Isaac of Nineveh's Ascetical Eschatology by Jason Scully (review)

The book under review represents a considerable reworking of the author's PhD thesis, submitted in 2013 at Marquette University under the supervision of Bishop Alexander Golitzin (the Orthodox Church in America). The study of the literary heritage of the seventh-century Syriac monastic author Isaac of Nineveh appears to have gained momentum, as witnessed by editions, translations, and studies that are published regularly. One of these has appeared in the same series as this one (Patrik Hagman, The Asceticism of Isaac of Nineveh [Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010]).

J. Scully offers a fresh source-critical interpretation of the core of Isaac's spiritual doctrine. In his view, the ascetic teaching of Isaac can be fully understood only in the context of his cosmological vision and "[t]herefore, for Isaac, the entire purpose of asceticism is the attainment of the eschatological life of the world to come even while still in this life. [. . .] Every aspect of Isaac's thought is rooted in his eschatology" (xxiv). Thus, according to Scully, the way to comprehend Isaac's spiritual message is through the study of his cosmological and eschatological ideas. It is this objective that the author attempts to achieve in five chapters, each centered on a particular author as Isaac's source and inspiration.

In Chapter One (1–26), we read about Isaac's dependence on Evagrius Ponticus's ascetic terminology as preserved in the Gnostic Chapters that was available to him through the earliest (probably fifth-century) translation, which unlike the later one (from the sixth century), provides the more sanitized version of the text, with distinct (and later condemned) cosmological teaching left out. Chapter Two (27–47) deals with Isaac's dependence on Theodore of Mopsuestia in his teaching on human mortality, which lays the foundation for eschatology. Besides the authentic works of Theodore, the author also adds to his analysis the works of Narsai as a faithful follower of the Theodorean tradition. Chapter Three (48–72) explores the influence of John the Solitary on Isaac's eschatology and in particular, his ideas about the way of life of the new world that Isaac embeds in the ascetical system. In Chapters Four (73–91) and Five (92–116) the Syriac and Greek sources are examined for such essential notions in Isaac's doctrine as wonder and astonishment (each being assigned to a particular stage in a monk's spiritual development). The author shows the original synthesis of ideas drawn from the works of Ephrem of Nisibis, John the Solitary, Pseudo-Dionysius, and Evagrius. Before approaching the notion of wonder as the central concept of Isaac's teaching, Scully makes a brief excursion into Isaac's moral psychology in Chapter Six (117–34), where he examines Isaac's possible dependence on Pseudo-Macarius in order to explain how one can attain spiritual insights through wonder. The final chapter (135–50) brings us to the discussion of wonder, the notion that marks the entrance into the spiritual level of the ascetical life. The conclusion (151–61) not only provides a summary of the research—with due reiteration of the central significance of the notion of wonder—but also makes a case for the influence upon later Syriac authors, such as John Dalyatha and Joseph Ḥazzaya.

The foregoing analysis allows Scully to put forward a very interesting conclusion (153):

[. . .] Isaac's spiritual writing is not just pious sentimentalism, but a complex psychological evaluation of the transformation that occurs when the mind experiences God. Along with Evagrius and Augustine, Isaac provides one of the few Patristic accounts of what human beings can expect to happen in their souls and minds when they experience God in this world. This psychological evaluation of the spiritual life is one of Isaac's greatest legacies.

In other words, at the center of Isaac's teaching stands his own spiritual experience, which he tried to express and expound using the variety of sources available to him. It is this personal experience that...