:Nestorianism

{{Short description|Umbrella term used for several related but distinct sets of Christian teachings}}

{{For|the church sometimes known as the Nestorian Church|Church of the East}}

File:EcumenicalCouncil 3rd 09-07.jpg being defrocked and having his vestments removed at the Council of Ephesus, which is accepted by most mainstream branches of Christianity. The Council condemned Nestorius and his teachings as heretical. ]]

Nestorianism is a term used in Christian theology and Church history to refer to several mutually related but doctrinarily distinct sets of teachings.{{sfn|Brock|2006|p=177}} The first meaning of the term is related to the original teachings of Christian theologian Nestorius ({{died in|{{circa|AD 450}}}}), who promoted specific doctrines in the fields of Christology and Mariology. The second meaning of the term is much wider, and relates to a set of later theological teachings, that were traditionally labeled as Nestorian, but differ from the teachings of Nestorius in origin, scope and terminology.{{sfn|Baum|Winkler|2003|p=4}} The Oxford English Dictionary defines Nestorianism as:

"The doctrine of Nestorius, Patriarch of Constantinople (appointed in 428), by which Christ is asserted to have had distinct human and divine persons."{{cite encyclopedia |url=https://www.oed.com/view/Entry/126276 |title=Nestorianism |encyclopedia=Oxford English Dictionary}}

Original Nestorianism is attested primarily by works of Nestorius, and also by other theological and historical sources that are related to his teachings in the fields of Mariology and Christology. His theology was influenced by teachings of Theodore of Mopsuestia ({{died in|428}}), the most prominent theologian of the Antiochian School. Nestorian Mariology prefers the title Christotokos, which encompasses the term Theotokos ('God-bearer') for Mary, thus emphasizing distinction between divine and human aspects of the Incarnation. Nestorian Christology promotes the concept of a prosopic union of two concrete realities (divine and human) in Jesus Christ,{{sfn|Chesnut|1978|pp=392–409}} thus trying to avoid and replace the concept of a hypostatic union of two natures. The distinction is between 'two hypostases in one person' and 'two natures in one person'. Hypostasis is not seen as subject, but rather a nature existing in reality. This Christological position is viewed by the West as radical dyophysitism,{{sfn|Burgess|1989|pp=90, 229, 231}} and differs from Eastern Orthodox dyophysitism, that was reaffirmed at the Council of Chalcedon (451).{{sfn|Meyendorff|1989|p=}} Such teachings brought Nestorius into conflict with other prominent church leaders, most notably Cyril of Alexandria, who issued 12 anathemas against him (430). Nestorius and his teachings were eventually condemned as heretical at the Council of Ephesus in 431, and again at the Council of Chalcedon in 451. His teachings were considered as heretical not only in Chalcedonian Christianity, but even more in Oriental Orthodoxy.{{sfn|Meyendorff|1989|p=}} The already long extant Assyrian Church of the East, would affirm the orthodoxy of Nestorius, lining up the tradition of the fathers which preceded him.

After the condemnation, some supporters of Nestorius, who were followers of the Antiochian School and the School of Edessa, relocated to the Sasanian Empire, where they were affiliated with the local Assyrian community of the satrapy of Asuristan (Assyria), many who were followers of the Assyrian Church, known as the Church of the East, while others were Syriac Orthodox. During the period from 484 to 612, gradual development led to the creation of specific doctrinal views within the Church of the East.{{sfn|Brock|1999|pp=281–298}} Evolution of those views was finalized by prominent East Syriac theologian Babai the Great ({{died in|628}}) who was using the specific Syriac term {{transliteration|syc|qnoma}} ({{lang|syc|ܩܢܘܡܐ}}) as a designation for dual (divine and human) substances within one prosopon (person or hypostasis) of Christ. Such views were officially adopted by the Church of the East at a council held in 612.{{sfn|Brock|2006|p=}}

Opponents of such views in the West inaccurately labeled them as "Nestorian", leading to the practice of mislabeling the Church of the East as Nestorian, and indeed the Assyrian people themselves as "Nestorians" .{{sfn|Baum|Winkler|2003|pp=3–5}} For a long time this seemed an appropriate usage, since Nestorius is officially venerated as a saint in the Assyrian Church of the East.{{sfn|Baum|Winkler|2003|pp=4–5}} But in modern religious studies it has been criticized as wholly improper and misleading.{{sfn|Brock|1996|pp=23–35}} As a consequence, both in scholarly literature and in the field of inter-denominational relations, the term Nestorian increasingly focuses on its primary meaning, the original teachings of Nestorius, rather than referring to the far older-originating Assyrian Church of the East or its offshoot, the Chaldean Catholic Church.{{sfn|Seleznyov|2010|pp=165–190}}

