Preoccupations

I apologise for having been somewhat neglectful of this blog. I can only plead the necessity of getting Silence: A User's Guide finished. It is wholly preoccupying, and I haven't had time or space for much else.

Also it is the armpit of the year, and the weather here in England couldn't be more dismal—and it's been this way since before Christmas. Not conducive to creative thinking!

Add in several deaths and one funeral, all of which cut very deep, and, well. . . 

But there is positive news: Wipf and Stock have agreed in principle to reprint The Fountain and the Furnace. I say 'in principle' because I haven't signed the contract yet (it's at the lawyer's). I am not sure when it will appear but I hope it will be before the end of the year. It will have a new jacket and a new preface. The idea to reprint was triggered by my friend and fellow-scholar Kevin Johnson, who informed me that it was being used in a university course, and that it had lost none of its impact in spite of the fact that my thinking has developed considerably since it was written. My thanks to Robin Parry, my editor at W & S, for shepherding it into the right hands. I have thought a number of times of doing a revised version but every attempt has failed, and I have finally bowed to the rule that it isn't a good idea to try to rewrite books published in a different time and place.

Also I am re-reading Sebastian Brock's The Luminous Eye. The book is as luminous as the eye it describes. This is an introductory account of the writing of Ephrem the Syrian (4th century). This book has lost nothing of its impact, only this time around I am picking up all sorts of images and thinking that shows up in the later Pseudo-Dionysius, who was a Syrian writing in Greek. Most studies of Pseudo-Dionysius emphasize his borrowings from Neo-Platonism, but reading Louth's book on this author, along with having just read the Pseudo-Dionysian corpus in its entirety, makes  it clear, at least to me, that he is equally indebted to his illustrious Syrian ancestors, Ephrem and John the Solitary. 

What comes through again and again is Pseudo-Dionysius' playfulness (which echoes Ephrem's playfulness), and he is playing several traditions off of each other: the surrounding Greek culture, the Syriac inheritance, and the Bible. For example, when he speaks of 'the One', the reader shouldn't jump to the conclusion that he means only the Neo-platonic 'One'. It could equally be the 'One' of the Hebrew Shema or the One alluded to repeatedly in the Gospel of John, many of which occurrences are themselves allusions to the Old Testament.

As Sebastian Brock pointed out in another context, we make some of these texts needlessly complicated. And I would add that in doing so we also miss some of the depth of their allusions.

Term begins on Monday so doubtless my feeble brain will find some new bones to chew on, but in the meantime, I can't recommend the above books highly enough!

Thank you, dear Readers, for your patience.