The Church of the East: A Concise History [Hardcover]

Wilhelm Baum (Author), Dietmar W. Winkler (Author)

Book Description

Series: Central Asian Studies | Publication Date: January 2003

The Church of the East is currently the only complete history in English of the East Syriac Church of the East. It covers the periods of the Sassanians, Arabs, Mongols, Ottomans, the 20th century, and informs about the Syriac, Iranian and Chinese literature of this unique and almost forgotten part of Christendom.

Editorial Reviews

Review

'The book's great strength is its ready availability and concise coverage. The book is clear, useful and therefore recommended.' - Sobornost, Incorporating Eastern Churches Review

'This volume is very useful indeed. The authors have been able to present a complex history in readable narrative and to summarise much of the literature from recent centuries.' - Asia Journal of Theology

About the Author

Wilhelm Baum is Associate Professor and teaches Medieval History at the Universities of Graz and Klagenfurt, Austria. He is author of of The Transformation of the Myth of Prester John (1999) and Ethiopia and Europe in the Middle Ages (2001).
Dietmar W. Winkler is Associate Professor and teaches Patristics and Ecumenical Theology at the Universities of Graz and Salzburg and the Cistercian School of Theology, Heilogenkreuz, Austria.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 216 pages
• Publisher: Routledge (January 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0415297702
• ISBN-13: 978-0415297707
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,505,002 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Basic Introduction to the History of the Church of the East, February 8, 2004

By 

E. Porta (Occoquan, VA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Church of the East: A Concise History (Hardcover)

This is a basic introduction to the history of the Apostolic Church of the East, an ancient form of Middle Eastern and Asian Christianity whose leader once had more geographic area under his jurisdiction than any other religious leader in the world. Unlike Roman Catholicism, the Church of the East was never a state religion, and thus it was forced to operate under a succession of often hostile secular rulers. The two German authors (this is their English translation of the German orginal) thus appropriately break their work into chapters covering the Church under the Sassanian Persians, the Arabs, the Mongols, the Ottomans, and finally under 20th century states. It also includes a useful appendix with a chronology of both Church leaders and the secular rulers under which they operated. Although providing the basics, the book is unlikely to satisfy lay readers or scholars. The former would almost certainly note that there is very little flow to the book; it often comes close to being just a recitation of one fact after another. Scholars will be annoyed that nothing is footnoted, the authors instead referring the reader to the bibliography. Finally, the book is outrageously expensive (listing at approximately $90) for the 200 pages of information it provides. If you are interested, check it out of a library. A much better buy is Samuel Hugh Moffett's two volume "A History of Christianity in Asia." It is more readable, more scholarly, more detailed, and more reasonably priced.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good information, but with problems, June 14, 2009

By 

Paul Stevenson "Linguist" (Duhok, Iraq) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Church of the East: A Concise History (Hardcover)

In this book the authors bring together a wealth of information about a Christian group that is now little known outside of its own small community. During the Middle Ages it was more widespread and numerous than the Catholic Church in Europe, but in recent centuries its numbers have fallen precipitously.

The book starts with a helpful introduction by Dietmar Winkler (each chapter is attributed to one or the other of the authors) that deals with the vexed question of what to call this group: the "Church of the East," the "Apostolic Church of the East," the "East Syriac Church," the "Holy Apostolic Catholic Assyrian Church of the East" or the "Ancient Church of the East." Winkler considers all of these labels acceptable. He most emphatically rejects the label "Nestorian" and doesn't care for "Pre-Ephesian" either.

In Chapter 1, "The Age of the Sassanians," Winkler is at great pains to state, restate, emphasize and re-emphasize that the Church of the East is NOT Nestorian (and neither was Nestorius, for that matter). Fine, but by the time I got to the end of the chapter this is about all I could remember because of the author's constant harping about it. However, Winkler does include other information, such as the route of the gospel to Mesopotamia, creeds, linguistic and doctrinal divergences from the west.

Chapter 2, "The Age of the Arabs," is by Baum. It deals with relations between Islam and Eastern Christianity, and also with the progress and fortunes of Eastern Christianity farther east, in China, India and neighboring areas. It also talks a little about the almost complete lack of communication between the Church of the East and Catholic Christianity.

Chapter 3, "The Age of the Mongols," is also by Baum. This chapter has a lot of information that will be new to most western readers, who will not be aware that there were close relations between the Church of the East and the various Mongol groups in Central Asia. The chapter also talks about the first tenuous contacts between eastern and western Christianity and the many misunderstandings that arose.

Chapter 4, "The Age of the Ottomans," is also by Baum. It deals with better documented recent centuries. It discusses developments in the "Chaldean" (speakers of modern Aramaic dialects) and Indian churches and their relations with Christianity in the west. By the 19th century Russian and British missionaries start to play a role in the Church of the East.

Chapter 5, "The Twentieth Century," is by Winkler. It deals with the fortunes of the Church of the East as the Ottoman Empire collapses and the British Mandate in the Middle East is in effect. It is in this period that the majority of the members of the Church of the East have emigrated to Europe and North America. This chapter ends with a helpful summary of the dioceses and parishes of the Church of the East in its diaspora. From tens of millions in the Middle Ages, it is now reduced to about 385,000 members in exile and 50-70,000 in its historic homelands in Iraq and Syria.

Chapter 6, "Language and Literature of the Church of the East," has contributions by three authors. Dietmar Winkler very briefly summarizes literature in Syriac and Arabic. Manfred Hutter contributes a few pages on literature in Iranian languages (Middle Persian, Sogdian). Wilhelm Baum has a brief section on literature in Turkish, Uighur and Chinese.

The book concludes with lists of the catholicoi of the Church of the East and lists of sovereigns of the various polities in which Eastern Christianity has existed historically.

This book is a translation from the German. It is pretty well done overall, but it could have used another set of eyes to proofread it. Aside from occasional awkward wording, there are remnants of German transcriptions of proper names, such as "Chorassan" for the more usual "Khorasan." Also, there is some inconsistency in transcriptions. One chapter has the German-style "Raschid," while another has the English-style "Rashid."

Finally, there is the issue of price. In the preface the authors state, "As the volume was written with a non-specialist audience in mind, we refrained from using scholarly transcription of names with diacritical signs, and there are no footnotes." Okay, as I scholar I would prefer footnotes, but I can accept the authors' wish to make this book friendly to the general public. However, Routledge has chosen to give this slim volume a price that puts it within the reach of only libraries and affluent individuals. (In June 2009, as I write this review, its list price is $180.) A book like this really should have wider potential circulation. If this book were in a paperback edition with a price of $20-30, it could easily sit on the shelves of major bookstores and enjoy much greater sales than it must currently have.