Syriac Chritianity

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The Testing Ground for Jesuit Accommodation in Early Modern India: Francisco Ros SJ in Malabar (16th–17th Centuries),  explores the underlying dynamics of the accommodation experiments led by Francisco Ros SJ (1559–1624)—a Catalonian from the Jesuit province of Aragón—in the cultural and religious terrain of Malabar, in particular, among the region’s Christian communities, including the ancient Thomas Christians. Along with the questions of ecumenical and liturgical concerns, this historical analysis becomes an interpretative key to understanding also the later mission launched by Roberto de Nobili SJ (1577–1656), the main proponent of accommodation in the non-Christian context of Madurai in South India. Most importantly, the study underscores, without losing sight of the primary focus of the early modern history of the Malabar Church and the Thomas Christians, the Jesuit mission in early modern India, as the crucial intersecting point of some of the most prominent promoters of the mission praxis of accommodation in the first century of the Society of Jesus, including Alessandro Valignano (1539–1606) and Matteo Ricci (1552–1610). The narrative thread of this book advances spotlighting the inescapable intermiglings of faith and culture in the respective contexts, against the backdrop of recent academic interest in the mission approach of accommodatio in Jesuit missions, as well as its contemporary offshoots: adaptation, inculturation, and interculturation.
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Since late antiquity, northern Mesopotamia had been the cradle of two main Christian communities, namely, the Church of the East and the Syriac Orthodox Church of Antioch. From the late Middle Ages onwards, however, their newly-created Catholic counterparts, as well as Protestant offshoots in the modern period, have further added to this uneasy and often antagonistic mix. Despite these Churches sharing a common Syriac liturgical language, and their members speaking Neo-Aramaic and sharing a common Assyrian ethnicity and heritage, they have time and again found themselves at loggerheads in the historical record over differences in theology, Christology, allegiance and claims to apostolic succession. With this diversification of creeds and loyalties amongst the Syriac Churches, there also came a need for each community to legitimise, consolidate and renew itself as it saw fit in order to be able to remain in competition with its ‘rivals.’ Part of this process was embodied in the appropriation of churches and monasteries belonging to the ‘others’ and their modification to conform to the ecclesiastical norms of the new owners.

In this study, cases of churches which have largely changed hands between the Church of the East, Syriac Orthodox Church, Chaldean Catholic Church and Syriac Catholic Church will be discussed in an effort to illustrate this un-Christian process of control, appropriation and dispossession, as well as the transferral and imposition of one form of Christian expression on an edifice which previously belonged to another denomination. Examples of church buildings in Iraq, Syria, Turkey and Iran will hence be discussed in an effort to understand the way in which this heritage is appropriated and transferred, as well as the method through which one denomination’s own heritage can be transferred to an existing structure built by an opposing one.

In the liturgical literature of the Church of East (the so-called Nestorian), the Wardā collection, meant for the liturgical performance at night services on the festival days and Sundays of the whole liturgical year, holds a special place. Strophic hymns – ōnītā (pl. ōnyātā) – contained in the collection are still a part of the liturgy of the East Syrian Church. Altogether, the collection comprises more than 120 hymns, most of which are ascribed to Gīwargīs Wardā (13th century), who is the eponym of this book. According to their content, the hymns can be divided into five categories: exegetic, hagiographic, apocryphal narratives, describing historical events and calamities, dedicated to other subjects. The first part of the book is a detailed study of the textual, poetical and historical peculiarities of the Wardā collection. Ist evolution stages and the main types have been reconstructed. A special chapter focuses on the position of this book in Syriac church literature and defines ist main sources. The second part represents a critical edition of 35 hymns from the Wardā collection according to the existing manuscripts, including English translations. Many of these hymns have been translated for the first time.

The Syriac poetry of the 11th–14th centuries (so-called Syriac Renaissance) was studied very purely until quite recently. One of the reasons for such indifference is a traditional approach of the scholars, who treated this poetry as a secondary one, because of a strong influence of the Islamic literature. In this article, it is argued that the authors of this period were trying to connect their own poetical traditions with the achievements of the Persian and Arabic poetry. As the result, they created new original forms that need to be carefully examined. One of the creators of this new style was probably Bar ʿEbrōyō (1226–1286), a famous West-Syrian  and scientist. His esthetic approach was developed by his East-Syrian contemporary Khāmīs bar Qardaḥē of Arbela, who used sophisticated rhythmic and rhyme schemes to achieve a stronger expressive effect. The article discusses one of his poems that demonstrates his outstanding skills as a poet experimentalist in both rhythm an...

