Responses by Vanakan Vardapet to Fifty-One Questions on Death, After-life, and Resurrection: Towards Identifying the Sources of a 13th Century Teacher

Abstract: Vanakan Vardapet's Questions and Answers is a rich text, as yet unpublished, comprising questions on various texts and ideas that were part of the curriculum in his school at Khoranashat, with responses that to us often seem cryptic. Included among the questions are around fifty having to do with death and the afterlife. This article attempts to at least partially reconstruct the thought process behind Vanakan's responses to these questions and to identify sources and parallels that shed light on that process. It is hoped that by gaining insight into the workings of the most scholarly mind of his time period, we will come a step closer to an accurate appreciation for the teaching style, resources, and pedagogical aims of an institution that produced a line of great and influential thinkers that extends even into the modern era.