The third Millenium of European
Civilisation is at the same time the third Millenium of Christianity. The
turn of the century creates an opportunity to examine more profoundly the
roots and the distinctive features of our culture and by this token to
express our acknowledgements to its ancient creators. The European Culture
was born outside Europe and its principal book was written in non-European
languages. The Middle East was the cradle of Christianity and that is where
the ancient origins of the contemporary European Culture - however secular
in modern times - are to be traced.
The research in question encompassed four field-trips to the Middle East.
1. In July and August 1998
to Turkey, Lebanon and Syria,
2. In April 1999 to Iran,
3. In July and August 1999
to Irak, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon,
4. In December 1999 and January
2000 to Israel.
During these four journeys we visited all crucial centres of the Syrian-Orthodox and Assyrian communities - the most ancient churches that have maintained their historical continuity until the present day. We have made recordings of their religious rituals and collected a great deal of descriptions of their secular customs and everyday life. We have visited all bishoprics of the Syrian-Orthodox Church and the Assyrian Church of the East and carried out a great number of interviews with their spiritual leaders (patriarchs, bishops, priests and monks) as well as ordinary community members. We have created a detailed photographic and ethnographic documentation of all major sites of the Syrian Churches in the region. We have acted according to the premise that these communities have retained a great deal of ancient patterns of religiosity and can be perceived to some extent as living relics of the early Christian world.
The final result of our research programme will be a book on Syrian Christianity of the Middle East, to be published by the end of the year 2000. The monograph is going to be a complete record of the present day situation and an in-depth analysis of prospects of Oriental Christianity.
Apart from the strictly scientific
goals, however, we should like to make the broader audience acquainted
with the oldest living Christian communities that have managed to survive
despite unfavourable historical conditions. Firstly, we have been
co-operating with Polsat TV (the second biggest Polish TV station)and have
recorded a series of eight TV programmes, broadcast throughout 1999. Secondly,
some 150 photographs from our research trips to the Middle East were exhibited
in the National Gallery in Cracow from 18 November 1999 till 12 February
2000.
THE CHRISTIANS OF THE MIDDLE
EAST
The Middle East, as it has been stated, is the cradle of Christianity. It is there that the Apostles began their missionary work and the name christianoi was coined to denote the followers of Jesus. It is also there that our civilisation, which is about to enter its third millennium, originated. Now at the turn of the 20th century, we are being given an opportunity to reflect upon the roots of our culture and to meet its co-creators - our forgotten brothers.
The Middle East is still inhabited by Syrian Christians – the descendants of the communities which were the first to respond to Jesus' message. Relegated to the margins of Christianity, they have been writing the pages of their tragic and heroic history since time immemorial. Their origins go back to Simon the Stylite, Ephraim and many other Eastern saints, who have left an indelible impression on European spirituality. The Syrian Christian communities, founded by Peter, Paul, James and Thomas, live nowadays in Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Iran and Israel, where, despite hostile environment and shortage of schools and cultural institutions, they still cultivate their traditions, faith and the Aramaic language similar to that spoken by Jesus.
Discrimination, repression, and grim prospects for the future contribute to subsequent waves of emigration to Western Europe and the United States of America. With a distinct lack of interest among the western general public, the Christian heritage of the Syrian churches is rapidly disappearing, despite their magnificent past and strong sense of identity. It is therefore absolutely necessary to record all the Syrian communities' monuments and customs.
It is worth noting that Syrian
Christians, like Armenians and the Coptic churches of Egypt and Ethiopia
belong to the family of Oriental churches and represent the third current
of Christianity, apart from the Orthodox and Western ones,and have developed
their religious tradition independently of both Greek and Latin influences.
THE JACOBITES, OR THE SYRIAN-ORTHODOX CHURCH
The name of the Jacobite Church comes from the name of Jacob Baradai (d 578), a Bishop of Edessa, who organised the Syrian Monophysitic hierarchy and undertook large-scale missionary action in the Arabian Peninsula, Palestine, Syria and Egypt. According to tradition, his missionary effort was crowned with the ordination of thirty bishops and 100,000 priests. The Jacobite Church is one of the world's oldest Christian communities. Its origins go back to Apostle Peter and Bishop Ignatius, his successor in Antioch, who was martyred by the Romans in the 1st century.
