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Project Faith: Christianity Around the World Session 1: Middle Eastern Christianity

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Project Faith: Christianity Around the World Session 1: Middle Eastern Christianity Project Faith: Christianity Around the World Session 1: Middle Eastern Christianity 1) What’s the Story? “Why do so many Palestinians have blue eyes?” 2) Which countries comprise the Middle East? Iran Bahrain Jordan Cyprus? Iraq United Arab Lebanon Emirates Saudi Arabia Oman Israel Qatar Yemen Egypt? Kuwait Syria TurKey? 3) Ethnicity of the Middle East Semitic Peoples Indo-Aryans (Caucasians) Turks Arabs Persians (Aryans/Iranians) Azeris Jews Kurds TurKmen Assyrians Anatolian TurKs Chaldeans Armenians GeorGians Afro-Asians Copts 4) Religions in the Middle East Today Islam Christianity Judaism Sunni Islam Orthodox Zoroastrianism Shia Islam Catholic Baha’i Wahabi Islam Protestant Druze Sufism (Islam) (Nestorian) Yazidi (Monophysite) MelKite/Maronite 1) Christian Population % 2) Changes in Population 3) Christianity Starts in a Hellenized World 4) Roman Empire With Parthian Empire - There is much ethnic mixinG in the centuries precedinG and followinG the birth of Jesus. 5) The Church begins in Jerusalem – In The Upper Room. 6) The Church Spreads to Antioch, Alexandria, Asia Minor, Cyprus, Damascus 7) Council of Chalcedon 451 CE – an historic definition of ChristoloGy was forGed Two natures in one Person Undivided “We, then, followinG the holy Fathers, all with one consent, teach people to confess one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, the same perfect in Godhead and also perfect in manhood; truly God and truly man, of a reasonable [rational] soul and body; consubstantial [co-essential] with the Father accordinG to the Godhead, and consubstantial with us accordinG to the Manhood; in all thinGs liKe unto us, without sin; beGotten before all aGes of the Father accordinG to the Godhead, and in these latter days, for us and for our salvation, born of the VirGin Mary, the Mother of God, accordinG to the Manhood; one and the same Christ, Son, Lord, only beGotten, to be acKnowledged in two natures, inconfusedly, unchangeably, indivisibly, inseparably; the (ἐν δύο φύσεσιν ἀσυγχύτως, ἀτρέπτως, ἀδιαιρέτως, ἀχωρίστως – in duabus naturis inconfuse, immutabiliter, indivise, inseparabiliter) distinction of natures beinG by no means taKen away by the union, but rather the property of each nature beinG preserved, and concurrinG in one Person (prosopon) and one Subsistence (hypostasis), not parted or divided into two persons, but one and the same Son, and only beGotten God (μονογενῆ Θεόν), the Word, the Lord Jesus Christ; as the prophets from the beGinninG [have declared] concerninG Him, and the Lord Jesus Christ Himself has taught us, and the Creed of the holy Fathers has handed down to us. 8) Monophysite Churches - (Coptic, Ethiopian, Armenian, Syriac, Eritrean, Indian) Monophysite, in Christianity, one who believed that Jesus Christ’s nature remains altoGether divine and not human even though he has taKen on an earthly and human body with its cycle of birth, life, and death. 9) Nestorian Christians Nestorianism is the Christian doctrine that Jesus existed as two persons, the man Jesus and the divine Son of God, or LoGos, rather than as a unified person. This doctrine is identified with Nestorius (386–451), patriarch of Constantinople. This view of Christ was condemned at the Council of Ephesus in 431, and the conflict over this view led to the Nestorian schism, separatinG the Assyrian Church of the East from the Byzantine Church. 10) Assyrians – a diverse group of Semitic peoples who inhabit the area before the migrations of the Arabs Many Christians in the Middle East are Semitic followers of Syriac Christianity, are ethnically and linguistically distinct from Arabs. Assyrian Church of the East, (also Known as the Church of the East and somewhat inaccurately as the Nestorian Church) 1st century AD – Mainly found amonG the ethnic Assyrians of Iraq, Iran, south east TurKey and north east Syria. 