„Şcoala perşilor”: de la teologia Părinţilor, la scolastica filosofică
„The school of Persians”: from the theology of the fathers to philosophical scholasticism

Summary/Abstract: This article presents the history and theological developments of the most important ecclesiastical school in the East Syriac Church. It discusses the educational institution that trained the most prominent representatives of this Church and ensured its ecclesiastical unity over several centuries when the harshness of historical conditions did not allow institutional structures to exercise authority. The beginnings of the „School of Persians,” related to the person and theology of Saint Ephraim the Syrian, bear the imprint of a Syriac Christianity characterized by the poetic and paradoxical way of theologizing inherent to the Semitic mode of thinking of the Syrians. With the Syro-Orientals entering the sphere of influence of Antioch, a series of important authors for this tradition, such as Theodore of Mopsuestia and Diodore of Tarsus, were translated from Greek into Syriac. Later, Greek philosophical writings, especially those of Aristotle, were also translated, and Syriac theology began to feel the influence of these two currents. Gradually, the school theology changed its orientation from the beginning, adopting a rationalist methodology for biblical exegesis, combining the Theodorian exegesis with Aristotelian philosophy. This method led to divisions within the East Syriac Church not only between followers of the two different ways of theologizing but ultimately to theological polarizations.

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