well-documented study Forness opens by considering the complex question of the audience and readership of homilies in late antiquity in general before going on to issues specific to Jacob’s verse homilies which exhibit several features characteristic of oral poetry. Then, focusing on the debate on how to describe the relationship between the miracles and the sufferings of Christ, and the way in which this is expressed in the Henoticon (issued in 482), Forness turns to the witness of Jacob’s three most relevant writings, the collection of letters, the homily specifically on the Council of Chalcedon (whose authenticity has been disputed but is here cautiously defended), and especially the long Homily on Faith published by Bedjan in the third volume of his edition. (Here it should be noted that no fewer than six further homilies entitled ‘on Faith’ by Jacob are now available in R. Akhrass and I. Suryany’s excellent two-volume edition entitled 160 Unpublished Homilies of Jacob of Serugh, published in Damascus in 2017, obviously too late for Forness to use, though their work is included in his bibliography.)