The Council of Nicaea not only marked a crucial moment in theology but also in politics. The role of Emperor Constantine in convening and attending the council represented the beginning of a 4th century rethinking of Christianity in relation to political power. Key 4th century Christian thinkers within the Latin and Greek speaking world, such as Eusebius of Caesarea, Ambrose of Milan, John Chrysostom, and Augustine of Hippo, have received significant attention for their role in this rethinking of Christianity and politics. The contemporaneous world of Syriac-speaking Christianity has received much less attention in this regard. The key figure of 4th century Syriac Christianity is Ephrem of Nisibis. Ephrem lived most of his life in the crucial Roman border town of Nisibis. Nisibis was besieged by neighboring Persia three times during Julian’s lifetime, before finally being given to Persia in AD 363 as part of a peace settlement upon Emperor Julian’s defeat (and death) in battle. Ephrem became a refugee in Edessa during the last ten years of his life.
Ephrem also spent his adult life as a defender of Nicene orthodoxy. Bishop Jacob of Nisibis attended and was a signatory at the Council of Nicaea in AD 325 and upon his return named Ephrem, then only 19 years old, the exegete of a new school of Nisibis, within which Ephrem taught for the next 38 years before forced migration to Edessa. In his teaching role, Ephrem wrote many biblical commentaries as well as refutations of heretics. But what he is best known for are over four hundred hymns, composed for performance by choirs as a tool of worship and teaching. Most of these hymns give little attention to the world of politics but three collections (Hymns on Faith, Hymns on Nisibis, and Hymns against Julian) give significant attention to the political situation of Ephrem’s time and place. Only in more recent years have these hymns become broadly available in English translation.
This paper will seek to reveal a clearer picture of Ephrem’s political theology as represented in these three collections of hymns and to draw out any lessons for Christians today. Particular areas of focus will include: God’s active providence and purposes in political events, the general God-ordained role of human political rulers, the role of Christians in political events, and the church as a counter-authority to the state. This paper will seek to make a contribution by addressing this relatively neglected area in the consideration of post-Nicene political theology. This paper will be limited to works in English but will depend upon scholars who have led in the translation and examination of Ephrem’s works in recent decades. This will include an older generation of scholars (Sebastian P. Brock, Sidney H. Griffth) as well as a newer generation of scholars (Philip Michael Forness, The Good Christian Ruler in the First Millennium: Views from the Wider Mediterranean World in Conversation [2021] and Manolis Papoutsakis, Vicarious Kingship: A Theme in Syriac Political Theology in Late Antiquity [2017]).