Publications Valentina Duca 2015-2025

PUBLICATIONS Academic books • Monograph: “Exploring Finitude”: Weakness and Integrity in Isaac of Nineveh (Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta 309, Bibliothèque de Byzantion 28), Leuven: Peeters, 2022. The monograph is a revised version of my DPhil thesis. • Edited volume: with Joseph Verheyden (eds): Proceedings of the Conference “The Greek Sources of East-Syriac Mysticism: A Journey through Texts and Thought”, KU Leuven, 26-28/06/2023 (Irish College, Leuven, Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies and Louvain Centre for Eastern and Oriental Christianity, LOCEOC), Eastern Christian Studies (ECS), Leiden: Brill (forthcoming in 2025). Contributors: Professors Vittorio Berti, Paolo Bettiolo, Brouria Bitton-Ashkelony, Emiliano Fiori, Philip Forness, David Michelson, Jason Scully, Joseph Verheyden; Doctors Valentina Duca, Nestor Kavvadas, David Phillips, Adrian Pirtea. Academic articles • “Isacco di Ninive”, in Introduzione al mondo siriaco, Marco Pavan, Giovanni Gomiero (eds), Venice: Edizioni Ca' Foscari (forthcoming in 2025). The volume is the first comprehensive introduction to Syriac studies in Italian, arising from the Summer School of Syriaca, the Italian Association of Syriac Studies (invited). • “Experience, Interiority, Subjectivity: New Trajectories in the Study of East-Syriac Mysticism”, in A Festschrift contribution, Piscataway, New Jersey: Gorgias Press (accepted; forthcoming in 2025).  • “‘The Holy Power’ and its ‘Operation’: Mark the Monk and Pseudo-Macarius as Sources of Isaac of Nineveh’s Conception of Freedom and Grace”, Proceedings of the Conference “The Greek Sources of East-Syriac Mysticism: A Journey through Texts and Thought”, KU Leuven, 26-28/06/2023 (Irish College, Leuven, Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies and Louvain Centre for Eastern and Oriental Christianity, LOCEOC), Eastern Christian Studies (ECS), Leiden: Brill (accepted; forthcoming in 2025). • “Polemics and Personal Experience: A Perspective from Isaac of Nineveh”, Proceedings of the International Colloquium Polemikos - Centre for Religious Polemics “Extreme Asceticism: Between Good Faith and Provocation”, 28-30/06/2023 (Irish College, Leuven), Bibliotheca Ephemeridum Theologicarum Lovaniensium (BETL), Leuven: Peeters (accepted; forthcoming in 2025). • “Mark the Monk on Radical Responsibility: A Central Source for Isaac of Nineveh”, Adamantius 30 (2024). • “A Syriac Case for the Reception of Hebrews: Isaac of Nineveh’s Ascetic-mystical Corpus”, in Régis Burnet (ed.), The Letter to the Hebrews, Bibliotheca Ephemeridum Theologicarum Lovaniensium (BETL), Leuven: Peeters, 2024 (proceedings of LXX Colloquium Biblicum Lovaniense, Leuven, 22-24 July 2021), 349-62. • “La grazia della debolezza e il limite della morte”, in Luigi d’Ayala Valva, Sabino Chialà, Lisa Cremaschi (eds), Isacco di Ninive e il suo insegnamento spirituale. Atti del XXVIII Convegno ecumenico internazionale di spiritualità ortodossa, Bose, 6-9 settembre 2023, Magnano: Qiqajon, 2023, 139-62. • “‘Singing to the Hidden in a Hidden Way’. Vainglory and the Quest for Interiority in Isaac of Nineveh”, in Proceedings of XIII Symposium Syriacum and the XI Conference of Christian Arabic Studies, INALCO (Institut national de langues et civilisations orientales), Paris, 04-09/07/2022, Parole de l’Orient 49 (2023), 65-90. • “Between Perfection and Imperfection: On the Experience of Finitude in Isaac of Nineveh”, Ephemerides Theologicae Lovanienses 99 issue 1 (2023), 1-26. • “‘A Light which rises by Grace (I 51)’: Faith, Trust, and Suffering in Isaac of Nineveh”, in Emidio Vergani, Sabino Chialà (eds), Symposium Syriacum XII Held at St Lawrence College, Rome 19-21 August 2016. Organized by the Pontifical Oriental Institute On the occasion of the Centenary Celebration (1917-2017) (Orientalia Christiana Analecta 311), Rome: Pontifical Oriental Institute, 2022, 239-57. • “‘Standing Erect within the Dark Cloud’ (III 7,5): ‘Negativity’ and the Subject in Isaac of Nineveh”, Sacris Erudiri 60 (2021), 181-203. • “Pauline Echoes in Isaac of Nineveh (7th century): An Initial Investigation”, Studia Patristica CXXV vol. 22 (2021), 165-77 (proceedings of the XVIII International Conference on Patristic Studies, Oxford, 19- 24/08/2019). • “‘A Creaturely Wisdom’: Suffering, Compassion, and Grace in Isaac of Nineveh”, Scottish Journal of Theology 73 issue 3 (2020), 225-38. • “Pride in the Thought of Isaac of Nineveh”, Studia Patristica XCII vol. 18 (2017), 137-47. • “‘Changes Happen to Every Person, just as in the Air’: An Analysis of the Theme of Humility in Isaac the Syrian’s Homily I 72”, The Harp 32 (SEERI, Kerala, India) (2017), 117-34. • “Human Weakness in Isaac of Nineveh and the Syriac Macarian Corpus: A First Investigation”, Aramaic Studies 14 issue 2 (2016), 134-46. • “Human Frailty and Vulnerability in Isaac the Syrian”, Studia Patristica LXXIV (2016), 429-38. • “La passione secondo Isacco di Ninive”, Adamantius 21 (2015), 341-52. Book reviews • “Giuseppe Hazzaya: I Capitoli di conoscenza: Centurie I-V. Patrologia Orientalis 58.3 (255). Turnhout: Brepols, 2023. By Paolo Raffaele Pugliese”, Journal of Eastern Christian Studies (forthcoming in 2025). • “Isaak von Ninive und seine Kephalaia Gnostika: Die Pneumatologie und ihr Kontext. By Nestor Kavvadas”, The Journal of Theological Studies 68 issue 2 (2017), 803-6. Books in preparation • Isaac of Nineveh. “The Second Part”, Chapters I, II, III (Centuries of Knowledge). Critical edition of the unedited portion of Isaac of Nineveh’s writings (forthcoming). Articles in preparation • “Between Knowledge and Faith: The Syriac Version of Mark the Monk as a Crucial Source of Isaac of Nineveh”. • “Finitezza, prova e fiducia radicale: la prospettiva di Isacco di Ninive”. • “Beyond Practice: The Concept of Prayer in Mark the Monk”. Non-academic books • Vie della meditazione - ebraismo, cristianesimo, islam, Roma-Bari: Laterza, 2024. Written with Prof. Paolo Branca (Università Cattolica, Milano, for the section on islam) and Dr Federico Dal Bo (Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia). I wrote the section on Christianity (the contribution, addressed to a non-specialist audience, is a reworking of La via cristiana alla meditazione, Milan: Corriere della Sera, 2020). Academic interviews • For New Books Network podcasts, one-hour interview on my book “Exploring Finitude”, in dialogue with Prof. Kristian Heal (Brigham Young University), director of the Special Series in Syriac Studies (forthcoming in early 2025).