Originally delivered as one of the St. Margaret’s Lectures for 1904, the contents of this booklet are focused on aspects of the Syriac-speaking Church. Extracted from Burkitt’s book Early Eastern Christianity, the third lecture traces the development of early Syriac theology. Finding Aphraates well suited to provide a general survey of Syriac theology, Burkitt finds information on how faith was conceived, the surprising discovery to modern readers that early Christianity taught that the Holy Spirit was feminine. He also briefly considers Philoxenus of Mabbug. Turning to Ephraim the Syrian, he notes that despite the generally weak philosophical quality and theological simplicity of his work, he stands as the transition to Rabbula, an altogether more sound theologian. Shortly after Rabbula, however, the edifice of Eastern Christian theology began to break apart, leading to the disparate groups known to Burkitt.

Francis Crawford Burkitt (1864-1935) began his academic career as a student of mathematics. While at Cambridge University he moved to Divinity, becoming the Norrisian Professor. His interest in the text of the New Testament led him to study Syriac manuscripts and to publish widely in the field. He was a fellow of the British Academy.