Passionate dogmatic disputes have plagued Christians since the beginning of the 4th century and divided them into hostile and belligerent factions. The most controversial issue has been the idea of the Saviour's divinity and humanity. After Arianism and the Nestorian Schism, two fundamental theological stances emerged in the Church of the 5th century: Diophysitism and Monophysitism. The adherents to the former advocated the belief that Christ was of two distinct natures, whereas those to the latter stressed the two natures' unity and coexistence. According to Monophysitic theology, Jesus' humanity became entirely deified in his divinity, in which it dissolved like "a drop of water in a barrel of wine".
The Council of Chalcedon (451) condemned Monophysitic Christology and promulgated the dogma of the two natures of Jesus, which are united in his person. The Monophysitic school ignored the Council's decisions and formed separate churches, independent of Byzantium, with their own hierarchy, liturgy and translations of the Bible into ethnic languages. Monophysitic dissent can be viewed as an expression of veto against Byzantine despotism and a sign of attachment to local traditions which were older than those of the Greeks. Apart from the Syrian communities, Monophysitic Christology was also adopted by the Armenian Church and the Coptic Church of Egypt and Ethiopia. It met with bloody persecution and a hostile reaction from Constantinople, through which thousands of Monophysitic monks and priests lost their lives.
When the Arabs invaded the eastern provinces of Byzantium in the 7th century, the Jacobite majority of the Syrian population greeted them with joy. For the next 300 years, the caliphs let the Jacobites enjoy religious liberties which would have been inconceivable in Christian Byzantium. The Jacobite Church declined as a result of Tamerlane's conquest of Asia Minor, and it has never again recovered its former glory. At present, it numbers half a million followers in the Middle East (in Syria, Iraq, Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan) and a million in southern India.
THE NESTORIANS, OR THE ASSYRIAN
CHURCH OF THE EAST
The word 'Nestorians', used
mostly in the West, has been derived from the name of Nestorius, a Persian
monk and priest from Antioch, who was elected the Patriarch of Constantinople
in 428. The Nestorian Church is one of the oldest Christian communities,
and it is also known as the East-Syrian Church, which differentiates it
from the Jacobites. Its origins can be traced back to the Jerusalem Community
and to the Apostle James the Lesser, whom the New Testament calls Jesus'
brother.
Christological disputes have caused turmoil since as early as the 4th century. They also surfaced in the Constantinople of Pontiff Nestorius, when the priest Anastasius denied the Virgin Mary the status of Theotokos, or the Mother of God. Nestorius sided with Anastasius in the debate that followed. He called Mary Christotokos, or the Mother of Christ, and preached that there are two persons in Jesus: a perfect and sinless man, Mary's son in the flesh, and the Word of God, who became flesh and made his dwelling in the man after he was born.
When the Council of Ephesus
condemned Nestorius's theology in 431 and active persecution of the heretics
began in the Roman Empire, Nestorius and his supporters, predominantly
from eastern Syria, turned their backs on the West and emigrated to Iran
and upper
Mesopotamia. At the end of
the 5th century, their church was already so well-organised that Babai
II, the Bishop of Ctesiphon, was able to adopt the title of the Patriarch
of the East, which elevated him to equal status with the Metropolitans
of Antioch, Alexandria, and Rome. Life behind the Persian border isolated
the Nestorian Church from Greek and Roman influence and further strengthened
its religious otherness.
In the Middle Ages, Nestorian
missionaries succeeded in evangelising a vast area that included Arabia,
Persia, Turkmenistan, China, Tibet, Mongolia, Manchuria, India, Ceylon
and Java. This can be accounted for by their devotion, deep religious faith
and monastic discipline, as well as the intellectual heritage of the school
in Nisibis and the theological academy in Edessa. The Nestorian Church
covered the most extensive territory in the Christian world and could boast
27 metropolises and 230 dioceses which were inhabited by some 60 million
people. There is little wonder, then, that the Latin Crusaders dreamed
of forming a military alliance with the Nestorians and attacking the Muslims
both from the west and the east. Nowadays the total number of Nestorians
in the Middle East does not exceed 150,000 and they live mostly in Iraq,
Iran,Syria and Lebanon.
Professor Andrzej Flis -
Project Director
Co-ordination and Execution:
Dr. Beata Kowalska, Dr. Bartek Lessaer and students of the Centre.