Memoranda Sacra

"Memoranda Sacra" by J. Rendel Harris is a spiritual and theological work written in the early 20th century. The text serves as a collection of reflections and essays that explore various aspects of Christian faith, emphasizing the relationship between God and humanity, the significance of remembrance, and the transformational aspects of faith. The beginning of this work reflects a personal testament of faith and community, stemming from the author's experiences during communal worship and study at Cambridge. The author expresses a deep longing to recall the shared experiences of grace and understanding that bond the members of his community, framing the collection as a memorial of their shared faith. The opening section delves into theological discussions, particularly about the nature of God as a living presence in the lives of believers and the implications of this for understanding life, death, and resurrection—an exploration that aims to comfort, inspire, and strengthen the reader's faith. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

James Rendel Harris was an English biblical scholar and curator of manuscripts, who was instrumental in bringing back to light many Syriac Scriptures and other early documents. His contacts at the Saint Catherine's Monastery on Mount Sinai in Egypt enabled twin sisters Agnes Smith Lewis and Margaret Dunlop Gibson to discover there the Sinaitic Palimpsest, the oldest Syriac New Testament document in existence. He subsequently accompanied them on a second trip, with Robert Bensly and Francis Crawford Burkitt, to decipher the palimpsest. He himself discovered there other manuscripts. Harris's Biblical Fragments from Mount Sinai appeared in 1890. He was a Quaker.