No tempo do governo eclesiástico do Papa Simão de Alexandria (689-701), um "sacerdote do povo das Índias" apresentou-se em sua corte pedindo que lhe ordenasse um bispo para sua comunidade de origem. O fato de o patriarca estar submetido ao governo muçulmano, mas não seu visitante estrangeiro, contudo, impediu que o caso tivesse uma solução simples. O objetivo deste trabalho é, partindo deste episódio, tecer algumas considerações a respeito de como se deu o fechamento do horizonte índico das missões e relações eclesiásticas da Igreja Ortodoxa Copta, ainda antes do primeiro século de domínio árabe muçulmano no Egito.

Through Nicholas Al-Jeloo's exhibition, the general Fairfield community is able to witness the immense pride of the Assyrian people and the celebration of Persistence & Existence. The Assyrians are a key community in Fairfield. This exhibition showcases how the contemporary life of the Assyrian people is deeply rooted in the past and traditions of Iraq, Turkey, Iran and Syria.

Выпуск 44 Р е д а к ц и о н н а я к о л л е г и я Главный редактор чл.-корр. РАН И.Ф. Попова (ИВР РАН) Заместитель главного редактора к.и.н. Т.А. Пан (ИВР РАН) Секретарь к.ф.н. Е.В. Танонова (ИВР РАН) д.и.н. А.К. Аликберов (ИВ РАН) акад. РАН В.М. Алпатов (ИЯ РАН) к.ф.н. С.М. Аникеева (Изд-во «Наука») акад. РАН Б.В. Базаров (ИМБТ СО РАН) д.филос.н. С.Л. Бурмистров (ИВР РАН) д.ф.н., д.и.н. А.А. Бурыкин (ИЛИ РАН) д.и.н. Р.М. Валеев (КФУ) проф. Х. Валравенс (Германия, Берлинская гос. библиотека) О.В. Васильева (Российская нац. библиотека) акад. РАН А.П. Деревянко (ИАЭТ СО РАН) к.ф.н. Ю.А. Иоаннесян (ИВР РАН) д.и.н. А.И. Колесников (ИВР РАН) член-корр. РАН Н.Н. Крадин (ИИАЭ ДВО РАН) акад. РАН А.Б. Куделин (ИМЛИ РАН) к.и.н. К.Г. Маранджян (ИВР РАН) д.и.н. А.Н. Мещеряков (ИВ РАН) акад. РАН В.С. Мясников (ИДВ РАН; ИВР РАН) проф. Не Хунъинь (КНР, Пекин, Пед. ун-т; Сычуаньский пед. ун-т) к.и.н. С.М. Прозоров (ИВР РАН) проф. Н. Симс-Вильямс (Великобритания, Лондонский ун-т) акад. РАН А.В. Смирнов (ИФ РАН) проф. Таката Токио (Япония, Ун-т Киото; Китай, Фуданьский ун-т) член-корр. РАН И.В. Тункина (СПбФ АРАН) д.и.н. С.А. Французов (ИВР РАН) член-корр. РАН Д.В. Фролов (МГУ им. М.В. Ломоносова) к.ф.н. Н.С. Яхонтова (ИВР РАН) РОССИЙСКАЯ АКАДЕМИЯ НАУК Институт восточных рукописей (Азиатский Музей) Журнал основан в 2004 году Выходит 4 раза в год Санкт-Петербург ИВР РАН 2021

Bozza di programma del Laboratorio «Testi cristiani antichi (II-VII sec.)» – Università Roma Tre (primo semestre 2021-2022)
The draft program of the Laboratory «Ancient Christian Texts (II-VII sec.)» – Roma Tre University (first Semester 2021-2022)
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The earliest Syriac writers interpreted in a particular manner the various strands of the biblical and apostolic traditions regarding divine indwelling. In this article I demonstrate that Aphrahat, by building upon this foundation, developed a more nuanced and broader notion of divine indwelling that is entirely Christological. For Aphrahat, being a Christian and living the Christian life means nothing other than being indwelt by Christ. I first examine the notions of divine indwelling as found in two important sources for the earliest Syriac Christianity: Tatian and the Acts of Thomas. In both of these sources, divine indwelling pertains solely to individuals who are morally pure. Next I discuss how Aphrahat was influenced by this earlier tradition and developed from it a notion of Christ’s indwelling in four modes: by faith, by baptism, by prayer, and by knowledge of God. Placing Aphrahat within the context of the preceding tradition demonstrates both his traditionalism and originality. Aphrahat enlarged the traditional notion of indwelling dependent on purity by linking it to faith, baptism, and prayer. Yet what distinguishes Aphrahat most from the antecedent tradition is his emphasis upon the indwelling of Christ and his development of a fourth mode of indwelling independent of purity, that of knowledge of God.