This dissertation seeks to examine changes in the identity of the Church of the East over a span of several centuries particularly in relation to events and experiences undergone by this church body in its own milieu. It aims to do this through the analysis of key texts by or about prominent church figures and secondary texts which establish the context for these men in each of three separate time periods. The figures under investigation are Mar Babai the Great at the turn of the 7th century during the last years of the Sassanid Empire, Catholicos Timothy I in the height of Abbasid Culture at the turn of the 9th Century, and Mar Yaballaha III during the Pax Mongolica at the end of the 13th century. This dissertation asserts that these men acted as representatives of their churchmen in their day, and that said representation, judging by the esteem in which they were held, extended to subsequent generations. Because of this, an analysis of their milieu and their responses to it provided in their writings grants insight into their corporate identity in their respective time periods, and what variations exist can be described as identity shifts. In this way, this dissertation establishes that the Church of the East in the Sassanid period was working to establish an identity as the Church of the Persian Empire, in distinction from that of the Romans, and furthermore, due to their lofty connections, they were highly anticipating the acceptance of their faith by the leadership of their empire. By the time of Timothy, a century and a half later, due to the religious inclinations of their new political masters, such aspirations were at least in part abandoned locally, but at the further extents of the church’s reach, a greater degree of freedom was granted its members. This freedom contributed to the state of the Church of the East in the final period, where distant unexpected church members came home at the head of an army to establish a kingdom, and Church of the East leadership understandably interpreted this to mean that they might finally have a Christian king. Such aspirations proved short lived. This dissertation shows that there were a number of Church of the East identity points that shifted over the centuries, but two stand out as prominent: 1. their relationship with their political rulers including the role their ecclesiastical group played in society, and 2. the role of missionary outreach in the life of their church.

This essay offers a concise overview of the attempts to develop our understanding of East-Syrian Christianity known as the Church of the East, and of studies concerning its history and theological concepts. Beginning with early contacts between Persian Christians and their 'Roman' neighbours, the author further deals with the research that has taken place in modern times. He demonstrates how various aspects became known to the Western academic community, including the East-Syriac version of the Antiochene theological heritage, the Christological controversies which challenge conventional views, and the extensive growth of this Church to the East. The most important authors and publications are listed and a description is given of the distinctive characteristics of the stages of this history of studies.

At Pentecost there were people from present day Iraq and Syria. Christianity developed very early in these regions but was cut off from cross-fertilization from the west because Persia and the west were at odds. This paper delineates development of Christianity in the Middle East, and by the year 1,000 there were 12 million Christians in the region.

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An important yet often neglected and largely unknown story in Christian-Muslim relations is the connections, functions and roles of Church of the East monasteries in the early Abbasid period of the ninth century. This article describes monastic mission activities that took place in the early and middle ninth century under Muslim rule with a similarity to prior centuries. These activities were also focused on the Muslims around them in Mesopotamia and were able to be sustained in the early ninth century even under Muslim rule. This is important because it offers the story of a period when the Church in Asia lived without political power yet had a history of involvement in witness. The role of a Church subject to Muslim rule yet engaged in mission and learning activities within and beyond the regions of that rule provides a different historical paradigm than usually envisioned. A similar context is still relevant in several ‘contact zones’ of the world today, where Christians struggle...

The Church of the East is the sect of Christianity which developed in Syria and Persia. At its height, dioceses of the Church of the East stretched from Mesopotamia to China and from India to Arabia. However, today, the Assyrian Church of the East, the largest descendant of the Church of the East, has only 323,300 members. This paper presents an overview of the history of the Church of the East from the apostolic age to 651, when the Sassanid Empire fell. This paper argues that the Church of the East developed mostly independently from the Western Church and should be viewed with equal legitimacy to the Western Church. To this end, this paper is discusses the Church of the East’s origins, early development, organization, and counsels, with mention of St. Thomas Christians, while also assessing how the development of the Church of the East should affect the modern reader’s view of the ‘One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church.’