I read the book The Church of the East in one day. (I had the abridged version.) This is a scholarly work on the history of Christianity in the East—the lands to the east of the Roman and Byzantine empires historically. This means places like Persia, Central Asia, India, the East Indies, and China.

The Church of the East is by a pair of Austrian professors, Wilhelm Baum and Dietmar Winkler. Although they claim they wrote the book for the common reader rather than for scholars, it’s still pretty scholarly in terms of writing style and content. It’s hard to make a church history fun and lively, perhaps.

In any case, when the book appeared in 2010, The Church of the East was the only book in English on the topic. It looks like a handful of others have appeared since, one bearing the same title (different subtitle). Still, readers hoping to broaden their horizons don’t have a lot of options for learning about the Church of the East. Let’s discuss if this book is a good one.

What Does the Assyrian Church of the East Believe?

One of the most interesting things about the history of the Church of the East is that it developed outside the Roman/Byzantine Empire. Usually, we read about Christian history in the context of how it developed in those empires in its early years. We read of important church councils, debates over orthodoxy, and so forth. But because some of these councils and doctrines were supported by emperors, that meant that politics often influenced Church doctrine. But that couldn’t happen in the Church of the East because it was outside the Roman Empire.

That doesn’t mean that the Church of the East developed strange, radical doctrines however. Historically, the Romans and Byzantines associated them with the heresy known as Nestorianism. But the Church of the East didn’t follow the teachings of Nestorius banned as heresy. (In fact, Nestorius didn’t actually teach all the things that are considered the Nestorian heresy, either. It’s a long story that would require a deep dive into early Christian theology. I’ll spare you.)

On several occasions historically, the Church of the East came close to union with the Roman Catholic Church. The patriarchs of the Church of the East (they lived in the city of Ctesiphon on the Tigris River for the first few centuries) often sent confessions of faith to the Pope in Rome. At no time did the Pope reject these professions of faith out of hand as obviously in error. Likewise, the Church of the East held occasional synods to discuss Church affairs.

Some differences existed, however. Church leaders could marry, unlike in Roman Christianity. As a result, at various periods church positions became hereditary. The Church has seven sacraments, like the Catholic Church, although not all seven are identical.

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Eras of History for the Church of the East

The authors divide the history of the Church into several eras, depending on which empire dominated the area where the Church was established. These are the Sassanid Persian era, the Arab era of the Abbasid and Umayyad caliphates, the Mongol era, the Ottoman era, and then the Modern era. (The authors confess that no one knows much about the history of the Church of the East for several centuries after the decline of the Mongol Empire.)

Winkler and Baum discuss the main events affecting the Church of the East during each era. Although the Church occasionally faced persecution, especially when the Persians or Abbasids were at war with Byzantium, this was not the case all the time. It was always a minority religion, but that did not prevent the Church from expanding geographically all the way to China, India, and modern Indonesia during the Middle Ages. We know this from the construction of monasteries, written texts that have survived the centuries, grave markers in graveyards, and so forth.

The nadir of the Church came in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Indeed, it was nearly wiped out during the last years of the Ottoman Empire and World War 1. During the Versailles Conference that followed World War 1, the people of the Church petitioned for a homeland near the modern Turkey/Iraq border but did not achieve this goal. Today, the Church of the East has congregations all over the world, including several in the United States.

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Who Will Like the Book?

This isn’t a topic of general interest, it’s true. Chances are you got here because, one, you specifically were searching for info on the Church of the East, or, two, you subscribe to my blog. Honestly, only a tiny percentage of people know the Church of the East even exists. I myself barely knew anything before picking up this book. Which is a big reason why I read it—to learn something new. And the great thing about discovering a fresh topic is that nearly everything is new to you, so you’ll learn lots.

That’s a good reason to look at this book. Most likely, you’ll learn a substantial amount about a topic that is a big blank spot in your knowledge about history. More specifically, if the history of Christianity interests you (academically or because you’re among the faithful) that is another good reason to read this book. You’ll probably learn new things about the early years of the faith.

The readability of the book is pretty good, considering the topic. At times, it devolves into the “this guy was leader and did such-and-such” way of explaining history. That’s probably unavoidable in places, however, given that sources are rather rare for various points in the history of the Church of the East. What the authors wrote in those instances may literally be all the information to be had, so they made the best of it.

But still, unless this is a topic that is a specialty interest of yours, you’ll probably find it a hopeless jumble of names and dates. It’s a book you need to want to read before you begin, in others words, to take the time to sort through all the info and keep everything straight. So, if Christian history is your thing, it’s a useful book. If not, it probably won’t hold your interest for very long.

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