Mar Aprem Mooken, The Assyrian Church of the East in the Twentieth Century (Mōrān ’Eth’ō, 18; Kottayam: St. Ephrem Ecumenical Research Institute, 2003), 307 pp.
Alexander
Toepel
Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute
George A. Kiraz
James E. Walters
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Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute
2005
Vol. 8, No. 2
For this publication, a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
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copyright.
https://hugoye.bethmardutho.org/article/hv8n2prtoepel
Alexander Toepel
Mar Aprem Mooken, The Assyrian Church of the East in the Twentieth Century (Mōrān ’Eth’ō, 18; Kottayam: St. Ephrem Ecumenical Research Institute, 2003), 307 pp.
https://hugoye.bethmardutho.org/pdf/vol8/HV8N2PRToepel.pdf
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[1] In spite
of its comparative proximity the modern history of the Church
of the East remains one of the underdeveloped fields in the
study of Eastern Christianity. Any publication on this subject
is, therefore, to be welcomed, and in regard of the book under
review here this is the more so, since its author, His Grace
Mar Aprem, Metropolitan of All India, to a great extent not
only witnessed but shaped the history of the Assyrian Church of
the East during the last forty years. As is to be expected, the
book deals first and foremost with the history of this church,
while the uniate Chaldaean church, which ultimately stems from
the same tradition, receives only minor attention. After two
introductory chapters on the origins and history of the
Assyrian Church until 1900 (pp. 17-67) its history during the
twentieth century is presented according to a division into
four periods: a period of decline from 1900 to 1918 (pp.
69-112), a period of uncertainty from 1918-1933 (pp. 114-164),
a period of sufferings from 1933-1975 (pp. 166-184) and finally
the ecumenical era from 1976 to the present (pp. 186-216). The
book contains several appendices which include documents of
interest, such as the 1994 Common Christological Declaration of
Pope John Paul II. and Catholicos Mar Dinkha IV. as well as a
Joint Synodal Decree of the Assyrian and Chaldaean churches for
promoting unity among each other from 1997.
[2] As the
distribution of page numbers shows, the major part of the book
deals with the period from 1900-1933 and it is here that the
author makes a real contribution by drawing upon the riches of
the Syriac manuscript libraries in India. Especially on pp.
117-157 the account is based entirely upon the letters of Mar
Abimalek Timotheus, Metropolitan of All India from 1908-1945,
who acted as regent to the young patriarch Eshai Shimun in the
early 1920's and, during that time, took an active role in the
politics of his church. Hereby the author opens up an "Indian
perspective" on Nestorian church history in the twentieth
century, a perspective which is largely absent in the few
hitherto available works on this subject. Likewise informative
is the section on the ecumenical era from 1976 to the present,
in which the author himself played a significant role and thus
is able to present an eye-witness account.
[3] Apart
from these issues which are treated in detail, at other points
there is a potential of deepening the investigation. To begin
with, the book is purely church-historical in character, which
means that the political aspect of the narrated events is not
expressly stated. For the uninformed reader, however, at times
it would have been useful to include some background
information. Since Assyrian church history prior to World War I
took place within the framework of the Ottoman Empire and its
policies towards religious minorities, a knowledge of the
millet system is necessary for understanding some
peculiarities of this church's history in the 1920's and 30's.
On p. 158 the patriarch's temporal power is briefly mentioned,
but it is not made clear how far this claim to civil
jurisdiction is related to the Ottoman law system. In addition
it has to be said that the account on pp. 157-159 is—as
the author on p. 157 n. 65 himself acknowledges—based
upon an account friendly towards Patriarch Eshai Shimun. In
fact it seems to have been the case not so much that British or
Iraqi officials tried to diminish the influence of the
patriarchal family but rather that the Patriarch himself
insisted upon retaining (and presumably exercising) his
temporal power, and that this was the main reason for his
eventual expulsion from Iraq (cf. J. Joseph, The Nestorians
and their Muslim Neighbors [Princeton: Princeton University
Press, 1961], pp. 198-200; G. Yonan, Assyrer heute
[Hamburg: Gesellschaft für bedrohte Völker, 1978],
pp. 60-61).
