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Bulletin of the Royal Institute for Inter-Faith Studies (BRIIFS)

During the first three decades after independence in 1922, Irag pursued a foreign policy that was associated with an expansive conception of national inter-est. The nationalist leadership in Baghdad actively championed Arab unity and attempted to exercise authority over neighbouring countries. This external posture shifted in the early 1950s to a foreign policy rooted in a more restricted and territory-based notion of national interest. Why Iragi officials adopted diplomatic practices congruent with “Westphalian sovereignty” is hard to explain in terms of the dynamics of state formation, but is closely connected to the structure of the local economy and struggles among domestic social forces.‬

(First §) Sumer and Samarra / IN THE NINTH CENTURY AD, the ʿAbbasid Caliph al-Muʿtasim, the son of Harun al-Rashid, came to an area located between Babylon and Assyria to build himself a new capital that was far removed from Baghdad, whose people had started complaining about the behaviour of his Turkish soldiers. This area had flourished and prospered in pre-Islamic times, partly as a result of the development of artificial irrigation projects.

Leaving aside a discussion of the making of the Syriac-speaking world that built upon the heritage of Arameans, Greeks, Nabateans and Jews. This article traces some major trajectories of the development of Syriac-speaking Churches from the early Byzantine period to the early eighteenth century. Highlighting aspects of their early literary history in Edessa and Nisibis, as well as connections to Mesopotamia, this article offers extended discussion of the impact of theological, particularly Christological, controversies on the emergence of divisions among Syriac-speaking Christians. It traces aspects of the Syriac Renaissance, the impact of the Mongol invasion and Syriac Christian missionary activities in Central and East Asia, and the further diversification of the body of Syriac-speaking Churches through the emergence of the Maronite Patriarchate. During the later centuries covered, Syriac-speaking Churches increasingly faced divisions and hardships. The regulations under which some of these Churches fell during the Ottoman Empire did not improve their lot. It would take until the latter part of the twentieth century before perspectives and new opportunities for a brighter future emerged at least for some of the members of Syriac-speaking Churches.‬

Christianity in Iran goes back to the Apostolic Age, when it was first established in Edessa and Adiabene. However, for doctrinal and ecclesiastical reasons, the Church in the East separated from the Antiochian Syrian Church and proclaimed itself the ‘Church of the East. Buttressed by their faith and zeal, these Christians were moved to evangelize in Central Asia and China, before and after the coming of Islam. Historic circumstances, especially the invasion of Timur Lenk and many bloody conflicts in later days, caused membership in this Church and its sister Churches to dwindle to small communities living in Urmia-Salmas and northern Iraq. In the seventeenth century, the Armenian Apostolic Church was founded in Iran when Shah Abbas permitted a community of deportees to settle in the country. Roman Catholic missions were established early in the seventeenth century and Protestant ones in the eighteenth. Today, there are Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant churches in Iran. The rise of Islamic fundamentalism and the war in Iraq has made the future of Christian communities precarious, but the Muslim majority can and must ameliorate the situation by granting these Christians all of the rights and privileges of citizenship. The future of Christianity in the Middle East is subject not only to external circumstances, but to internal ones as well. The ongoing Christian-Muslim dialogue, in which Iran is a strong participant, is a good omen that brings hope to the small Christian communities in the Islamic Republic of Iran. “But they were all amazed and marveled, saying, ‘Behold, are not all these that are speaking Galileans? And how have we heard each his own language in which he was born? Parthians and Medes and Elamites, and inhabitants of Mesopotamia…” Acts II:7-9.

In the twenty-first century, the Coptic Orthodox Church is reaping the benefits of an ongoing renewal process that commenced in the early decades of the twen-tieth. Drawing inspiration from its heritage, especially monasticism and mar-tyrdom, the Church has been able to revitalize its rich traditions by encouraging a strong Sunday School movement and reviving monastic practices. Due to the apparent inability of Egypt’s political actors, most notably, the Wafa Party, to represent Coptic interests, the leader of the Coptic Orthodox Church, Patriarch Shenouda III, has used his position as head of the community to provide civil as well as spiritual leadership. This is no departure from tradition as the office of patriarch has long possessed a temporal dimension, especially under the Ottoman millet system. A rise in violence against Copts marred Church-state relations during the presidency of Anwar Sadat, but a new president, Hosni Mubarak, and a change in tactics by Patriarch Shenouda has led to renewed cooperation. The government has acknowledged the role of the patriarch as the representative of the Coptic community to the state. During the reign of the patriarch, the Church has experienced global expansion providing new opportunities and challenges. Through ministering to Coptic expatriates and evangelizing in new mission fields, the Coptic Orthodox Church has reclaimed its credentials as a universal Church, while retaining its Coptic identity through close connections with the desert tradition.‬

