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Theologian · Patristic
St. Ephrem the Syrian
c. 306–373 · Syriac theology
Doctor of the Church
Syriac
Doctor of the Church (declared 1920); “the Harp of the Holy Spirit”; deacon, never a priest or bishop.
Deacon of Nisibis and Edessa who did theology in verse. His hymns and metrical homilies, sung by choirs of women he trained, defend the faith of Nicaea against Arians, Marcionites and Bardaisan through paradox, symbol and the typology of Scripture rather than Greek definition, with Paradise, the Virgin Mother and the Eucharist as constant themes.
Why he matters: He is the chief voice of the Semitic, non-Hellenic Christianity that the Church calls her Syriac lung, a Marian theologian before the Councils, and a model of theology as praise.
Documented positions
Where this thinker stands on each dispute the test covers.
Settled teaching
Its center
Open question
Beyond teaching, not condemned
Condemned error
I
God and Being · What is, and whence it is.
How is God related to the world?
Creation from nothing
Pantheism or emanation
Creation from nothing
Is the world governed by purpose?
Providence and final causes
Chance and mechanism
Providence and final causes
How should we speak of God?
Apophatic (negative) way
Apophatic (negative) way
Cataphatic (analogical) way
How does creation speak of God?
A book of signs and vestiges
Natures studied in their own right
A book of signs and vestiges
II
Faith, Reason and Truth · How we know, and whom we trust.
Faith and reason: who has the last word?
Fideism
Rationalism
Fideism
Is truth objective?
Objective truth
Relativism and pragmatism
Objective truth
Who interprets revelation?
Living Tradition and Magisterium
Private judgment
Living Tradition and Magisterium
How should Scripture be read?
Fundamentalist literalism
Critical reductionism
Fundamentalist literalism
Are the world's learning and arts a danger or a gift?
A danger: Athens has nothing to do with Jerusalem
A danger: Athens has nothing to do with Jerusalem
A gift to be baptized
III
The Human Person · Soul, body, freedom and the Fall.
Is there a spiritual soul?
Immortal spiritual soul
Mind is brain
Immortal spiritual soul
Is the body really you?
Body–soul unity
Dualism
Body–soul unity
Are you free?
Free will
Determinism
Free will
How fallen is human nature?
Basically good
Totally depraved
Basically good
The body and its desires
Contempt for the flesh
Contempt for the flesh
Desire as its own law
Marriage, sex and the body's meaning
Given by nature and grace
Given by nature and grace
Defined by consent and identity
What is suffering for?
A share in the Cross
An evil to be relieved
A share in the Cross
IV
The Moral Life · Law, virtue, conscience and the good.
Rules or character?
Morality of virtue and beatitude
Morality of obligation
Morality of virtue and beatitude
In doubtful cases
Rigorism
Rigorism
Laxism
What is happiness?
Beatitude in God
Earthly flourishing
Beatitude in God
V
Grace and Salvation · How God saves, and whom.
How does grace move the will?
Molinist
Thomist (Bañezian)
Molinist
How are we made right with God?
Infused, transforming grace
Forensic imputation
Infused, transforming grace
What is salvation for?
Deification
Pardon and escape
Deification
Hell and hope
The many are lost
The many are lost
All will be saved
Where does your eye rest in Christ: His divinity or His humanity?
The eternal Word made flesh
The eternal Word made flesh
The man Jesus of Nazareth
VI
Church and Society · Authority, the state, wealth and the nation.
Church and state
Social kingship of Christ
Laicism
Social kingship of Christ
The nation and the Church
Between
Nation or race first
Nation does not matter
May a Christian take up the sword?
Never: the way of the Cross is nonviolence
Never: the way of the Cross is nonviolence
Yes: war can be just and sometimes a duty
VII
Worship, Prayer and the Two Lungs · Liturgy, icons, the Spirit, and the See of Peter.
Liturgical development
Receive and develop organically
Reconstruct and innovate
Receive and develop organically
The way of prayer
Discursive meditation
Stillness and the Jesus Prayer
Discursive meditation
What do the sacraments do?
Efficacious ex opere operato
Signs only
Efficacious ex opere operato
Should the faith take the forms of each culture it enters?
The Gospel in each people's own forms
One form everywhere
The Gospel in each people's own forms
What are the Eastern Catholic Churches?
Sister Churches with their own rights and theology
Rites of the one Roman Church
Sister Churches with their own rights and theology