Antioch & Syriacondemned
A monk of Edessa whose pantheistic mysticism (the Book of Hierotheus) was condemned; he was rebuked and excommunicated by Jacob of Sarug and expelled from the city.
Who he was
- He was a philosopher and monk born at Edessa probably in the last quarter of the 5th century.
- The most detailed contemporary source of Stephen’s life is a letter by St. Philoxenus of Mabbug written ca. 510 to two Edessan priests, Abraham and Orestes, warning them about the exaggeration of Stephen’s teaching, which he accuses of pantheistic tendencies.
- In his youth, he traveled to Egypt to pursue his studies, and according to St. Philoxenus, he was the disciple of a monk who upheld heresies, whom he called “John the Egyptian.”
- Jacob of Sarug wrote a letter to Stephen rebuking him for his eschatological ideas. He then excommunicated him, and expelled him from Edessa.
- He fled to Palestine to the Origenist monks where he continued to propagate his ideas and correspond with his disciples who remained at Edessa.
What he wrote
- Stephen wrote letters and theological treatises, none of which survive.
- He also wrote mystical commentaries on the Bible, especially the Psalms, dating back to the 9th and 10th centuries (which exist in the British Museum).
- Critics unanimously recognize his paternity of work extant in Syriac under the name Book of Hierotheus or Saint Hierotheus on the Mystery Hidden in God’s Dwelling in five parts: I: Cosmology; II-IV: Ascent of the intellect towards its perfection; V: Eschatology.
- His writings display pantheistic conceptions of reality, namely the view that the universe is to be identified with God, ie., that there is only one reality, alternately describable as “God” or “nature.”