[4] The same
holds true in regard of the Patriarch's relationship to the
Nestorian military leader Agha Petros, which could have been
treated in more depth than is actually the case on pp. 116-117,
157. Especially on p. 157 the Agha's rather dubious role in the
repatriation attempt of 1919 is not mentioned at all. Another
issue which carries the potential of more detailed treatment is
the question of "Assyrian" nationalism. In the title and
throughout the book the term "Assyrian" is used as a
denominational marker in accordance with this church's official
usage since the 1940's (cf. Yonan, Assyrer, p. 154). It
is, however, to be regretted that the background of this term,
which originally was applied in an ethnic sense, is not
explored in greater detail, especially since the works by J.
Joseph and J. F. Coakley (cf. Joseph, Nestorians, pp.
13-21; J. F. Coakley, The Church of the East and the Church
of England [Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1992], p. 4-6 with n.
12)—upon which the account on pp. 51-67, 99-110 otherwise
is heavily dependent—contain lengthy sections on
this.
[5] Finally
it has to be asked whether—given the fact that
Mesopotamia at this time was regarded as being vital to British
imperial interests (cf. D. Fromkin, A Peace to End All
Peace [London: André Deutsch, 1989], pp. 146-149,
449-454, 558-567)—the motive behind the Anglican church's
"mission of help" (p. 69) was really as altruistic as it is
presented on pp. 69 and 85. Even in the missionary W. A.
Wigram's letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury from 1911,
which is quoted on pp. 96-98, the link between the Church of
England's missionary work and the political interests of the
British Empire is made unmistakably clear. In this respect the
Anglican determination to preserve the Church in the East in
its original state rather appears as an attempt to keep it from
falling under Presbyterian, Catholic or Russian Orthodox sway
and the influence of the countries behind these churches,
namely the United States, France and Russia. Notwithstanding
the good intentions of individual churchmen this seems to have
been a serious motive behind the help which the Assyrians
received from the Anglican church and the British crown (cf.
Joseph, Nestorians, pp. 87-92, 95-107). British military
interest in the Assyrians is made especially clear by the
history of the Iraq Levies, which consisted of Nestorian
tribesmen and played a vital role during the British mandate in
Iraq and even in World War II (cf. Yonan, Assyrer, pp.
56-57, 74-76). These are briefly mentioned on p. 154 in
connection with the Indian metropolitan Mar Timotheus' failed
attempt to visit their bases in 1927. In order to understand,
however, why the British authorities refused to give Mar
Timotheus, who at this time opposed the Patriarch Eshai Shimun,
access to their Assyrian levy troops it would have been helpful
to refer to the political situation outlined just above.
[6] For
clarity's sake it is furthermore necessary to indicate a few
minor inaccuracies. (p. 30-31) Obviously Rabban Sauma is
confused with Marqos, later Patriarch Yahballaha III. Marqos
never visited Rome and therefore cannot have been blessed by
the pope (p. 31) Here it is stated that after Timur's genocide
the Church of the East "never had peaceful days". There are,
however, no massacres reported until 1843 (cf. Joseph,
Nestorians, pp. 29-30). (p. 99) Kemal Atatürk was
not involved in the Young Turk revolution of 1908. The person
in question here is probably Kemal Pasha. Last but not least an
index would substantially facilitate the use of the book.
[7] These
points notwithstanding, the book's strength remains that for
the first time it affords a glimpse into the rich archive
material in India which for the larger part still awaits
investigation. By giving access to this material the author
points towards a dimension of Nestorian church history which
lies beyond the question of ethnic minorities in the Middle
East. The book thus not only provides a useful update on the
history of the Assyrian Church, but draws attention to the
erstwhile truly ecumenical and global character of the Church
of the East, which is gradually being recovered today.