Marie-Thérèse ELIA

Instructor

Faculty of Religious Sciences – Chargé de Cours

+961 (1) 421 000 marie-therese.elia@usj.edu.lb

I am a Basilian Chouerite nun, an assistant professor in the Department of Religious Oriental Studies at USEK since 2020, and a lecturer in the Faculty of Theology at USJ. My research focuses on Syriac patristics, with a particular emphasis on Christology, especially Miaphysitism in northern Syria and Mesopotamia during the time of the Council of Chalcedon. I am also interested in texts from controversies between Syriac Christians and Muslims in the early centuries of Islam. I am a cataloger of Maronite manuscripts for the Hill Museum and Manuscript Library (HMML) and contribute to the preparation of the catalog of the Lebanese Maronite Order manuscript collection at the USEK library. Additionally, I am a columnist for the journal Proche-Orient Chrétien and a member of the editorial committee for the project Debates on the Union between Rome and the Rūm (DURR), prepared by the Center for Documentation and Christian Arab Research (CEDRAC). I am also a member of the University Pastoral Secretariat in Lebanon and provide spiritual accompaniment to the pastoral music band.

Teaching at USJ

The theology of Jacob of Sarug

Areas of expertise

Art, Humanities, Religious Sciences

Research themes

The Miaphysite Christology of the 5th–6th centuriesSyriac literature patristicsThe controversies between Syriacs and MuslimsChristian manuscripts of the East

Publications and communications

La conception du Fils de Dieu dans le sein de Marie selon Jacques de Saroug († 521). Laval théologique et philosophique, 2020, 76 (1), 41–60.The Cycle ‘On Faith’ by Jacob of Sarug, according to the manuscript Dam. Orth. 12/13. Aram Periodical, University of Oxford, 2020, 32 (1&2), 99-111.La terminologie de l’Incarnation dans les écrits de Jacques de Saroug. Proche-Orient Chrétien, Saint Joseph University, Beirut, 2020, 70 (1), 40-58.Les arguments théologiques, bibliques et analogiques dans les premières controverses des syriaques et des musulmans (VIIe - IXe s.). Syriac Orthodox Patriarcal Journal, 2020, 58, 59-161.Le shéol est-il identique au tombeau dans la pensée de Jacques de Saroug (+521) ? Parole de l’Orient, 2020, 48, 345-361.« Le mimro I sur le prophète Élie et sur ses hauts faits ». Éliane Poirot (Éd.), Élie, le prophète d’après les Pères de l’Église d’Orient et d’Occident, Patrologia – Beiträge zum Studium der Kirchenväter, Vol. 43, Peter Lang, 2024, 481-548.