Robert A. Kitchen is a minister of Knox-Metropolitan United Church, Regina, Saskatchewan. He read for the D.Phil at Oxford in Syriac literature under the supervision of Sebastian P. Brock. With Martien F. G. Parmentier, Robert A. Kitchen translated and introduced The Book of Steps: The Syriac Liber Graduum, CS 196 (Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian, 2004).

• Table of ContentsPreface   viiiIntroduction: The Spirit of Syriac Christianity   xiiiThe Book of Steps, The SyriacLieber Graduum   1Syriac Editor’s Preface   3Mēmrā One:  ‘In which can be found an exposition of the commandments’   7Mēmrā Two:  About Those who Want to Become Perfect   13Mēmrā Three:  The Physical and the Spiritual Ministry   23Mēmrā Four:  On the Vegetables for the Sick   39Mēmrā Five: On the Milk of the Children   45Mēmrā Six:  On Those who are Made Perfect and Continue to Grow   61Mēmrā Seven: On the Commandments of the Upright   65Mēmrā Eight:  On One who Gives All He had to Feed the Poor   81Mēmrā Nine:  And the Love of the Upright and the Prophets   87Mēmrā Ten:  “Concerning the advantage we have when we endure evil things’   105Mēmrā Eleven:  ‘On the hearing of the scriptures when the Law is read before us’   113Mēmrā Twelve:  On the Hidden Public Ministry of the Church   119Mēmrā Thirteen:  On the Ways of the Upright   127Mēmrā Fourteen:  On the Upright and the Perfect   135Mēmrā Fifteen:  On Adam’s Martial Desire   139Mēmrā Sixteen:  On how a Person may Surpass the Major Commandments   159Mēmrā Seventeen:  On the Sufferings of Our Lord who became Through them an Example for Us   169Mēmrā Eighteen: On the Tears of Prayer   177Mēmrā Nineteen: On the Discernment of the Way of Perfection   183Mēmrā Twenty:  On the Difficult Steps that are on the Road of the City of Our Lord   211Mēmrā Twenty-One: On the Tree of Adam   231Mēmrā Twenty-Two:  On the Judgments that do not Save Those who Observe Them   251Mēmrā Twenty-Three:  On Satan and Pharaoh and the Israelites   273Mēmrā Twenty-Four:  On Repentance   283Mēmrā Twenty-Five:  On the Voice of God and of Satan   291Mēmrā Twenty-Six:  On the Second Law that the Lord Established for Adam   301Mēmrā Twenty-Seven:  About the History of the Thief who is Saved   305Mēmrā Twenty-Eight:  On the Fact that the Human Soul is not Identical with the Blood   313Mēmrā Twenty-Nine:  On the Discipline of the Body   321Mēmrā Thirty:  On the Commandments of Faith and the Love of the Solitaries   339Bibliography   365Scripture References to Lieber Graduum   377Index to Proper Names and Places   387