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Mar Dinkha IV
The Church of the East was the earliest Christian Church to reach the Far East, and even if the stories that it reached Japan are mythical, it is testimony to its reach. At its height in the twelfth century it was the biggest church in the world, dwarfing the Catholic and Orthodox Churches. In 1287, Rabban Bar Sauma, the ‘reverse Marco Polo’, came to the court of Edward I of England, seeking relations between the Mongol rulers of Iran and the English court. Bar Sauma himself had been born in China – yet more evidence of the international nature of the Nestorian Church. So what happened?
Simply put, Tamerlane(1336-1405) happened. A fanatical Muslim, Tamerlane conquered the whole of the area in which the Nestorian Church existed and subjected it to the cruellest and most merciless persecution. Only in the mountains of Kurdistan and Southern Turkey did Christians survive. Between him, plague and persecution in China, by the fifteenth century, with the exception of those in India, the only Nestorians left were confined to a triangle of territory between Mosul and Lakes Van and Urmia.
In 1552 a section of the Nestorian Church joined the Catholic Church and became known as the Chaldeans. In the nineteenth century, with the Ottoman Empire in decline and with Christian influence strong at Constantinople, both churches grew, but both were decimated by the atrocities committed by the Turks during the Great War. Afterwards, those who remained outside the Chaldean Church called themselves Assyrians. Their numbers in their homeland, already dwindling, have done so further in the twenty first century in the aftermath of the first and second Gulf Wars – although there is a diaspora in the USA which is growing. There are about 4000000 Assyrian Christians left.
The modern ecumenical movement had provided an opportunity for dialogue with Churches from whom it has long been sundered, and in 1994 the Church of the East and the Catholic Church made a common Christological declaration in which both John Paul II and Mar Dinkha IV agreed:
Whatever our Christological divergences have been, we experience ourselves united today in the confession of the same faith in the Son of God who became man so that we might become children of God by his grace. We wish from now on to witness together to this faith in the One who is the Way, the Truth and the Life, proclaiming it in appropriate ways to our contemporaries, so that the world may believe in the Gospel of salvation.
In the best sort of ecumenism they declared:
Living by this faith and these sacraments, it follows as a consequence that the particular Catholic churches and the particular Assyrian churches can recognize each other as sister Churches. To be full and entire, communion presupposes the unanimity concerning the content of the faith, the sacraments and the constitution of the Church. Since this unanimity for which we aim has not yet been attained, we cannot unfortunately celebrate together the Eucharist which is the sign of the ecclesial communion already fully restored
The differences are honestly acknowledged and not fudged, but so is the determination to go on talking. It is to be hoped that in God’s good time this ancient and fascinating Church will be able to shares its gifts with us all.
That is indeed to be hoped. A church without the state, as you commented yesterday, is subject to the worst of persecutions and is a lesson for out time.
Yes, it is indeed. There are many lessons there for those who can read them.
There are indeed, and so few heed them.
Yes, it is why we make so many unnecessary mistakes.
That is so, dearest friend.
Wow Jess. That’s an incredible tour de force of a series of articles on the Church of the East.
I noticed that David Wilmshurst’s book has yet to attract a comment on Amazon’s website. Seeing as you have a few positive things to say, I’m sure he’d be most grateful if you were to jot a line or two giving a summary of your thoughts.
S
Thank you – and that’s an excellent idea.
Hi Jess,
Well done indeed! I think it’s marvellous that you have devoted eight days to the Church of the East. And thanks for teaching me the meaning of the word ‘octave’ in a Christian context. One learns something new every day.
I’m certainly not going to disagree with the suggestion just made by Struans that you should review ‘The Martyred Church’. What sensitive and perceptive followers your blog has! But seriously, if you are going to review any single recent book on the Church of the East and its history, the one you should concentrate on is Christoph Baumer’s ‘The Church of the East: An Illustrated History of Assyrian Christianity’. I thought it was absolutely splendid, and it is a book that I would recommend without hesitation to the general reader whose curiosity has been aroused by your recent posts. I’ve already given it a very positive review on amazon.co.uk, so you will be in good company if you give it a boost too.
Regards, David Wilmshurst
Thank you so much David – as you could see, I was very inspired by your book. So yes, I think I will do just that. And thank you, again, for writing such an excellent book.
Your posts have aroused my curiosity as to the history of the eastern churches. Admittedly, I knew next to nothing of this topic. Before reading these articles of yours, I recognized the word Nestorian, but I couldn’t tell you anything about it other than a vague statement to the effect that it was one of the early churches or movements.
More titles to add to my ever-growing list of books. Sigh…
Ah well, that is life, I guess
I’m lucky here in having access to Chalcedon’s library, which is better stocked for this sort of thing than that at our University!
I am kinda interested in the history of the Coptic church as well, and the differences between it and the Roman Catholic church. The Coptic church is something else I had no knowledge of at all until fairly recently, when I saw some articles about the current persecution of Coptic Christians.
The history of Christianity seems to be a mound of pebbles. Every time you lift one up to look at it, ten more are uncovered.
Very true. Chalcedon knows a lot of Copts, and bemoans the lack of a work like that of Dr Wilmshurst on it. Most of the books are, he tells me, bad translations from Arabic.
You are right, there are a lot more churches than most of us have heard of. I have some idea because I sit opposite a wall of books, some of them on churches I have never heard of. ‘Jacobite church’ anyone?