For most of the twentieth century and during the early years of the twenty-first, Christianity in the Holy Land has found its presence significantly challenged from a number of directions— by destructive conflicts, by waves of migration and by a fragmented ecclesiology. Yet, the importance of Christianity in the Holy Land is not merely local; it also influences the identity of the two-billion-strong world community of Churches that make up Christendom. In particular, the Vatican and the Catholic Church have taken strong religious and political interest in the past, present and future configuration of Christianity in Jerusalem and in surrounding states. This paper will first seek to identify the Churches that make up the Christian body in the Holy Land and to describe many of the challenges that face them. The second part will look in detail at the origins and development of the policy of the Holy See regarding the Jerusalem question and the position of Christianity in the Holy Land more generally. Significant attention will be given to the theology and diplomacy of Popes Paul VI and John Paul II, as well as the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem and its modern historical and religious nature.‬

The life and witness of the Orthodox Church in the twentieth century was marked by the collapse of the Ottoman empire and the advent of nationalism and narked by the collapse of the Ottoman empire and the advent of nationalism and ation-states in the Middle East. In order to follow and evaluate the trajector, of the Greek Orthodox Church, three main features will be examined: marty. dom, Diaspora and Orthodox renaissance movements. The Arab-sraeli conflict and the Lebanese civil war have led to serious dislocation of Christian communities and to massive Christian emigration. There is, indeed, a danger of Christian depopulation in the region; however, the Orthodox Church in the diaspora can overcome ethnic boundaries and transcend homeland nationalisms by attempting to discover the right balance between the national and the universal elements present in the Church. Orthodox renaissance movements in the Middle East declined to understand the Church as an auxiliary force for building up national identities or as a juridical body of a particular community in the struggle for state power-sharing. True liberation and Church renaissance, could, in the movement’s view, be attained only through communion, interpersonal relationship and true prayer. Despite the analogies between the developments in the Orthodox Church in Eastern and Southeastern Europe and those in Middle Eastern Orthodoxy, relentless pressures by the Arab-Israeli conflict, authoritarian regimes, the rise of political Islam and regional politics constitute tremendous restraints on a revival of Othodoxy in its cradle.‬

This article provides, in historical context, a short summary of some of the highlights in the history of those Eastern Catholic Churches that are part of Syriac Christian civilization-the Syrian Catholic Church, the Maronite Church and the Chaldean Catholic Church-and of the contributions of these three Churches to ecumenical dialogue among Orthodox, Apostolic and Catholic Churches in the Near East. Toward the end, brief mention is made of other Eastern Catholic Churches in the region.‬

Although the early history of the Maronite Church remains contested and controversial, it is much easier to trace the later evolution of Maronite history. From the seventeenth century onward, the Maronite Church has sought to reinvent itself and present its official view of its origins and development to the world. Although many scholars, both inside and outside of the Church, have disputed this official interpretation of Maronite history, it continues to form the basis for the Maronites’ own perception of their religious and communal identity. This identity has become integral to Maronites in the Middle East and in the diaspora, for whom a shared belief in a national Church forged in the Lebanese mountains defines a new generation’s search for spirituality, in the twenty-first century.‬

This article explores the history of Protestantism in the Middle East from the creation of the Protestant missions by the American, British and German evangelicals in the early nineteenth century to the indigenous Protestant churches that have resulted from that missionary work. It focuses on the initial desire by the missionaries to reform the indigenous Christian communities, the tensions that that approach created and the emphasis upon educational and medical ministry that developped as the reformation/conversion strategy failed. It seeks to clarify the causes and effects of the Protestant presence through a serie of significant questions that deal with the identity of the Protestants; the reasons behind their choice of timing and locales; the motivating factors behind their missions; their goals and their gradual adjustment to the prevailing conditions; the details of their work, with a particular focus on Lebanon/Syria, Palestine/Jordan and Persia/Iraq; and finally, the impact and present status of the Protestant presence.‬