Abstract
The chapter deals with the Aphrahat's only work Demonstrations and with his theology, which grows from the rich sources of the Old and New Testament and is fertilized by his personal mystical visions and powerful prayer. His figurative armamentarium contains many images of the temple and allied motifs.
The concept of the interior temple and its ecclesiological aspect is explained with pastoral concern; the speculative systematic level in not primary one to Aphrahat. The special sources of the purity of heart, which make a person the temple of the Spirit, are the two sacraments: baptism and the Eucharist.
The focus of this study is on four key terms of the Sage's spiritual doctrine: inner person, heart at prayer, rest of God, and grieving the Spirit. All of them are deeply rooted in the teching of the Scripture and comprise a large horizon of Christian life.
They focus on the centre of human person, the heart, but their spiritual concept avoids any narrow immanentism and intimism, because it onvolves both contemplation and action, and both the humble abasement and the hopeful looking up to heaven.