The East (part two)
Continuing this survey of various indigenous Christian communities outside of the specifically Greek-speaking or Latin-speaking world.
Imperial Unity and Christian Divisions: The Church AD 450 – 680, John Meyendorff
Arab Christians
Arab Christians never organized formally into a single religious group. Arab tribes and regional kingdoms existed within the empire in what is today known as Jordan; they also existed outside of the empire in Persia and the southern parts of the Arabian Peninsula. Eventually, Islam would sweep away much of Arab Christian civilization in the seventh century.
Prior to this, we have stories of conversions to Christianity: a “Saracen” queen named Mawuia (Maria) in 374, with a neighboring ascetic named “Moses” installed in her kingdom as bishop; a Saracen sheik named Aspebet, who, after his consecration in 427 was installed as bishop of the parembolai, or “camps” by Juvenal of Jerusalem and was present at Ephesus in 431; another bishop of the “camps,” Eustathius, was present at Chalcedon.
Christianity would also penetrate what is today Yemen – in ancient times, the kingdom of Saba – Sheba, and home of the famous queen who visited Solomon.
We also have evidence that the expansionist tendencies of Christianity caused one king to adopt Judaism. The successor to this king would massacre Christians, and Emperor Justin I would encourage his ally in Ethiopia to invade the country and kill the king.
Christianity would survive Islam in these Arab lands, represented in all three threads of Christological belief: Chalcedonian, non-Chalcedonian, and Nestorian. They present literature that demonstrates a community of vitality.
Egypt, Ethiopia, and Nubia
In the fourth and fifth centuries, Alexandria remained a major metropolis, largely Greek-speaking, and politically integrated into the Roman system. It rivaled Rome and Constantinople in population. As a major seaport, it brought together a community of very diverse backgrounds, and developed a rather justified reputation as a city of corruption and violence.
Even before Christianity, it was a center of Hellenistic learning, and was home to a large population of Jews. the Greek translation of Scripture into Hebrew (the Septuagint) was done in Alexandria. The Church here was claimed to have been founded by Mark the Evangelist, and, before Constantinople was founded and made the “New Rome,” it was unquestionably the second city in the empire after Rome itself.
The prestige of Athanasius, Theophilus, and Cyril also aided in this standing, as did the immense wealth of the Egyptian Church. The intellectual and scientific resources available in the city also contributed to this prestige.
The bishop of Alexandria was the one who would compute the date of Easter; unique, or at least rare, among bishops, the Bishop of Alexandria exercised power over all bishops of the region, instead of just authority over a city; in his case, the authority extending over all of Egypt. This power afforded him the title of “pope,” once used for all bishops but eventually applied only to that of Rome and Alexandria. This power would eventually be challenged in the east by Constantinople, given that it was the imperial capital.
The Council of Constantinople officially gave this second position to the city that bears its name. the Alexandrian bishop at the time had no part in this decision, and subsequent Alexandrian bishops consistently rejected the legitimacy of that council.
They felt that the heroic struggle of Athanasius against the Arians and that of Cyril against the Nestorians afforded them a right to this position – really not bad arguments over Constantinople, especially considering that Arianism swept over Constantinople in the fourth century, and Nestorius was bishop of Constantinople in the fifth.
The people, when forced to choose between their “pope” and the emperor, never failed to choose their pope – for example, after Chalcedon. While the archbishop and his court spoke Greek, the people knew no Greek; they spoke the Coptic language. In fact, it was considered that one would “leave: Alexandria to the go to Egypt.
Coptic was also the language of the monks, whose worldwide fame gave Egyptian Christianity its unique flavor. Monasteries would number in the thousands the number of monks or nuns in their community. Athanasius, when persecuted, would find refuge among these monks, and the monks would play key roles at several of the Church councils. While the monks were highly regarded throughout the Christian world, the average (and illiterate) Coptic peasant was looked down upon.
Egypt would play a key role in the expansion of Christianity in Africa, both the eastern “horn” of Africa as well as the upper Nile. The Queen of Sheba, while located in today’s Yemen, was actually an Ethiopian sovereign. According to legend, her visit to Solomon resulted in the birth of a son, and Solomon would gift this son the Ark of the Covenant. It was a legend formed in the Middle Ages, used to explain the many Judaic features of Ethiopian Christianity.
The roots of Christianity in Ethiopia are obscure (the word “Ethiopian” would refer to any dark-skinned person, for example, the Ethiopian Eunuch baptized by Philip), and the more formal relationship with the Church in Egypt did not come into being until the tenth century. Only in the twentieth century would this tie be severed.
Indigenous Christian Churches and the Imperial Center of Byzantium
The preaching of the Christian Gospel would reach many of the numerous minor ethnic groups throughout the Caucasus, the small islands of the Persian Gulf and Indian Ocean, as well as African tribes from the fourth through sixth centuries. Sometimes, direct or indirect imperial support would originate these missions; often, however, the establishment of new churches was spontaneous, initiated by committed laymen.
Monks would also do missions work, comparable in every way to the achievements of their Latin brothers in the West. Monks, like others in this story, were laymen; despite living an ascetic life, they by no means detached themselves from spreading the Gospel.
Such spontaneous spreading of Christianity, done, as it was, not by imperialists, led to variety and localization of practice. The need to translate Scripture into local languages was never questioned, only sometimes delayed for lack of qualified translators.
Even dispersed, these various churches understood that they were part of a universal whole – they understood the confession of faith found in the Nicene Creed. They would also reach out to bishops in larger diocese for support or for answers to theological questions.
Even outside of the Empire, they understood the important role of the emperor in defending the faith. This would begin to change as the emperor would, by force and violence, attempt to hold together groups which did not support one or another decision of Church Councils.
Such Churches would even find respite under a Zoroastrian or Muslim ruler, where they had none under Byzantium. In other words, Eastern Churches did not embrace the idea of the emperor’s infallibility (caesaro-papism) when they believed him in doctrinal error.
Eventually, these localized and somewhat isolated communities would grow “ghettoized” when surrounded in a Zoroastrian or Muslim environment, clinging defensively to their ancient languages, and, therefore, losing their original missionary zeal.
Conclusion
I will close with comments again from my posts from Jenkins’ book, this coming from the final post in the series:
[Jenkins]: Instead of trying to understand why religions perish, we should perhaps be asking why they survive at all under such difficult circumstances.
[My summary]: I will close with one last thought from the book: churches end, but the Church goes on. Jenkins was once criticized for stating that the North African church ceased to exist. His critic, a conservative Catholic, would offer that the number of Christians in the region was irrelevant; the Church body was at once both mystical and institutional. Jenkins offers:
[Jenkins]: …I think he was making a worthwhile point about the time span of human history.
[My parting question]: And for this, I will offer: what if we are still living in the early Church?