Andrew Younan. Narsai: Selected Sermons. Paulist Press, 2024
Toward the end of my seminary undergraduate studies, I encountered Kathleen McVey’s volume on Ephrem the Syrian (d. 373 CE) in the Classics of Western Spirituality Series. All I knew at the time was that Ephrem was an author highly honored by my tradition, namely the Chaldean Church, a branch of the Church of the East whose roots began in the Persian Empire, and a sister to the Assyrian and Malabar Churches today. It was both pleasing and edifying to know authors so central to my own tradition interested a broader audience. As I learned more about the literature and history of my tradition, I found myself drawn to another important author, Narsai, and wondered whether someday a similarly accessible and instructive volume might be written about him. This project has been both a dream and an aspiration ever since.
While many readers of AJR may recognize the name of Ephrem or even be familiar with the writings, Narsai and his historical context has received less attention from scholars. Both a priest and scholar from Mesopotamia, Narsai’s life spanned the fifth-century, a time when the Church of the East deepened the outlines of its own ecclesiastical, theological, and liturgical identity. He was reputed to be a prolific writer, but only a portion of his once sizeable corpus is now extant. Narsai wrote in the style of the memra, a metrical homily, most often in 12-syllable verses. In this pivotal period, Narsai played an essential role, especially in the foundation of the School of Nisibis, which soon became a fountain of leaders and scholars of the Church of the East for centuries. Given the ongoing transmission of his writings and his place within the ecclesial historiography, it is difficult to exaggerate his influence.
Despite several twists and turns in academia and publishing over the last two decades, I was reminded of my youthful dream when I found out about the Narsai Complete Translation Project and became involved as editor and translator of a few of the beautiful memre of the author I had come to love. After several conversations with the scholars organizing this project, it became clear that a volume on Narsai presented with a general introduction and memre selected to portray the breadth of his theological thought would be a good addition, especially one aimed more at non-experts than at scholars, relatively affordable, and easily accessible to the general educated public. About three years later, I am excited to see Narsai: Selected Sermons finally in print.
The volume begins with a general introduction to Narsai’s ecclesiastical milieu, the meaning of “Church of the East,” and a short biography. The most difficult aspects of writing this book were (1) writing the portion of the introduction giving a summary of his theology, and (2) selecting representative examples from his sermons reflecting the entire breadth of his theological thought.
Regarding the first aspect, the insights of the Narsai scholars writing and translating over the past century, such as Frederick G. McLeod and Judith Frishman, were absolutely essential. Building on their work, I presented what I believe to be good summaries of Narsai’s insights on: Scripture and divine pedagogy; human nature; soteriology; Christology; Trinitarian theology; and Christian life and spirituality. Most challenging and edifying at the same time was articulating not Narsai’s particular insights on these various topics but the internal connection each of them has to the other. Narsai is, I discovered, not only a deeply original thinker but also a deeply organic one, a writer who saw the coherence between all aspects of Christian theology with a penetrating and unifying insight.
Months of reading, reflection, and conversation were necessary before I could select the memre which eventually made up this volume. Ideally, all the translations in this volume would be presented for the first time in English (and all but two are, as of now). On the other hand, the Narsai Translation Project will eventually provide his complete works in English, which gave me some degree of freedom to select those I believed most accessible for readers encountering Narsai for the first time. In the end, I decided on the number twelve, and divided the twelve Memre into three categories: (I) Creation, Nature, and Revelation; (II) Christian Salvation History; and (III) Theology and Prayer. Here are the Memre that made their way into the volume:
(I) Creation, Nature, and Revelation
Memra 62: On the Order of Creation, and the Qnome of the
Trinity
Memra 49: On the Forming of Adam and Eve, and the Breaking
of the Command
Memra 3: On Abraham
Memra 14: On Jonah
(II) Christian Salvation History
Memra 5: On the Incarnation (with Soghythā)
Memra 7: On Epiphany John the Baptist
Memra 21: On the Temptation of Christ
Memra 37: On the Thief
(III) Theology and Prayer
Memra 16: On Human Nature
Memra 81: On Christology
Memra 44: On the New Creation
Memra 13: On Prayer
The translation in this volume attempts, as do most translations, to remain as close as possible to Narsai’s original words and style while being as readable as possible in English. The tension between these two poles is where the individual translator is forced to make a judgment call on practically every line, if not every word. I have erred on the side of faithfulness to Narsai, and chosen to translate harshly where he is harsh, simply where he is simple, and strangely where he is strange. He is a writer that, I think, intends to be surprising, and rather than insulate his sharpness, I have attempted to transfer it into English as well as I could. Translating the meter and trochaic rhythm of his verses for a volume intended for reading rather than chanting would have added a further burden which would have sacrificed either faithfulness to Narsai’s literal meaning or clarity in English, and so I opted here for prose. There are, however, a handful of Narsai’s works translated for the purpose of chanting included in my Book of Before & After.
It is my hope and prayer that this volume encourages readers to study Narsai, and other authors of the Church of the East, more deeply.
Andrew Younan is a Chaldean Catholic priest, Rector of the Seminary of Mar Abba the Great, and teaches philosophy and theology at John Paul the Great Catholic University and the University of St. Thomas, Houston.