The Church of the East 431 AD resources exploring the Syriac-speaking church that is sometimes seen through the lens of Nestorius, a characterization which has been recently challenged

The Oriental Orthodox Church 451 AD resources exploring the churches which upheld the Miaphysite language of Jesus’ one “physis” while the pro-Chalcedonian Churches (Constantinople and Rome) upheld two “physeis.” The selections below are guided by the attempt to understand the schism that occurred at the Council of Chalcedon in 451 AD. This includes the Egyptian Coptic, Armenian, Syrian, Ethiopian, Eritrean, and Indian Malankaran Churches.

Peter Theodore Farrington, The Orthodox Christology of St. Severus of Antioch (Orthodox Wiki article) (c.459 - 538 AD)

Susan Ashbrook Harvey, Holy Women of the Syrian Orient. University of California Press | Amazon book, 1987. Ashbrook explores Mary, Niece of Abraham of Qidun; Pelagia of Antioch; the Persian Martyrs; the Women Martyrs of Najran; Mary, Euphemia, and Susan from Lives of Eastern Saints by John of Ephesus; Anastasia; Febronia; Shirin.

Samuel Hugh Moffett, A History of Christianity in Asia, Volume 1. Orbis Press | Amazon book, Apr 1998, and Volume 2. Orbis Press | Amazon book, Mar 2005.

Susan Ashbrook Harvey, Asceticism and Society in Crisis: John of Ephesus and The Lives of the Eastern Saints. University of California Press | Amazon book, Jan 1990. John's sixth century writing narrates his experiences in the villages of the Syrian Orient, the deserts of Egypt, and the imperial city of Constantinople. Harvey examines the late antique Byzantine East, the character of ascetic practices, the traumatic separation of the "Monophysite" churches, the fluctuating roles of women in Syriac Christianity, and the general contribution of hagiography to the study of history.

William L. Petersen, The Christology of Aphrahat, the Persian Sage: An Excursus on the 17th "Demonstration". JSTOR/Vigiliae Christianae, 1992. Petersen discusses the apparent subordinationism in Afraphat as representative of a Semitic-Judaic Christianity

Sebastian P. Brock, The "Nestorian" Church: A Lamentable Misnomer. Bulletin of the John Rylands Library, 1996. Brock discusses the historical, theological, and linguistic background to the debates around the two natures of Christ

Stephanie K. Skoyles Jarkins, Aphrahat the Persian Sage and the Temple of God: A Study of Early Syriac Theological Anthropology. Marquette University, 2005. Jarkins’ dissertation explores how Aphrahat relied on the Christian vision of the individual human person as a dwelling place of God; includes an impressive overview of other biblical and Christian literature

Robert Miller, Syriac and Antiochian Exegesis and Biblical Theology for the 3rd Millenium. Gorgias Press | Amazon book, Dec 1, 2008.

Philip Jenkins, The Lost History of Christianity: The Thousand-Year Golden Age of the Church in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia-and How It Died. HarperOne | Amazon book, Nov 3, 2009.

Ilya Lizorkin, Aphrahat's Demonstrations: A Conversation with the Jews of Mesopotamia. Stellenbosch University, 2009. Lizorkin’s dissertation on the likely background to Aphrahat's writings; also Eli Lizorkin-Eyzenberg, Semitic Chrisitianity: St. Aphrahat & The Sages of Babylonian Talmud. Create Space Independent Publishing | Amazon book, Aug 2, 2015. Develops his earlier dissertation (above) and appreciates Aphrahat as a representative of a Jewish-Christian dialogue at the time and place the Babylonian Talmud was being written.

Morwenna Ludlow, The Early Church. I.B. Tauris | Amazon book, 2009. Ludlow includes chapters on the Christian centers of Nisibis and Edessa along with Alexandria and Cappadocia.

Aziz Atiya, History of Eastern Christianity. Gorgias Press | Amazon book, Jan 1, 2010. Atiya is a Coptic Christian, surveys Copts and Ethiopians, along with other Oriental Orthodox Churches in Asia:  Syrians, Nestorians, Armenians, and Indians.

