Joy-Bearing Grief: Tears of Contrition in the Writings of the Early Syrian and Byzantine Fathers

by Hannah Hunt and Hunt

This volume is the first full-length study of penthos (tears of contrition) since Hausherr's in 1944. It traces its exposition in the early eastern Christian tradition, through detailed analysis of Greek and Syriac texts by Klimakos, Ephrem, Isaac and Symeon the New Theologian. It suggests why such weeping is, for these writers, a joyful as well as a sobering experience, and it places their writings in their historical and geographical context, giving...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 9004141235
• ISBN13: 9789004141230
• Release Date: October 2004
• Publisher: Brill
• Length: 269 Pages
• Weight: 1.42 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.4" x 9.5"