Sebastian Paul Brock, DPhil, University of Oxford, Emeritus Fellow, Syriac Studies (Wolfson College, Oxford)
pp. 182–201
DOI: 10.25803/SFI.2019.30.34617
The article discusses some basic anthropological concepts characteristic of the early Syriac ascetic tradition where a key method of describing the human spiritual structure is to draw analogies; in the present case this is between the limbs of the human body and their internal spiritual counterparts. Thus the main category by which the true ways and objectives of the Christian endeavour are described here concerns the “internal senses”, with a set of their own “limbs”: this allows for a portrayal of a way of life and a means of discernment that is activated by the grace of the Holy Spirit.
Keywords: Christian anthropology, spiritual sense, internal sense, spiritual discernment, grace.