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Document Details : Title: Between Perfection and Imperfection Subtitle: On the Experience of Finitude in Isaac of Nineveh Author(s): DUCA, Valentina Journal: Ephemerides Theologicae Lovanienses Volume: 99 Issue: 1 Date: 2023 Pages: 1-26 DOI: 10.2143/ETL.99.1.3291435 Abstract : The interplay between the notions of perfection and imperfection has been crucial to Christian ascetic-mystical reflection from an early stage. Isaac of Nineveh (7th cent.), the best representative of the Syriac ascetic-mystical tradition, offers an original perspective on the theme, that the article examines for the first time through analysing his edited and unedited writings. Isaac’s thought is characterised by a strong tension between the desire for perfection and an awareness of the ineradicable nature of imperfection. Although problematic, this tension can become highly generative for the subject who accepts to remain within it, 'inhabiting' it, instead of looking for a solution or the prevailing of a single pole. When this 'inhabiting' occurs, the passions born of the fear of imperfection decrease and a new form of perfection can mysteriously emerge, which neither expels 'the negative' nor integrates it into a synthesis, but acknowledges and respects its distinctive space. |
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