Historian of religions, Jean-François Colosimo is the author of The Curse of the Christians of the East (Fayard, 2014, republished in 2018 in the “Pluriel” collection). He returns here to the origins of Eastern Christianity, its changes in history, and deplores the unfortunately gloomy future that is emerging for the “Elder brothers of Christians from the rest of the world”. Indispensable lighting at the time of Pope Francis’ historic visit to Iraq.
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What are the historical roots of Eastern Christians?
Jean-Francois Colosimo. We see Christianity as a Western religion because it was in Europe that it developed. However, Christianity is originally an oriental religion. The Christians of the East are not our little brothers lost on the other side of the Mediterranean, they are the elder brothers of the Christians of the rest of the world.
They attest to the permanence of the Gospel not only in its cradle, in the Holy Land, but also in the geographical area where the primitive Christian community developed: from Egypt – with Alexandria, seat of Saint Mark – to Semitic world which goes towards Mesopotamia and the Fertile Crescent, dominated by the city of Antioch – where, according to the Acts of the apostles, the Christians were called for the first time “Christians” -, and until Asia Minor and Greece, following the travels of Saint Paul. These communities are at the same time peoples, languages, cultures, churches and denominations of faith.
How did the first Eastern Christian Churches appear?
The first ecumenical councils, which all took place in the East, caused the first major schisms from the Ve century. The Council of Ephesus (431) proclaimed Mary the mother of God. The Christians of Persia, in disagreement, separate and found the Assyrian Church, the part of which later reunited in Rome today forms the Chaldeans of Iraq. Twenty years later, the Council of Chalcedon (451), which affirms that Jesus is both God and man, causes other departures: the Syriacs of the Levant, the Armenians of the Caucasus and the Copts of Egypt.
Have relations between Christians and Muslims in the Middle East always been confrontational?
On his arrival at VIIe century, Islam established the status of dhimmi, this inferior citizenship reserved for Jews and Christians. Under the Arab caliphates as under the Ottoman Empire, one would prefer to make them pay the double tax rather than to convert them by force. In modern times, supported by France and Russia, Christians quickly reach a higher level of education. On the one hand, they are seen as very useful ambassadors of progress to the Sublime Porte, the Ottoman government. On the other hand, they worry the traditionalist Muslims attached to the old order.
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