Susan Ashbrook Harvey, Song and Memory: Biblical Women in Syriac Tradition. Marquette University Press | Amazon book, 2010.

Margaret Mowczko, Nino of Georgia: A Woman Evangelist “Equal to the Apostles”. Marg Mowczko, Jan 14, 2012.

Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev, Saint Isaac the Syrian and His Spiritual Legacy: Proceedings of the International Patristics Conference Held at the Sts Cyril and Methodius Institute Studies, Moscow, October 10-11. St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press | Amazon book, Oct 1, 2015. Alfeyev explores the 7th century Christian hermit from Nineveh, in present-day Iraq.

Michael Gaddis, There Is No Crime for Those Who Have Christ: Religious Violence in the Christian Roman Empire. University of California Press | Amazon page, 2015. Gaddis shows that some Christians believed that they should burn down or destroy pagan temples and Jewish synagogues and then refuse to pay for the damages. The interpreted Christian mission in terms of property and not people.

““There is no crime for those who have Christ," claimed a fifth-century zealot, neatly expressing the belief of religious extremists that righteous zeal for God trumps worldly law. This book provides an in-depth and penetrating look at religious violence and the attitudes that drove it in the Christian Roman Empire of the fourth and fifth centuries, a unique period shaped by the marriage of Christian ideology and Roman imperial power.”

Gregory Bar-Hebraeus, The Ecclesiastical Chronicle. Gorgias Press | Amazon book, Sep 2015. Translated by David Wilmhurst. Gorgias Press, the publisher, writes, “The Ecclesiastical Chronicle of the Syriac Orthodox polymath Bar Hebraeus (†1286), an important Syriac text written in the last quarter of the 13th century, has long been recognised as a key source for the history of the Syriac Orthodox Church and the Church of the East.” See also Bar Hebraeus, Laughable Stories (Free Amazon Kindle book) translated by E.A. Wallis Budge; a collection of stories.

Richard E. Payne, A State of Mixture: Christians, Zoroastrians, and Iranian Political Culture in Late Antiquity. University of California Press | Amazon book, 2015. Christian communities flourished during late antiquity in a Zoroastrian political system, known as the Iranian Empire. Whereas previous studies have regarded Christians as marginal, insular, and often persecuted participants in this empire, Payne demonstrates their integration into elite networks, adoption of Iranian political practices, and participation in imperial institutions.

Christopher Thornton, Last Word: Christian Iran. Commonweal, Feb 11, 2016.

Andrew Doran, When Christianities Collide: Persecuted Churches of the East Need Dialogue With the West. The American Conservative, Jun 9, 2016.

Mark Howard, The Story of Iran’s Church in Two Sentences. The Gospel Coalition, Jul 30, 2016.

Fariba Nawa, Iranians Are Converting to Evangelical Christianity in Turkey. NPR, Dec 14, 2018.

Emma Green, The Impossible Future of Christians in the Middle East. The Atlantic, May 23, 2019. “An ancient faith is disappearing from the lands in which it first took root. At stake is not just a religious community, but the fate of pluralism in the region.”

Mark Ellis, Fastest Growing Church Has No Buildings, No Central Leadership, and Is Mostly Led by Women. God Reports, Sep 11, 2019. “The Iranian awakening is a rapidly reproducing discipleship movement that owns no property or buildings, has no central leadership, and is predominantly led by women.”

Mako Nagasawa, Saint Acacius of Amida and the Christians of Amida. Facebook Post, Apr 11, 2026. See also Holy Manna, From Fear to Witness. Holy Manna Blog, Apr 9, 2026. A 3 minute YouTube short video on Acacius and his action, in child-friendly pictures. Mako wrote:

April 9th was the feast day of St. Acacius of Amida.

This is a tale of two kinds of Christians.

Christians who believe they are so exceptional, they inspire war, and

Christians who believe in exceptional love, who inspire peace.

In the years 421 – 422, two empires went to war in the Middle East: the Roman Empire and the Persian Empire, the civilizations often viewed as the predecessors to the U.S. and Iran.