Maybe you and Chalcedon should hammer out a book on the Coptic Church. I’ll buy a copy of it when you do.
hint hint
I wish he would, but he tells me that without Coptic it isn’t do-able. Sometimes I wish he wasn’t such a purist
I second Mr. V but, do recognize the problem. There is so little known of the Copts, that even a very basic primer would be very useful.
Yes, that’s how I feel, too.
I thought so, obviously I have no answer, wrong information is often worse than none but still, I wish someone would.
What else might be really useful is if someone designed and implemented a website on the history of Christianity, where one of the main pages would be a huge timeline, starting with the foundation of Christianity, and then coming up through the centuries, showing new branches, sects, divisions, separate churches, denominations, etc., where one could click on the name of an individual church or movement, etc., and be directed to a page that details the history of that branch of Christianity.
Yes, that would be wonderful – a real work of Christian unity
If I but had the time and knowledge….and website experience.
Me too
Hey, what do you think of setting up a joint wordpress blog with a bunch of us contributing? The focus of the blog would be on Christian books, with a different page for each specific genre, such as church history, faith, prayer, saints, etc. etc. When one of us reads a new book, that person could post a short review of the book. I envision a site with a lot of contributors. What do you think?
I like the idea, but it would need a bunch of us. I’d be happy, if others wanted, to give them author rights here if it was easier?
Yeah, I agree, it’d be great with a bunch of us. I, or you, could set up the blog, and then sign others on as full authors. If you were interested in being part of that, I’d be willing to do all the groundwork and get it set up and then bringing you in as a writer. There’s several who come readily to mind that I would also extend an invitation to, such as Neo, and hopefully a few of them come aboard.
If you’re interested, probably the first thing we would need to do is brainstorm and come up with an idea for the name of the blog.
Ultimately, my idea is to have a Christian literature blog that has 20 or more contributing authors, so as to get a wide variety of literature reviewed.
Yes, it could be done that way – and I’d be happy to help
Hi Jessica,
I can’t help you on the Coptic Church, I’m afraid, but I am presently writing a book on the Jacobite or Syrian Orthodox Church, to complement ‘The Martyred Church’. It’s something I’ve been wanting to do for some time, as the Jacobite and Nestorian Churches overlapped in Iraq, and their squabbles rather appeal to my sardonic sense of humour. Both Churches were far more interested in countering each other’s malign influence than in presenting a common front against Islam.
For me, the principal fascination of the Jacobite Church is that, unlike the Church of the East, it existed half within the territory of the Byzantine Empire and half within the Muslim world. Syrian Orthodox politics are, in consequence, fascinating. Provisional title, almost certain to be changed: ‘The Church of Severus’. I imagine it will take me around five years to complete it, but it will be great fun. I’ve been laying the groundwork by translating large swathes of Michael the Syrian and Bar Hebraeus into English, and I can see that the book will be almost as enjoyable to write as the last one. I’ve reminded myself to send you a post in 2018 to let you know how it’s going.
Regards, David Wilmshurst
That sounds absolutely fascinating – you know you will have some keen readers in these parts.
Good intro to the Assyrian Christian theology and history. Also thank you for your writings on Mar Izkhaq Ninvaya (St. Isaac of Nineveh).
The title of your article, however, is as misleading as saying “From Catholic to Roman”, for it ignores centuries of history before the arrival of Christianity to the streets of Rome and in this case, Nineveh. The Assyrians in Mesopotamia adopted Christianity in the First Century A.D. There was no Nestorius (386–451), Ephesus (431) or Chalcedon (451) in those days.
I applaud you for taking the time to research a cornerstone and sadly the forgotten chapters in the development of Christianity in the Middle East where it all began.
Wilfred Bet-Alkhas
Editor
Zinda Magazine
Thank you, both for such kind words, and for the rightful correction.
Hello Jessica,
Thank you for your wonderful contributions. I enjoyed reading your notes and comments. However, I must point to the fact that the statement, and I quote: “Afterwards, those who remained outside the Chaldean Church called themselves Assyrians.” unquote, is not accurate. There are many books out there to study this issue deeper, including the work of Prof. Simo Parpola. The Nestorians did not call themselves Assyrians. They always referred to themselves in their own language as Atouraye, Suraye and Assuraye (which is derived from the ancient Assyrian Akkadian Ashuraye).
If you like more on this issue, please read my book “Assyrians: The Continuous Saga” which shed light on this matter. I invite to read my other book “Assyrians” From Bedr Khan to Saddam Hussien”, which addresses the persecution and oppression of Assyrian Christians in the Middle East.
Blessings!
Fred
Thank you for your corrections Fred. I am sorry to have been wrong there and will do as you suggest. I hope it did not spoil your enjoyment.
There are remains of the eastern church in china dated from the 8th century. The academy of the Chinese People Republic have noted that Christians were active in china from a very early period. The Academy noted in a paper that the key to the west pulling ahead of the east was the fruit of a platform based on Christianity. They did not know what to do with the report, but they did acknowledge that Christianity would help the Chinese society to grow a healthy and moral based society (Internal governor, v external governor) This of course was balanced against the party’s need to rule. There are notable martyrs from the period of 1949 to 1953 in China and the pressure of Christianity is growing beyond the means to encapsulate it (without using the massive repression used in the past). Time will see.
It will too Tom. In the end we know that even the Gates of Hell will not prevail – but it won’t stop them trying.
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