History

File:Palm Sunday (probably), Khocho, Nestorian Temple, 683-770 AD, wall painting - Ethnological Museum, Berlin - DSC01741.JPG, in a seventh- or eighth-century wall painting from a Nestorian church in Qocho, China]]

Nestorianism was condemned as heresy at the Council of Ephesus (431). The Armenian Church rejected the Council of Chalcedon (451) because they believed Chalcedonian Definition was too similar to Nestorianism. The Persian Nestorian Church, on the other hand, supported the spread of Nestorianism in Persarmenia. The Armenian Church and other eastern churches saw the rise of Nestorianism as a threat to the independence of their Church. Peter the Iberian, a Georgian prince, also strongly opposed the Chalcedonian Creed.{{Cite book |publisher=Wydawnictwo UJ |isbn=978-83-233-9555-3 |last=Stopka |first=Krzysztof |title=Armenia Christiana: Armenian Religious Identity and the Churches of Constantinople and Rome (4th–15th Century) |date=2016 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eeq-DQAAQBAJ&pg=PA64 |pages=62–68 |via=Google Books}} Thus, in 491, Catholicos Babken I of Armenia, along with the Albanian and Iberian bishops met in Vagharshapat and issued a condemnation of the Chalcedonian Definition.{{cite magazine |title=Zvartnots and the Origins of Christian Architecture in Armenia |first=W. Eugene |last=Kleinbauer |magazine=The Art Bulletin |volume=54 |number=3 |date=September 1972 |page=261}}

Nestorians held that the Council of Chalcedon proved the orthodoxy of their faith and had started persecuting non-Chalcedonian or Miaphysite Syriac Christians during the reign of Peroz I. In response to pleas for assistance from the Syriac Church, Armenian prelates issued a letter addressed to Persian Christians reaffirming their condemnation of the Nestorianism as heresy.

Following the exodus to Persia, scholars expanded on the teachings of Nestorius and his mentors, particularly after the relocation of the School of Edessa to the (then) Persian city of Nisibis (modern-day Nusaybin in Turkey) in 489, where it became known as the School of Nisibis.{{citation needed|date=November 2018}} Nestorian monasteries propagating the teachings of the Nisibis school flourished in 6th century Persarmenia.

Despite this initial Eastern expansion, the Nestorians' missionary success was eventually deterred. David J. Bosch observes, "By the end of the fourteenth century, however, the Nestorian and other churches—which at one time had dotted the landscape of all of Central and even parts of East Asia—were all but wiped out. Isolated pockets of Christianity survived only in India. The religious victors on the vast Central Asian mission field of the Nestorians were Islam and Buddhism".{{cite book |last=Bosch |first=David |author-link=David Bosch |title=Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qEpf6wqHcGwC |year=1991 |publisher=Orbis Books |isbn=978-1-60833-146-8 |page=204 |via=Google Books}}

Doctrine

Image:Christological spectrum.svg (light blue), the Chalcedonian Churches (light purple), and the Miaphysite Churches (pink)]]

Image:nestorianism.svg

Nestorianism is a radical form of dyophysitism,{{sfn|Burgess|1989|pp=90, 229, 231}} differing from orthodox dyophysitism on several points, mainly by opposition to the concept of hypostatic union. It can be seen as the antithesis to Eutychian Monophysitism, which emerged in reaction to Nestorianism. Where Nestorianism holds that Christ had two loosely united natures, divine and human, Monophysitism holds that he had but a single nature, his human nature being absorbed into his divinity. A brief definition of Nestorian Christology can be given as: "Jesus Christ, who is not identical with the Son but personally united with the Son, who lives in him, is one hypostasis and one nature: human."Martin Lembke, lecture in the course "Meetings with the World's Religions", Centre for Theology and Religious Studies, Lund University, Spring Term 2010. This contrasts with Nestorius' own teaching that the Word, which is eternal, and the Flesh, which is not, came together in a hypostatic union, 'Jesus Christ', Jesus thus being both fully man and God, of two ousia ({{langx|grc|οὐσία}}) (essences) but of one {{transliteration|grc|prosopon}} (person).{{sfn|Hodgson|Driver|1925|p=}} Both Nestorianism and Monophysitism were condemned as heretical at the Council of Chalcedon.

