Syrian Orthodox Research Articles

Reception of the clergy ordained by the heterodox in the Syriac Orthodox Church of Antioch with special reference to the Anglican Holy Orders

La reconnaissance des sacrements hétérodoxes par l’Église Syriaque Orthodoxe dépend de la validité du baptême administré. Historiquement, l’« oikonomia » (flexibilité ecclésiastique) permettait d’accepter certains sacrements de groupes hérétiques, tandis que l’« akribeia » (rigueur canonique) était moins utilisée. Conciles et Pères distinguaient hérétiques, schismatiques et groupes illégaux, appliquant ces principes de manière variable. Aujourd’hui, l’Église reconnaît les baptêmes catholiques et byzantins, mais pas les sacrements anglicans en raison de divergences doctrinales. Des changements récents dans l’anglicanisme, perçus comme des déviations des traditions bibliques et apostoliques, pourraient inciter à un retour à l’akribeia et à une reconsidération de la reconnaissance des baptêmes anglicans. Ainsi, si l’« oikonomia » a historiquement guidé l’acceptation des sacrements hétérodoxes, l’écart théologique croissant avec l’anglicanisme pourrait conduire à une approche plus stricte, affectant la reconnaissance future de leurs baptêmes.

Ritualized Affective Performances: Syriac Etiquette Guides and Systems Intelligence in Early Christian–Muslim Encounters

In 2009, Michael Penn published a transcription and English translation of two Syriac texts, To the Rulers of the World (ܠܘܬ ܪ̈ܝܫܢܐ ܕܥܠܡܐ) and Concerning the Entrance before a New Emir (ܕܡܥܠܬܐ ܨܝܕ ܐܡܝܪܐ ܚܕܬܐ). This essay proposes a new historiographical approach to these texts based on the concepts and theoretical apparatus of systems intelligence theory and affect theory. I show how these texts use key Islamic theological and cultural ideas that would affectively resonate with the Muslim authorities while remaining non-objectionable to the orthodoxy of the Assyrian Church of the East. Specifically, I argue that Christians sometimes sought to curry favor with Islamic authorities not so much through logical persuasion, but by creating a sense of affective coherence through attunement to the discursive and theological systems of Islam. Through this strategy, Christians perhaps hoped to gain some small measure of political and religious advantage, especially over and against other Christian jurisdictions, such as the Syrian Orthodox Church. I conclude by discussing what methodological prospects these approaches can offer to the subfield, particularly if combined with other theories that similarly remain underused.

Patriarcat, califat et réseaux : le moment Ḥarrān au cœur de l’Empire (126/744-140/758)

Abstract This paper offers a cross-analysis of Syriac and Arabic sources related to the Jazīra, the northern province of the caliphate, during the second/eighth century. Specifically, it delves into what the author refers to as the “Ḥarrān moment”. It pertains to the period when this regional town was turned to the last capital of the Umayyads, and immediately to the centre of the provincial government of the future caliph al-Manṣūr, prior to his ascent to power in 754-755 CE. The study views the Abbasid revolution as part of a single decade of civil war (fitna) (744-755) and emphasises the continuity between two dynasties, challenging the traditional historiographical divide of the “Abbasid revolution.” The “Ḥarrān moment” marked a significant shift in central political (and ecclesiastical) power from Umayyad Damascus to Abbasid Baghdad. Syriac sources underscore the centrality of the Jazīra and its capital, as well as the similarities in the political and military history before and after 132/750. Moreover, local ecclesiastical chronicles highlight how Ḥarrān became the centre of the Church at that time, partly by chance and partly due to geopolitical and geo-ecclesiological co-construction. It is argued that this results from a period when prelates and patriarchs became more courtiers, and both Marwān II and al-Manṣūr initiated a policy of affiliation of the Syrian Orthodox Church to the Caliphate, particularly through the issuance of diplomas (sigillions). This article demonstrates that the physical encounter of these two central powers, civil and ecclesiastical, in this strategic location during this critical time of interconnected political-military and ecclesiological turmoil and changes of the 740s-750s, is the key to understanding this process. The study specifically examines the similarities between monastic and tribal provincial and infra-provincial networks, which arise from the same political constraints, to explore the formation and crystallisation of parallel regional ecclesiastical and political blocks during the mid-eighth century CE.

