Anti-Judaism and Christian Orthodoxy: Ephrem’s Hymns in Fourth-Century Syria.By Christine Shepardson. Patristic Monograph Series 20. Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 2008. xiiþ191 pp. $34.95 cloth.

摘要

Thanks to the work of distinguished scholars including Robert Murray,nSebastian Brock, and Edmund Beck, the theological poetry of St. Ephremnthe Syrian is widely appreciated. However, its beauty is difficult for modernnreaders to reconcile with the vitriol of the anti-Jewish rhetoric in his hymns and verse sermons. The present work, a revision of the author’s doctoral thesis,nattempts to contextualize Ephrem’s work in the theological politics of his era.nShepardson argues that Ephrem, geographically situated on the borders of thenChristian Roman Empire, first in Nisibis and then in Rome, had a mission tonpromote the tenets of the Council of Nicaea, and that this included attackingnthe “Jewish” beliefs of subordinationist Christians by identifying them withnGod’s rejected People. Thus, Ephrem tells us more about the Christianitynthan the Judaism of his time.