Nestorius developed his Christological views as an attempt to understand and explain rationally the incarnation of the divine Logos, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity as the man Jesus. He had studied at the School of Antioch where his mentor had been Theodore of Mopsuestia; Theodore and other Antioch theologians had long taught a literalist interpretation of the Bible and stressed the distinctiveness of the human and divine natures of Jesus. Nestorius took his Antiochene leanings with him when he was appointed Patriarch of Constantinople by Byzantine emperor Theodosius II in 428.

Nestorius's teachings became the root of controversy when he publicly challenged the long-used title Theotokos{{cite journal |first=Eirini |last=Artemi |title=Cyril of Alexandria's critique of the term Theotokos by Nestorius Constantinople |journal=Acta Theologica |volume=32 |issue=2 |pages=1–16 |date=December 2012|doi=10.4314/actat.v32i2.1|url=https://www.ajol.info/index.php/actat/article/viewFile/86003/75832 |access-date=2019-10-22 |doi-access=free}} ('God-Bearer') for Mary. He suggested that the title denied Christ's full humanity, arguing instead that Jesus had two persons (dyoprosopism),{{cn|date=April 2024}} the divine Logos and the human Jesus. As a result of this prosopic duality, he proposed {{transliteration|grc|Christotokos}} ('Christ-Bearer') as a more suitable title for Mary.{{Cite book |last=Palmer-Anghel |first=Martin |title=Kuan Yin: Myths and Prophecies of the Chinese Goddess of Compassion |last2=Ramsay |first2=Jay |last3=Kwok |first3=Man-ho |date=1995 |publisher=Thorsons |isbn=978-1-85538-417-0 |location=London |pages=22}}

He also advanced the image of Jesus as a warrior-king and rescuer of Israel over the traditional image of the {{lang|la|Christus dolens}}.{{cite journal |last=Neely |first=Brent |date=July 2017 |title=At cross purposes |journal=Transformations |volume=34 |issue=3 |jstor=90010414 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/90010414 |pages=176–213 |doi=10.1177/0265378816631552 |s2cid=171352591 |access-date=September 7, 2022}}

Nestorius' opponents found his teaching too close to the heresy of adoptionism – the idea that Christ had been born a man who had later been "adopted" as God's son. Nestorius was especially criticized by Cyril, Patriarch of Alexandria, who argued that Nestorius's teachings undermined the unity of Christ's divine and human natures at the Incarnation. Some of Nestorius's opponents argued that he put too much emphasis on the human nature of Christ, and others debated that the difference that Nestorius implied between the human nature and the divine nature created a fracture in the singularity of Christ, thus creating two Christ figures.{{cite book |first=Jerry |last=Bentley |title=Old World Encounters: Cross-Cultural Contacts and Exchanges in Pre-Modern Times |url=https://archive.org/details/oldworldencounte00jerr |url-access=registration |location=New York |publisher=Oxford University Press |date=1993 |page=[https://archive.org/details/oldworldencounte00jerr/page/105 105]}} Nestorius himself always insisted that his views were orthodox, though they were deemed heretical at the Council of Ephesus in 431, leading to the Nestorian Schism, when churches supportive of Nestorius and the rest of the Christian Church separated. However, this formulation was never adopted by all churches termed 'Nestorian'. Indeed, the modern Assyrian Church of the East, which reveres Nestorius, does not fully subscribe to Nestorian doctrine, though it does not employ the title Theotokos.{{cite encyclopedia |url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/409867/Nestorius |title=Nestorius |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |access-date=January 29, 2010}}

Nestorian Schism

Nestorianism became a distinct sect following the Nestorian Schism, beginning in the 430s. Nestorius had come under fire from Western theologians, most notably Cyril of Alexandria. Cyril had both theological and political reasons for attacking Nestorius; on top of feeling that Nestorianism was an error against true belief, he also wanted to denigrate the head of a competing patriarchate.{{citation needed|date=August 2014}} Cyril and Nestorius asked Pope Celestine I to weigh in on the matter. Celestine found that the title Theotokos was orthodox, and authorized Cyril to ask Nestorius to recant. Cyril, however, used the opportunity to further attack Nestorius, who pleaded with Emperor Theodosius II to call a council so that all grievances could be aired.

