Erin Walsh - Expanding the Archive: Syriac Literature and the Study of Early Christianity Today

A webinar lecture with Professor Erin Walsh (University of Chicago). Through the work of editing and translating Syriac manuscripts, scholars continue to enrich our historiography of the formative centuries of Christianity. This research has been particularly fruitful in the areas of biblical interpretation, asceticism, the history of doctrine, and the role of women within the church. Dr. Walsh will provide a brief overview of these developments before focusing on the importance of poetry for biblical storytelling and spiritual formation. Using examples from the poetry of Narsai and Jacob of Serugh, Dr. Walsh will explore the ways poets inherited the legacy of Ephrem and applied their own artistic brilliance to articulate a Christian worldview, exhorting believers to live with fervent faith both in their own time and today. This lecture is part of a webinar series on "Eastern Catholicism in Action," presented by the Lumen Christi Institute and the Godbearer Institute, and was originally delivered as a live webinar lecture on October 1, 2020