St Ephrem's Hymns on Paradise: Body-Soul-Spirit in Beatified Existence

This article looks at St Ephrem's Hymns on Paradise, in particular the great poet's conception of the whole spirit -body and the experience of transcendent unity in this world and the next. Until recently, Ephrem's writings have been used mainly as doctrinal texts while his poetic symbolism has been only tacitly acknowledged. The beauty and richness of his verse hymns dealing with the garden of Eden and the life of the blessed are here read with an eye to his mystical vision of sanctified experience in the present life.