When Identity Shifts to Violence: Historical and Hagiographical Cases from Syriac Churches in Interaction with Confessional and Religious Rivals

This article briefly epitomizes violence in the broad context of Eastern Christianity, and secondly deals with the transfer of this phenomenon in Syriac Christianity, for the reason that this has not been studied as much as in the Byzantine literature. The purpose is to demonstrate that identity-based violence was a feature included in the narratives of antique and medieval Eastern Christian discourses, this being closely linked to the struggle for ecclesiastical primacy and political power. The paper discusses paradigmatic cases, methodologically studied in their context, of Christian individuals and religious characters that suffered or acted against rivals with violence. The main focus is on historical and historiographical sources illustrating: (1) Syriac communities and factions defending their identity through language or acts of violence; and (2) identity-based confrontations within the Syriac family: factions within the same community, or sister Churches that became rivals (Syriac Orthodox against East Syrians) instrumentalizing the language of violence, mostly actions of destruction, against their opponents. The conclusion indicates that perseverance in defending the truth, as part of their identity, made the communities opt for confrontation, and when one endured violence, one accepted this on the models of the martyrs and the imitatio Christi.

Solving the Ninth-Century West Syrian Synoptic Problem


 
 
 Within the rich literary tradition of the West Syrian (i.e., Syriac Orthodox) Church, two ninth-century authors stand out thanks to a curious problem. The authors are the bishops John of Dara, who lived in the first half of the century, and Moses bar Kepha, who died in northern Iraq in 903. The problem is the literary relationship between several of the texts transmitted in their names. Applying a three-pronged approach to this synoptic problem, this article offers a path toward a solution. On the basis of biographical, stylistic, and philological arguments, it is argued that at least one text that goes under John’s name, On Heretics, was not in fact written by him. The author of that text, likely operating in the tenth century, drew heavily from Moses bar Kepha’s treatise On Paradise, while reshaping the material from Moses, and also incorporating additional material from other sources.
 
 

Family and the Transmission of Traditions in the Syriac Orthodox Church in Sweden

Family and the Transmission of Traditions in the Syriac Orthodox Church in Sweden

The emergence of Christianity and its difference

The study of religions reveals to the Muslim many secrets and hidden facts, and inspires the Muslim to use his tongue with thanks and praise to Allah Almighty for sending us a noble prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) who explained to us the ways of peace, as it becomes clear to the Muslim what a great blessing he is. The Christians disperse There are several churches belonging to several denominations that follow different rites, and the most prominent of them are: the Chaldean Catholic Church, the Syriac Orthodox Church, the Syriac Catholic Church, the Armenian Catholic Church, the Armenian Orthodox Church, the ancient Church of the East, the Assyrian Church of the East or the Assyrian Church, the Roman Catholics, and the Roman Orthodox, National Evangelical Protestant denomination, Assyrian Evangelical Protestant Church, Adventist or Seventh-day Adventist denomination, Light Catholic denomination, Coptic Orthodox

Миграция сирийских православных христиан в Европу и процесс их адаптации

The purpose of the study is to provide insight into the religious and social identity of Syrian Orthodox refugees in Europe, into the nature of interreligious conflict. The paper deals with the following: Syria has become a crossroads of international conflicts that have deeply affected religious minorities. Syrian Christians who fled to Europe, being unable to settle in the countries of the Middle East, faced new problems of adaptation and security. Ignoring religious differences actually leads to persecution of Christians and Islamophobia. The scientific novelty of the study is presented by the determination of the role of religious differences in the interaction of Syrian Orthodox refugees with the Muslim environment in Europe. As a result, it has been proved that in the absence of safe and legal means of support for groups with different religious and cultural origins, there is no single specific measure that is suitable for everyone, and the role of the Christian churches and other civil institutions, such as civil society and social consensus, increases significantly and should be studied.

Two Nineteenth-Century Syriac Orthodox Colophons Giving Accounts of The Hamidian Massacres

This article introduces two late nineteenth-century colophons written by Syriac Orthodox scribes outside Anatolia commenting on the series of massacres occurring in 1894-1896 across the Ottoman Empire better known as the “Hamidian Massacres” after the reigning Sultan, Abdülhamid II. Adding to the small repository of published Syriac Orthodox testimonies and sources on the Hamidian massacres, these private documents, are of value for opening a window into the early formulation of narratives and historiographies of the massacres which the authors of these colophons present from their own unique vantage point and social position as part of the Syriac Orthodox Church within the empire. Furthermore, the article proposes that understanding the commentary on, and interpretation of, these massacres among the Syriac Orthodox contributes to a greater understanding of the relationship and tensions between Armenian Apostolic Orthodox ecclesiastics and Syriac Orthodox ecclesiastics in the Ottoman Empire of the 1890s. Following a brief consideration of Syriac Orthodox practice in writing colophons and waqfs from 1870-1905 in relevant regions, a reading and interpretation of the colophons is framed through an overview of the massacres, a discussion of the suffering of the Syriac Orthodox during these massacres, and their relationships with the Ottoman State and Armenian Apostolic Orthodox Church. The colophons are given in their original languages of Syriac and Arabic (Garshuni) with translations and commentary.

