The Ascetical Homilies of Isaac the Syrian is a collection of neptic homilies on the topic of Christian asceticism and prayer, written by Isaac the Syrian, which comprise the totality of his known writings. The homilies were originally written in Syriac in the region of modern-day Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, where Isaac lived an eremitic life on Mount Matout in the Beth Huzaye region.
Structure
Originally, Isaac's works were divided into seven volumes. This division, however, has since been lost. The English translation by Holy Transfiguration Monastery has seventy-seven homilies and two appendices, while other translations differ slightly in their number of homilies. Additionally, some translations bear more or less passages, as is the case with the West versus East Syriac versions. The order of the homilies does not appear to follow any clear structure, but is preserved from the oldest extant manuscripts. Each homily discusses various aspects of the Christian life, such as virtue, vice, struggle, and faith.
Contents
The Ascetical Homilies seem to be written primarily for an audience of Eastern Christian monastics, although the book has proved beneficial to both laity and tonsured. As Kallistos Ware says, "[Isaac's writings] are addressed not just to the desert but to the city, not just to monastics but to all the baptized. With sharp vividness he speaks about themes relevant to every Christian: about repentance and humility, about prayer in its many forms, both outer and inner, about solitude and community, about silence, wonder, and ecstasy." In the book, Isaac teaches the process of noetic purification through ascetic labors, especially that of stillness or hesychasm, and frequently references both scripture and the Holy Fathers. He writes from practical experience as an anchorite in the desert, rather than in merely conceptual terms.
Isaac has been honored as a spiritual guide throughout history, as is evidenced by the numerous translations of his works. Dr. Sebastian Brock says that he is "indubitably one of the most profound writers on spirituality produced by the Syriac Churches." Donald Allchin goes even further, calling Isaac "one of the greatest spiritual writers of the Christian East." Furthermore, Joseph the Hesychast once said, "If all the writings of the desert fathers which teach us concerning watchfulness and prayer were lost and the writings of Abba Isaac the Syrian alone survived, they would suffice to teach one from beginning to end concerning the life of stillness and prayer."
Throughout his writings, Isaac the Syrian emphasized the necessity of stillness to purify the nous (see Homilies 1, 4, 19, and 48). Nonetheless, he also recognized the different roles within the body of the Church (i.e. that of hierarchs, clergy, monastics, and laymen) and their different abilities to adhere to strict stillness and ascetic practice. In Homily 4, he says, "Yet if there be someone who cannot practice stillnesssince it is the grace of God that brings a man within the doorlet him not forsake the other way, lest by doing so he have no share in either of the paths of life." And again, in Homily 72, "But lo, the majority of men to not attain such innocency... For in all the measures of every way upon which each man journeys to Him, God opens before him the gate of the Kingdom of the Heavens."
According to Isaac, God is the embodiment of love. As Almighty, His love cannot be overcome by sin or by the powers of evil. Like his contemporary, Maximus the Confessor, Isaac understands the divine love to function as both the joy of the holy and the torment of the evil. In his view, the Incarnation occurred because of both this love and because of the need created by mankind's sins.
Influences
In writing The Ascetical Homilies, Isaac the Syrian was influenced by the spiritual and theological work of Evagrius, Philoxenus, Theodore of Mopsuestia, Dionysius the Areopagite and John the Solitary, though chiefly by Evagrius. The Evagrian emphasis on the importance of scripture can be seen in The Ascetical Homilies, where Isaac often quotes and interprets verses. In the 7th-century Syriac Church in general, schools of exegesis were created not only for monastics and clergy, but for laity as well. It was at these schools that they could learn to read, write, and memorize scripture.