Fire from Heaven

Sebastian Brock was Reader in Syriac Studies at the Oriental Institute, and is Professorial Fellow of Wolfson College, University of Oxford, UK.

• Contents: The Christology of the Church of the East: The 'Nestorian' Church: a lamentable misnomer; The Persian Church up to the 6th century and its absence from the Councils in the Roman Empire; The christology of the Church of the East; Christ 'the hostage': a theme in the East Syriac liturgical tradition and its origins. Invocations to the Holy Spirit and their Background: Fire from heaven: from Abel's sacrifice to the Eucharist: a theme in Syriac Christianity; 'Come, compassionate Mother, ..., come Holy Spirit': a forgotten aspect of early Eastern Christian imagery; The epiklesis in the Antiochene baptismal ordines; Towards a typology of the Epicleses in the West Syrian Anaphoras; Invocations to/for the Holy Spirit in Syriac liturgical texts: some comparative approaches; The lost Old Syriac at Luke 1:35 and the earliest Syriac terms for the incarnation; An early interpretation of pasah: aggen in the Palestinian Targum; Passover, Annunciation and Epiclesis; From Annunciation to Pentecost: the travels of a technical term; The Ruah Elohim of Gen. 1,2 and its reception history in the Syriac tradition. Editions and Translations: Some early Syriac baptismal commentaries; An early Syriac commentary on the Liturgy; Gabriel of Qatar's commentary on the Liturgy; Index.

’Besides the obvious usefulness for Syriac scholars to have articles which were previously published in different editions and periodicals how in one work, for a more general audience of scholars in Patristic and Byzantine Studies and in Church History, the entire collection serves as a perfect introduction to the ecclesiastically divided Syriac spiritual tradition that developed a distinctive outlook in its early stages independently from Greek-speaking Christianity.’ Scrinium ’Sebastian Brock’s scholarship is, as always, ground-breaking and of outstanding quality, and given that his work is frequently published in a diverse range of journals and Festschriften, some more easily found in libraries than others, the convenience of having these articles collected together in a single volume will clearly recommend it to Syriac scholars and to libraries with an interest in Syriac Christianity, Patristic theology, or liturgical studies.’ Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies