The Book of Steps: The Syriac Liber Graduum (Volume 196) (Cistercian Studies Series)

The Book of Steps: The Syriac Liber Graduum (Volume 196) (Cistercian Studies Series)

Intentionally anonymous and lacking concrete details of historical and cultural setting-and for many years suspected of messalianism-this collection of thirty memre [discourses] has been long recognized as an important, yet understudied, work of the fourth century Syriac Church. The Liber Graduum records the ups and downs of a real christian community and is not a theoretical projection. The author meanders through many themes, but always calls the readers back to the steps of Uprightness and Perfection. "So it is also with a person once he has lowered himself from all things that are on earth, has broken his mind night and day, who counts everyone else better than himself, has emptied himself from all he possessed and kisses the feet of his enemies. Our Lord will look upon this person's lowliness and send him the Spirit, the Paraclete, and he shall know the whole truth."(translation of the script on the cover). 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).