In 431 Theodosius called the Council of Ephesus. However, the council ultimately sided with Cyril, who held that the Christ contained two natures in one divine person (hypostasis, unity of subsistence), and that the Virgin Mary, conceiving and bearing this divine person, is truly called the Mother of God (Theotokos). The council accused Nestorius of heresy, and deposed him as patriarch.{{cite web |url=http://www.monachos.net/patristics/christology/cyril_to_nestorius_3.shtml |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080704053517/http://www.monachos.net/patristics/christology/cyril_to_nestorius_3.shtml |archive-date=July 4, 2008 |title=Cyril of Alexandria, Third Epistle to Nestorius, with 'Twelve Anathemas'|website=Monachos.net}} Upon returning to his monastery in 436, he was banished to Upper Egypt. Nestorianism was officially anathematized, a ruling reiterated at the Council of Chalcedon in 451. However, a number of churches, particularly those associated with the School of Edessa, supported Nestorius – though not necessarily his doctrine – and broke with the churches of the West. Many of Nestorius' supporters relocated to the Sasanian Empire of Iran, home to a vibrant but persecuted Christian minority.[https://www.britannica.com/topic/Nestorianism "Nestorianism"]. Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved January 28, 2010. In Upper Egypt, Nestorius wrote his Book of Heraclides, responding to the two councils at Ephesus (431, 449).{{sfn|Hodgson|Driver|1925|p=}}

=Christian denomination tree=

Church of the East

{{multiple image

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| image1 = Da Qin Pagoda.jpg|

| caption1 = The Daqin Pagoda, controversially claimed to be part of an early Nestorian church in what was then Chang'an, now Xi'an, China, built during the Tang dynasty (AD 618–907)

| image2 = Entry of Jesus Christ into Jerusalem, with a Female Figure in T'ang Costume, Chotscho, Sinkiang.jpg

| caption2 = Entry of Jesus Christ into Jerusalem, with a female figure dressed in a Tang dynasty costume, AD 683–770

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File:Yuan stone Nestorian inscription (rep).JPG from a monastery of Fangshan District in Beijing (then called Dadu, or Khanbaliq), dated to the Yuan Dynasty (AD 1271–1368) of medieval China]]

File:An epitaph of a Nestorian Christian.jpg, Inner Mongolia]]

The western provinces of the Persian Empire had been home to Christian communities, headed by metropolitans, and later patriarchs of Seleucia-Ctesiphon. The Christian minority in Persia was frequently persecuted by the Zoroastrian majority, which accused local Christians of political leanings towards the Roman Empire. In 424, the Church in Persia declared itself independent, in order to ward off allegations of any foreign allegiance. By the end of the 5th century, the Persian Church increasingly aligned itself with the teachings of Theodore of Mopsuestia and his followers, many of whom became dissidents after the Councils of Ephesus (431) and Chalcedon (451). The Persian Church became increasingly opposed to doctrines promoted by those councils, thus furthering the divide between Chalcedonian and Persian currents.{{sfn|Meyendorff|1989|p=}}

In 486, the Metropolitan Barsauma of Nisibis publicly accepted Nestorius' mentor Theodore of Mopsuestia as a spiritual authority. In 489, when the School of Edessa in Mesopotamia was closed by Byzantine Emperor Zeno for its pro-Nestorian teachings, the school relocated to its original home of Nisibis, becoming again the School of Nisibis, leading to the migration of a wave of Christian dissidents into Persia. The Persian patriarch Babai (497–502) reiterated and expanded upon the church's esteem for Theodore of Mopsuestia.

Now firmly established in Persia, with centers in Nisibis, Ctesiphon, and Gundeshapur, and several metropoleis, the Persian Church began to branch out beyond the Sasanian Empire. However, through the sixth century, the church was frequently beset with internal strife and persecution by Zoroastrians. The infighting led to a schism, which lasted from 521 until around 539 when the issues were resolved. However, immediately afterward Roman-Persian conflict led to the persecution of the church by the Sassanid emperor Khosrow I; this ended in 545. The church survived these trials under the guidance of Patriarch Aba I, who had converted to Christianity from Zoroastrianism.

The church emerged stronger after this period of ordeal, and increased missionary efforts farther afield. Missionaries established dioceses in the Arabian Peninsula and India (the Saint Thomas Christians). They made some advances in Egypt, despite the strong Miaphysite presence there.{{cite book |last=Campbell |first=Ted |title=Christian Confessions: A Historical Introduction |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p2mUxxxGt_sC&pg=PA62 |year=1996 |location=Westminster |publisher=John Knox Press |isbn=978-0-664-25650-0 |page=62 |via=Google Books}} Missionaries entered Central Asia and had significant success converting local Turkic tribes.

