College 8

Question 1

Wat weet je van christianity in Persia?

Answer 1

 Persia (Iran): Parthian (250 BCE-226 CE) and Sassanian (224-
651 CE) empires
 Zoroastrianism
 Ahura Mazda
 Dualism (Ahiram)
 Missionaries

Question 2

Wat weet je nog meer van christianity in Persia?

Answer 2

 Arrival Christianity: already in the first cent. CE?
 Parthians were generally tolerant
 Martyrdom of Samson (Semsoun), the bishop of Arbela (118/123 CE)
 20 bishoprics in Persia in 225 CE
 Sassanians were less tolerant
 Christians under pressure (esp. after 276)
 Political context: the Christians were regarded as the fifth-column of the Roman Empire
 Severe persecutions of Christians under Shapur II (310-379)
 Edict of Toleration in 409
 Nonetheless spectacular growth: bigger than Zoroastrianism around 7th C

Question 3

Nestorian Christianity

Answer 3

 Most important theological problem during first
five centuries: the nature of Christ – Man or God?
 General agreement: Jesus is both
 Does Christ have two natures?
• Monophysitism (Oriental Orthodox): No, divine and human nature become one: human nature incorporated into divine nature.
• Dyophysitism (Nestorianism): Yes, divine and human nature coexist alongside each other (only human nature suffered and died)
• Council of Chalcedon, 451 (Catholic*): Christ is one person with two natures that exist “inconfusedly, unchangeably, indivisibly, inseparably.”
 Nestorianism becomes the “Church of Asia”

Question 4

Christianity in China

Answer 4

Spread of Nestorian Christianity along the Silk Road: Merv, Balkh, Samarkand

Question 5

T’ang dynasty (618-907): Nestorian Stele

Answer 5

 Discovered in Chang’an (Xi’an) in 1623/25
 781 CE, by Jingjing (Adam in Syrian), Persian monk
 Titel: “Memorial of the Propagation in China of the Luminous Religion from Da Qin”
 Dogmatic explanation of Chr
 History of Nestorian Chr from 635-781: Alopen (=Abraham?), Syrian monk
 List of bishops and monks of the Daqin monasteries

Question 6

Meer sporen van Christendom in China

Answer 6

 Variety of other Christian documents, e.g.:
- Dunhuang documents
- “Book of Jesus-Messiah”
 Archaeological sources, e.g.:
- Nestorian monastery at Zhouzhi (75 km west of Chang’an) (638/649-745/756)
 Three imperial edicts
- 638: diffusion of Chr and construction of church in Chang’an
- 745: renaming of monasteries from Bosi-si into Da Qin si
- 845: proscribing all foreign religions

Question 7

How much impact did Christianity have in China?

Answer 7

 Ca. 830: Christianity, Manichaeism and Zoroastrianism do not have as many buildings as there are Buddhist monastries in a small city.
 Limited impact despite adaptations: Christian texts -> sutras; saints -> buddhas.
 Yishu less appropriate-> sounded like “running rat”
 Active opposition by some Chinese Emperors

Question 8

Wat weet je nog meer van Christianity in China?

Answer 8

❑ Early 10th C: end of the T’ang dynasty (relatively open to foreign traditions) resulted in the end of Christianity in China.
❑ Reintroduction during the Liao (1124-1201), the Jin (1115-1234) and the Yuan dynasties(1277-1368).
- Central Asian tribes of Nestorian creed
- Mongol conquest of Northern China
- Nestorians from Baghdad
- Roman Catholics

Question 9

Wat weet je van de Sogdians?

Answer 9

 Key role along the Silk Road
- Sogdian = lingua franca (today Yaghnobi in Tajikistan)
- 5th/6th cent.: Sogdian expansion in China
- Important for the spread (and translation!) of Buddhism, Christianity, Islam
 Sogdians: Iranian / Sassanian culture & Zoroastrianism
 900 Christian manuscripts inter alia in Sogdian found in Turfan (Turpan) (9th/tenth cent.)
 9th cent.: Islam dominant religion

Question 10

Mongolians

Answer 10

 Originally shamanic and animistic
 Influence Nestorian Christianity from 7th C
- Exposure Mongolians to Christianity likely through Sogdians (Turfan region)
 1007/1012 – Keraite Khan meets St. Sergius (4th century Roman soldier) in snowstorm.
 End 11th C: Keraites, Naiman, Merkit and Öngüt predominately Christian

Question 11

 1206: Genghis Khan is elected Great Khan

Answer 11

 Political alliances
 Mongolian (Christian) women relatively influential
 Nestorian Christians with important administrative and military positions

Question 12

Political alliances Genghis Khan

Answer 12

 Genghis Khan and his sons [ca. 1162-1227] marry
Kerait princesses
 A daughter of Genghis Khan is given in marriage to
an Öngüt ruler

Question 13

 Mongolian (Christian) women relatively

influential

Answer 13

 Sorghaghtani Beki (-1252), wife of Genghis Khan’s
son Tolui
- Influential sons: Möngke and Kublai ruled the
Mongol Empire as Great Khan, Hülügu founded
the Persian Ilkhanate
 Flourishing of Christian churches

Question 14

 Nestorian Christians with important

administrative and military positions

Answer 14

 Kitbuqa, Christian and leading general of Hülügu
(ca. 1218-65), son of Tolui and Sorghaghtani, who
conquers M-E up to Egypt.

Question 15

Wat weet je nog meer van Mongolians?

Answer 15

 Mongolian rulers generally tolerant vis-a-vis other religions
- Economic and political motivations
- “Christianity” could imply little more than baptism
 Syncretism: Jesus the Shaman

Question 16

Contacts with Western Christianity

Answer 16

 Reports Western Christians important sources of information
- E.g., Willem van Ruysbroeck (=William of Rubruck), 13th C
 Rabban Sauma: the first recorded Mongolian to
travel to Europe, 13th cent.
 Also many misunderstandings. Best known example: Prester John (Latin: Presbyter Iohannes)
- India? (cf. Acts of Thomas)
- Mongolia? Genghis Khan? Genghis’ foster father? Yelü Dashi?
- Ethiopia?

Question 17

 From ca. 1350 onwards: Decline and disappearance of Nestorian Christianity

Answer 17

 Plague
 Islamic intolerance
 Timur/Tamerlane (1336-1405)
 1368: Mongol rule is overthrown by Ming dynasty → loss of imperial protection
- Failure to convert many Han Chinese during Mongol period
- The Ming associated Nestorian Christianity in China with the foreign rule of the Mongols
- Closing of overland trade and sea routes to China
 Monguls converted to Buddhism (16th cent.)
 Syrian Church and Thomas Christians survive