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Research on Christianity in the Muslim World of the Middle East

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Research on Christianity in the Muslim World of the Middle East RESEARCH ON CHRISTIANITY IN THE MUSLIM WORLD OF THE MIDDLE EAST Hilary Kilpatrick There was a time when the Orthodox' of the Balkans were the most exotic Christians Western Europeans were likely to meet, and the Ethiopi- an and Assyrian Churches might have been on another planet. Thanks to the extensive migrations of recent decades, major Western European cities are now host to a variety of Eastern Christian communities, and so there is a real need for books which seek to describe the different Eastern Churches and explain their historical development to the interested Wes- tern Christian. And in the second place, the relationship between Christi- ans and Muslims both in the Middle East and in the Balkans provides clues to the understanding of events in these two regions. It is this second reason which has prompted the appearance of Eastern Christians in the World of Islam.2 The book forms part of a theological course of an Open University type. It has three sections. The first part, a general historical introduction, covers the early development of Christiani- ty in the Eastern Mediterranean; the Ecumenical Councils; the develop- ment of independent national Churches; the Church in Byzantium; anti- Judaism and anti-Semitism in the early Church; the rise and expansion of Islam; Christianity under Muslim rule; Christianity in the Ottoman Empire; and the process of modernisation in the Balkans in the 20th century. The second part, the core of the book, sets out to describe the different Churches: (Orthodox) Christians in the Balkans; the history and self-perception of the (Arab) Greek Orthodox of Antioch; Byzantine Orthodox theology and liturgy; icons; the Syrian Orthodox Church of Antioch; the Assyrian Church of the East; the Maronite Church; Syrian spirituality and monastic life; the Coptic Orthodox church from its origin till 1900; the Orthodox Church of Ethiopia; the Armenian Church; the Uniate Churches in the Middle East; and the Western Catholic and Protestant churches of the region. The final part is devoted to 20th century developments under the following headings: Christians in the (last years of 1 In this review "Orthodox" refers to the Churches in communionwith Constantinople; other Eastern Churchesare referred to as "Syrian Orthodox", "Coptic Orthodox" and so on. 2 This contributionis written as a review of Herman Teule & Anton Wessels (eds.), Oosterse christenen binnen de wereld van de islam, Kampen: Kok, Open Theologisch Onderwijs, 1997, 438 pp. 173 the) Ottoman Empire; the Serbian Orthodox Church in Yugoslavia (1918- 1991) ; developments in the Middle East and the position of the Christian minorities after the Treaty of Lausanne; the Orthodox Church in Greece; developments in the Churches in the Middle East and Turkey in the aftermath of the Ottoman Empire; the Coptic Orthodox Church from 1900 to today; monastic life in the Coptic Orthodox Church; the Ethiopian Orthodox Church in the twentieth century; Eastern Christians under Muslim rule and developments in their attitude to Judaism; Arab Christi- ans ; and a historical survey of the Eastern Christian dialogue with Islam. It is obvious that the editors have made a conscientious and thorough attempt to map Eastern Christianity in past and present for an interested Western public, and Oosterse christenen contains some excellent contri- butions and a great deal of information, much of it new to all but a small group of specialists. The publisher and editors are to be congratulated for embarking on such a demanding undertaking. But it will also be obvious that the plan of the book poses problems. First of all, if "Eastern Christians" (defined as the Orthodox, Coptic, Ethiopian, Syrian Orthodox, Maronite, Armenian and Assyrian Churches, and corresponding Uniate Churches) is a concept which is easy to agree on, the "World of Islam" is not. It is unsatisfactory in many historical contexts because its boundaries have altered so much over time; for instance, in 1000 a large part of Spain but none of the Balkans were ruled by Muslims, while in 1500 the reverse was true. The Caucasus, at least partly, belongs to the World of Islam, as Azerbaijanis and Armenians know, but it is ignored here. Even though this book recognises that Muslim rule in the Balkans lasted only five centuries or so, it implies that the Christians of Serbia, Bulgaria and Romania can all be spoken of as being in the World of Islam in much the same way that the Syrian Ortho- dox, for instance, are. It may be doubted whether the Balkan Christians see themselves in this way. Rather, in some cases, the struggle with Islam, personified in Muslim rulers, has played a determining part in determining their national identity. (This also holds good for Russia, another country which falls outside the book's field of vision.) There is no clear statement of what is meant by the World of Islam, nor systematic discussion of the different experiences with Islam which Balkan and Near Eastern Christians have had. And an opportunity is thus lost to investigate the question of what difference, if any, it makes to a Church to live for five or thirteen centuries under Muslim rule. Again, the Ethiopian Church does not belong to the world of Islam, as the author of the Ethiopian chapters points out; the majority of the Ethio- pian population was and still is Christian, and it is the Muslims who form a significant minority. A further point, which does not emerge from the list of contents, is that after the Mongols the situation of Christians in Persia, undeniably part of the World of Islam, is mentioned only inciden- .
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