This war started because a few Christians in Persia burned down Zoroastrian temples, and then said they should not be made to pay back reparations.

The Persian Emperor Bahram V at first approached these Christians very reasonably. He said, “You should pay for that. It’s only fair that you repair the damage you caused.”

But those Christians said, “No. If other people destroyed our church buildings, then they should absolutely pay us for the repairs. But when we destroy the religious buildings of other people, making us pay for repairs would mean that we would be contributing to worship that we oppose. We should be exceptions to the rule."

Apparently, they believed they had divine permission to disrupt non-Christian worship by destroying their buildings. Which meant that they believed they could, in principle, take other people's religious property, anytime.

They resemble later settler-colonial Christians who believed they were so exceptional that they had a “manifest destiny” to take property and territory from non-Christians.

Then the arsonist Christians in Persia said, "So you can either pardon us or martyr us."

Real Christian martyrs are martyred for refusing to renounce Jesus. These guys invited martyrdom for refusing to pay reparations for property damage they committed.

The Persian Emperor grew concerned, understandably: Can Christians be trusted to share in the common good? Because the Christians he knew thought they were exceptional. As a result, Bahram V executed two Christian ringleaders and started persecuting all the Christians in the Persian Empire.

A few Christians can sure mess it up for a lot of other Christians.

Then, in Constantinople, the Roman Emperor Theodosius II decided it was his job to protect the Christians in Persia! So war broke out in the Middle East basically because some Christians thought they should be moral exceptions to basic rules and norms which they themselves should have respected.

This war is called the Roman-Sassanid War or Roman-Persian War of 421–422.

Fortunately, there were more thoughtful Christians and this war did not last that long. They lived in a city called Amida. Amida was in the Roman Empire, very close to the border of the Persian Empire. Today, it is part of eastern Turkey, near the border of Iran, Iraq, and Syria.

During the war, the Roman Empire marched seven thousand Persian war captives through Amida: they were to be auctioned in the slave market. Reports say these men were miserable and dying of hunger.

The Christians of Amida saw them. Their bishop, a man named Acacius, was very moved with the compassion of Jesus Christ. So he quickly called together the other leaders of the church there and said they needed a fundraiser. Acacius pointed at all the supplies and possessions in their church building, even the “Sacred Vessels,” and said,

“Our God, my brethren, needs neither dishes nor cups; for He neither eats nor drinks, nor is in want of anything. Since then, by the liberality of its faithful members the Church possesses many vessels both of gold and silver, it behooves us to sell them, that by the money thus raised, we may be able to redeem the prisoners and also supply them with food.”

The Christians in Amida believed that just because the church owned gold or silver or buildings, it didn’t mean much. They knew property was not sacred, because Jesus owns the whole planet and calls and claims all people in love. Jesus' love, not property or territory, is sacred.

Acacius gathered this money and bought the Persian men out of the slave market. All 7,000 of them. War captives. Enemy combatants. A risky move from an imperial security standpoint. The Christian community supported them for a while, gave them supplies, and sent them home to Persia.

That action made an impact. The Persian Emperor Bahram V was so deeply impressed by those Christians – not the Christians in the capital of the Western power who had declared the war, but those Christians on the ground near the border – that he asked to see bishop Acacius personally. He wanted to know *those Christians* on the border of East and West.

After that, the two emperors agreed to a peace in the year 422. They agreed to grant what we in the U.S. would now call “the First Amendment right to freedom of religious conscience.” Church historian Samuel Hugh Moffett writes in his book A History of Christianity in Asia:

“It may have been this generous gesture of Acacius that speeded the negotiations for peace and brought an end to persecution [of Christians] in Persia. The peace treaty contained the remarkable stipulation that freedom of religion was to be granted on both sides of the border, for Zoroastrians in the Byzantine [Roman] Empire and for Christians in Persia.”

Two kinds of Christians.

Christians who believe they are so exceptional, they inspire war.

Christians who believe in exceptional love, who inspire peace.