The “Appropriateness” of Religious Welfare from Lebanese Christian Churches

Abstract Since 2011, more than a million Syrians have fled to Lebanon. Standing close to the Syrian border, the welfare departments of Eastern Christian bishoprics in Zahle are at the forefront of the humanitarian response. Through the comparison of the Maronite, Greek Catholic and Syriac Orthodox Churches, I argue that these faith-based organisations (fbo s) implement an “appropriate” mode of reasoning to design their humanitarian aid strategies which challenges rational assumptions. This article reveals that the “national” or “diasporic” character of Lebanese Christian fbo s matters more than their welfare capacity in determining the Church’s policy of care at times of crisis. These examples illustrate that fbo s present a rare adaptiveness to their beneficiaries’ needs, notably by relying on transnational and diasporic support. Overall, this research demonstrates that fbo s are essential actors in addressing situations of forced displacements, but it also emphasises the importance of considering each fbo’s identity to understand their mechanisms of solidarity.

A Home for the ‘Wandering Aramean’—In Germany?

Migration to Germany has been a fact of life for the average German since the 1960s. Immigrants started arriving from countries like Turkey, Spain, Greece, or Italy as a post-war labor force was invited to Germany to address workforce shortages. Many of these immigrants ultimately brought their families to live in Germany. One group of these newcomers was Aramean families of Syriac Orthodox faith, forced to flee the Tur Abdin region in southeast Turkey via Syria, Lebanon, and Northern Iraq. This paper will discuss the background and impetus for moving to the West for this immigrant group in detail. It will review the impacts on the life of devout Syriac Orthodox families while living in Germany, a secular country. It will also take an initial look at whether evangelical communities in Germany can come alongside this group, still suffering from a different kind of persecution: the “otherness” of living in Germany.

The Syriac Orphanage and School in Beirut: Building an Elite Transnational Syriac Identity

Despite a growing interest in Middle Eastern Christianity, an imbalance persists in scholarly understanding of individual Christian communities. The Syriac Orthodox – a non-Catholic Oriental Orthodox community – are one such understudied group. After experiencing massacres during World War I, they resettled in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Palestine, which were then newly established nation-states. This article is concerned with the Syriac school in Beirut (also called the Assyrian Orphanage and School) as a case study of the Syriac Orthodox effort to both revive the community and produce an elite that would succeed in a largely non-Syriac, Arabic environment. The school was first founded in 1919 in Adana, Cilicia, in today’s south-eastern Turkey, which was then under French occupation. In 1923 it resettled in Beirut. For several decades it was one of the few, if not the only, successful Syriac Orthodox school in the Middle East. But from the outset it faced an inherent contradiction: despite its focus on the Syriac language, its success was dependent on the graduates’ ability to thrive in a largely non-Syriac, Arab, and in our case, Lebanese, environment. I argue that it was precisely this exclusively defined Syriac identity which enabled their entry into the larger, transnational environment in which national identities were still being negotiated. This article, which is part of a project on the Syriac Orthodox in Lebanon, draws on sources in Arabic, French, English and Syriac from both inside and outside the community (such as the French archives). 1

The Syrian Orthodox Church of Antioch and All the East, and COVID ‐19

This article, following a brief historical background about the Syrian Orthodox Church of Antioch and All the East (SOCA), endeavours to provide a summary of the actions taken by SOCA’s Patriarchate in some of its archdioceses worldwide to lessen the impact of lockdowns on SOCA’s faithful, including but not limited to the learning and teaching of children within SOCA. The article highlights the work done especially in Australia to ensure that the impact of COVID-19 on the church and its faithful was as minimal as possible. The article concludes with a brief discussion highlighting the lessons learned from this difficult period in the lives of SOCA, the community, and the world.

Uppenbara hemligheter

In a word play, the article is titled Revealing (or Evident) Secrets: Cloth and Theology in Early Christian and Contemporary Orthodox Practice. Building on a lecture celebrating the recent appointment to docent, the article proceeds from an introductory reflection on human dress, with the help of Roland Barthes and others, to a scrutiny of a hymn by the late antique Syriac poet-theologian Ephrem the Syrian, in which God dresses and undresses in a play between divine and human, which is interpreted in a ritual framework. In the second part, the investigation moves from past to present, and a liturgical setting which employs the sources just consid­ered, namely a couple of Syriac Orthodox congregations in contemporary Sweden. In light of theories on integration and tradition, changes in liturgical attire are considered, with specific attention to gender and the question of women deacons.

Andy Hilkens, The Anonymous Syriac Chronicle of 1234 and Its Sources. Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta, 272. Leuven, Paris, and Bristol, CT: Peeters, 2018, XV, 335 pp.

