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Early Christianity
The Nestorian Church
| Doctrines | The Nestorian Church
(also known as the East Syrian or Assyrian Church) takes its name form
Nestorius, bishop of Constantinople (d.c.451). Nestorius is believed to
have asserted that Christ was composed of two persons, God the Son and the
man Jesus and that it was only the man Jesus who was born of the Virgin
Mary and who died on the cross. Accordingly, Nestorius claimed that it
was wrong to describe the Virgin Mary as theotokos (mother of God);
instead she should be referred to as christotokos (mother of Christ).
This contradicted the orthodox understanding of Christ as one Person who
embodied two natures, divine and human.
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| History | In 430 Celestine, bishop
of Rome, condemned Nestorius on account of his heretical christology, and
a year later Nestorius was anathematised at the Council of Ephesus. In
436 Nestorius was deposed and then exiled to Egypt where he spent the rest
of his life. Nestorian churches were established in those territories to
the east of the Byzantine empire where Iraq, Iran and south-eastern Turkey
are now located. These churches constituted themselves as independent,
with a theological school at Edessa and a patriarch at Seleucia-Ctesiphon
on the Tigris river. In 498, at the Council of Seleucia, the Nestorian
Church completely severed itself from the rest of the Christian church.
This period saw the beginning of missionary expansion throughout Asia. By 635 Nestorian Christianity had reached the heart of China. Missions had reduced as a result of the Muslim conquest of Iraq in the 7th century. The church was further weakened as a result of the Mongol invasions of the 14th century and schisms in the 16th century which led many Nestorian Christians to join the Roman Catholic Church. Subject to persecution during the first world war, the remaining church was dispersed throughout the Middle East. A small community also lives in the United States.
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| Symbols | The Nestorian church
rejects the use of icons and images. Simple crosses are located at the
entrance of churches. The church does, however, treasure the relics of
saints.
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| Adherents | It is estimated that
there are about 550,000 Nestorians world wide Nestorian communities exist
in Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and the USA (Europa Publications Limited
1995 1:1569).
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| Headquarters/ Main Centre | Historically the Nestorian Church has been based in
the mountains of northern Kurdistan. Persecution at the beginning of the
20th century forced many to emigrate to Syria, Lebanon and the U.S.A. The
present leader of the Nestor ian church is the Catholicos Patriarch, His
Holiness Mar Dinkha IV.
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