Datum: 6 November 2025, 18:00.

Raum: Besprechungsraum 4 (4. OG), PSK

Contemplative reading was a spiritual practice developed by diverse Christian monastic communities in the early Middle Ages. In Latin monasticism this practice came to be known as "lectio divina". This talk examines a related practice of monastic reading in sixth- and seventh-century Mesopotamia. Ascetics belonging to the Church of the East pursued a form of contemplation which moved from reading, to meditation, to prayer, to the ecstasy of divine vision. The development of this Syriac tradition can be seen through three phases: its establishment as an ascetic practice, the articulation of its theology based upon “Egyptian” sources, and its maturation and spread beyond Mesopotamia to other regions of Eastern Christianity. The comparison of East Syrian contemplative reading with the Latin tradition of lectio divina is insightful because it allows us to see that parallel branches of ascetic reading developed in both Latin and Syriac monastic practice from roughly the same Evagrian and Egyptian origins.

David A. Michelson is Associate Professor of the History of Christianity at Vanderbilt University. His research focuses on the history of Syriac cultures and literature. He is most recently the author of The Library of Paradise: A History of Contemplative Reading in the Monasteries of the Church of the East. He is also general editor of multiple digital projects including Syriaca.org and Syriac Manuscripts in the British Library.