Abstract The book under review draws on the author’s doctoral thesis submitted to Ghent University, Belgium. Its subject is the so-called Anonymous Syriac Chronicle of 1234, a universal chronicle which covers the history from Creation until its author’s lifetime. The author of the chronicle is unknown today. He belonged to the Syriac Orthodox tradition and lived probably in Northern Mesopotamia. He wrote in Syriac, the Aramaic dialect of the ancient city of Edessa (today’s Şanlıurfa in southeastern Turkey). At first, the chronicle was completed in 1204 C.E. It was subsequently continued until the campaign of Sultan Malik al-Kāmil against his brother Malik al-Ashraf in 1234 C.E. (17).

Dionysius Bar alībī’s Treatise Against the Jews. Edited and Translated with Notes and Commentary, ed. Rifaat Y. Ebied, Malatius M. Malki, and Lionel R. Wickham †. Texts and Studies in Eastern Christianity, 15. Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2020, XVIII, 169 pp.

Abstract: This volume is part of “a major research project of publishing a comprehensive corpus of the Polemical Treatises of Bar alībī” (X) which “have only been published in a partial and piecemeal fashion” and “have never been translated as an entirety nor have they received systematic comment” (XI), as the editors state in their preface. Dionysius bar alībī (d. 1171) was a scholar and prolific writer of the period of the so-called Syriac Renaissance (11th–13th centuries). He first became the Syriac Orthodox bishop of Marash and later, in 1167, the metropolitan of Amid (Diyarbakır in Turkey). The vol­ume offers an edition and English translation of Bar alībī’s Treatise Against the Jews (37–141), with a few short introductory chapters (1–36). The treatise was prob­ably composed between 1165 and 1168 C.E. (12). It is part of a series of polemical treatises authored by Bar alībī that are directed also against Muslims (ed. and trans. Joseph P. Amar, Dionysius Bar alībī: A Response to the Arabs. CSCO 614–15. Louvain: Éditions Peeters, 2005), differing Christian traditions, and idolaters.

A Racial-Religious Imagination: Syriac Christians, Iconic Bodies, and the Sensory Politics of Ethical Difference in the Netherlands

Since 9/11, political debate over immigration in Europe is often posed as a question of Islam’s distance from Europe’s putatively Judeo-Christian ethical tradition—and therefore a matter of neither explicitly racial nor religious animus. This article interrogates this claim from the perspective of Syriac Orthodox Christians living in the Netherlands, who, despite their conspicuous Christianity, are frequently told by both the state and their neighbors that their ethnoreligious difference is not meaningfully different from Muslim difference. Drawing on fieldwork in the Dutch subprovince of Twente, I analyze both everyday and bureaucratic moments of misrecognition as sites of racialization that illuminate a Dutch racial-religious imagination rooted in post-Calvinist theological anxieties over social reproduction. By showing how minoritized bodies are read as icons of invisible reproductive relations, I deploy the Orthodox Christian doctrine of the holy icon to theorize secular modern racialization as a process of ethical differentiation, classification, and control over reproductive power.

Afifa’s Migration

Afifa’s Migration

From the Cradle to the Grave. Demarcating Communities through Baptism and Burial in the Huddāyē of Barhebraeus (d. 1286)

This paper analyzes the legal text called the Huddāyē composed in Syriac by the Syriac Orthodox polymath Barhebraeus (d. 1286) in regard to stipulations about baptism and burial. Stressing the importance of baptism and burial for the community as rites of passage, it examines what demarcation lines are drawn by Barhebraeus regarding outsiders. In this respect, two types of outsiders must be considered: Christians of other denominations (e.g., East Syrians) and Muslims. The earlier normative texts, which Barhebraeus refers to contain similar communal demarcation lines, but are altered, expanded and redacted by Barhebraeus, thus bringing them into a coherent whole.

Migration-Related Conflicts as Drivers of Institutional Change?

This article examines the role of social conflicts in the context of migration and discusses the relation between such conflicts and institutional change. We understand conflicts as tensions that evoke contradiction between different social groups or institutional actors. Varied urban contexts together with dynamic immigration of heterogeneous population groups can induce negotiation processes that affect institutional settings and actors. Conflicts have therefore been an integral part of urban coexistence, and cities have always been places where these conflicts play out. We assume that conflicts are social phenomena, which have multiple causes and effects. Public assumptions about conflicts in connection with migration often have a negative or destructive impetus, while conflict theory ascribes to conflicts potential positive effects on societal change. Conflicts can represent forms of socialization and the possibility of adapting or changing social conditions. This article discusses the extent to which migration-related conflicts induce institutional change. Using qualitative empirical results from the BMBF-funded research project MigraChance, we present a case study that reconstructs the emergence and course of a conflict surrounding the construction of a Syriac-Orthodox church in Bebra (Hesse) in the 1990s. Analyzing this conflict both in depth and in relation to its local context, we show that migration is only one part of what we refer to as migration-related conflicts, and we shed light on the complexity of factors that can result in institutional change. Change can also occur indirectly, in small steps, and with ambivalent normative implications.