11) Syriac Christianity ~ Aramaic (Syriac) SpeaKinG Churches 12) Ephraim the Syrian (306-373 CE) Wrote over 400 hymns The Light of the just and joy of the upright is Christ Jesus our Lord. Begotten of the Father, He manifested himself to us. He came to rescue us from darkness and to fill us with the radiance of His light. Day is dawning upon us; the power of darkness is fading away.From the true Light there arises for us the light which illumines our darkened eyes. His glory shines upon the world and enlightens the very depths of the abyss. Death is annihilated, night has vanished, and the gates of Sheol are broken. Creatures lying in darkness from ancient times are clothed in light. The dead arise from the dust and sing because they have a Savior. He brings salvation and grants us life. He ascends to his Father on high. He will return in glorious splendor and shed His light on those gazing upon Him. 13) Scriptures Chanted in Aramaic (The LanGuage of Jesus) 14) Assyrian (Iranian) Christians 15) The Assyrian community in Iran numbered approximately 200,000 prior to the Islamic Revolution of 1979.However, after the revolution many Assyrians left the country, primarily for the United States; the 1996 Iranian census counted only 32,000 Assyrians. Current estimates of the Assyrian population in Iran ranGe from 32,000 (as of 2005) to 50,000 (as of 2007). The Iranian capital, Tehran, is home to the majority of Iranian Assyrians; however, approximately 15,000 Assyrians reside in northern Iran, in Urmia and various Assyrian villages in the surroundinG area. 16) Chaldean Christians (Iraq) Chaldeans are members of an autonomous Catholic Church that retains a unique liturGy and tradition while recognizinG the Pope's authority. Chaldeans form the majority - about 550,000 - of Iraq's estimated 700,000 Christians. 17) His Church oriGinally comprised members of the Nestorian Church, and has had a presence in the country now Known as Iraq since the 2nd Century. 18) Members of the Nestorian Church believe that Jesus Christ has two natures - that of a divine being, the Son of a God, and that of a mortal human. 19) The Eastern-rite Church the Chaldeans belonG to has a traditional liturgical lanGuaGe, Syriac - a linGuistic descendant of Aramaic, the lanGuaGe thouGht by most scholars to have been spoKen by Jesus and his disciples. 20) Arab, Greek and Melkite Christians 21) Armenian Christians 22) Palestinian Christians Palestinians Christians made up about 10% of the Arab population of Palestine in 1920. They were comprised of the aforementioned forms of Christianity: Orthodox, Catholic, & Protestant. The majority of Palestinian Christians now live outside of Israel/Palestine. They now comprise 6-7% of the 12 million Palestinians. 23) Maronite Christians The Maronites belonG to the Maronite Syriac Church of Antioch (a former ancient Greek city now in TurKey) is an Eastern Catholic Syriac Church that had affirmed its communion with Rome since 1180 A.D., althouGh the official view of the Church is that it had never accepted either the Monophysitic views held by their Syriac neiGhbors, which were condemned in the Council of Chalcedon, or the failed compromise doctrine of Monothelitism (the latter claim being found in contemporary sources). 24) Melkite Christians MelKites view themselves as the first Christian community, datinG the MelKite Church bacK to the time of the Apostles. This first community is said to have been a mixed one made up of individuals who were originally GreeK, Greco- Macedonian, Roman, Syriac, and Jewish. 25) Protestant Missions in the Middle East 26) In 1834, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) appointed the Rev. Justin PerKins as its first missionary to what was then Known as Persia. The American Presbyterian Mission established the first indigenous evanGelical (i.e., Presbyterian) churches, the first modern schools in Iran, the first schools for Girls, the first modern hospitals, clinics and nursinG schools, and the first colleGe and colleGe for women in Iran. 27) A Future for Middle Eastern Christians? .
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