Upload
ikumi-kimura
View
9
Download
0
Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
How was the Development of Christianity within the Persian
Empire different from the Development of Christianity within the Roman Empire?
Ikumi Kimura
Christianity and Persian authority
• Persia had never recognized Christianity as a state religion• No consistent religious policy! Persecution ←→ Protection
e.g. Yazdegerd I (reign: 399-420)
“Isdigirdes, King of the Persians, began to wage war against the churches… A certain bishop, Abdas by name, adorned with many virtues, was stirred with undue zeal and destroyed a Pyreum (Theodoret of Cyrrhus, Ecclesiastical History, V.38)”.
The establishment of a close, good relationship with the shah was the key for the development of Christianity!
Nestorian Characteristic
The Council of Ephesus
condemned Nestorianism (431)
Emperor Zeno closed
the School of Edessa(489)
The Roman Empire
Persia welcomed Nestorian refugees
Scholars transferred to
the School of Nisibis
The Persian Empire
Nestorian characteristic
610~Khosraw II
began patronizing miaphysites
Babai the Great’s adoption of an
extreme Dyophysitism
&Re-emphasis on
Nestorianism
Movement towards
weakening the Church of the
East
After the Arab Invasion ~ Marwanid Caliphate
Changes in the Empire’s capitalCtesiphon → Damascus → Baghdad
New Islamic policies
Christians were categorized as “second-class” citizens
Weakened the power of Catholicoi & its connection
with the authority
Christianity under the Abbasid Caliphate~
• Christians’ freedom of worship and missionaries were granted
• Some reclaimed political importance (e.g. Physicians, pharmacists, doctors)
→ But the Christianity became minority after the threat of Mongolia e.t.c…