Customer Reviews

Simple and Bold: Ephrem's Art of Symbolic Thought (Gorgias Dissertations, 26)

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have just read this book as part of a graduate course on St. Ephrem's poetry (in Syriac). Den Biesen offers a very insightful study of Ephrem's symbolism, particularly the extensive use he makes of polarity and paradox. The polarity between "word" and "silence" comes in for particularly rigorous, and to my mind, satisfying analysis.

If you are a student of Ephrem's poetry, this book offers penetrating and thought-provoking discussion of some of the vast, multifaceted talent Ephrem used in the course of producing his extensive corpus of poetry. However, if you are very new to the field, I recommend starting out with a more easily digestable work such as Sebastian Brock's The Luminous Eye: The Spiritual World Vision of Saint Ephrem. Den Biesen's work is not aimed at beginners.

I should note that, unfortunately, the publisher did not edit this book well, and consequently there are a number of grammatical errors and stylistic rough spots. However, the content is still readable.