The Anuradhapura Cross discovered in Sri Lanka strongly suggests a strong presence of Nestorian Christianity in Sri Lanka during the 6th century AD according to Humphrey Codrington, who based his claim on a 6th-century manuscript, Christian Topography, that mentions of a community of Persian Christians who were known to reside in Taprobanê (the Ancient Greek name for Sri Lanka).{{cite news |title=Mar Aprem Metropolitan Visits Ancient Anuradhapura Cross in Official Trip to Sri Lanka |url=http://news.assyrianchurch.org/2013/08/06/mar-aprem-metropolitan-visits-ancient-anuradhapura-cross-in-official-trip-to-sri-lanka/4480 |access-date=6 August 2013 |publisher=Assyrian Church News |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150226144609/http://news.assyrianchurch.org/2013/08/06/mar-aprem-metropolitan-visits-ancient-anuradhapura-cross-in-official-trip-to-sri-lanka/4480 |archive-date=2015-02-26}}{{cite news |last1=Weerakoon |first1=Rajitha |title=Did Christianity exist in ancient Sri Lanka? |url=https://www.sundaytimes.lk/110626/Plus/plus_07.html |access-date=2 August 2021 |publisher=Sunday Times |date=June 26, 2011}}{{cite news |title=Main interest |url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P3-2326613141.htmlhttps://web.archive.org/web/20150329194052/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P3-2326613141.html |access-date=2 August 2021 |work=Daily News |date=22 April 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150329194052/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P3-2326613141.htmlhttps://web.archive.org/web/20150329194052/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P3-2326613141.html |archive-date=2015-03-29}}

Nestorian missionaries were firmly established in China during the early part of the Tang dynasty (618–907); the Chinese source known as the Nestorian Stele records a mission under a Persian proselyte named Alopen as introducing Nestorian Christianity to China in 635. The Jingjiao Documents (also described by the Japanese scholar P. Y. Saeki as "Nestorian Documents") or Jesus Sutras are said to be connected with Alopen.{{cite book |last1=Riegert |first1=Ray |title=The Lost Sutras of Jesus: Unlocking the Ancient Wisdom of the Xian Monks |year= 2006 |publisher=Ulysses Press |isbn=1-56975-522-1 |pages=9–23 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rDuNAAAAMAAJ&q=the+lost+sutras+of+jesus |via=Google Books}}

Following the Arab conquest of Persia, completed in 644, the Persian Church became a {{transliteration|ar|dhimmi}} community under the Rashidun Caliphate. The church and its communities abroad grew larger under the caliphate. By the 10th century it had 15 metropolitan sees within the caliphate's territories, and another five elsewhere, including in China and India. After that time, however, Nestorianism went into decline.{{Disputed inline|date=October 2019}}

=Assyrian Church of the East=

File:Church of Saint Mary - Urmia - Iran - کلیسای ننه مریم، ارومیه - ایران.jpg: an ancient Assyrian church located in the city of Urmia, West Azerbaijan Province, Iran]]

In a 1996 article published in the Bulletin of the John Rylands Library, Fellow of the British Academy Sebastian Brock wrote: "the term 'Nestorian Church' has become the standard designation for the ancient oriental church which in the past called itself 'The Church of the East', but which today prefers the fuller title 'The Assyrian Church of the East'. The Common Christological Declaration between the Catholic Church and the Assyrian Church of the East signed by Pope John Paul II and Mar Dinkha IV underlines the Chalcedonian Christological formulation as the expression of the common faith of these Churches and recognizes the legitimacy of the title Theotokos."{{cite web |title=Common Christological Declaration between the Catholic Church and the Assyrian Church of the East |url=https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/chrstuni/documents/rc_pc_chrstuni_doc_11111994_assyrian-church_en.html |access-date=8 February 2020}}

In a 2017 paper, Mar Awa Royel, Bishop of the Assyrian Church, stated the position of that church: "After the Council of Ephesus (431), when Nestorius the patriarch of Constantinople was condemned for his views on the unity of the Godhead and the humanity in Christ, the Church of the East was branded as 'Nestorian' on account of its refusal to anathematize the patriarch."{{Cite web |url=https://bethkokheh.assyrianchurch.org/articles/855 |title=The Assyrian Church of the East: A Panoramic View of a Glorious History- Mar Awa Royel |date=2017-10-04 |website=Church of Beth Kokheh Journal |language=en-AU |access-date=2019-10-25}}

Several historical records suggest that the Assyrian Church of the East may have been in Sri Lanka between the mid-5th and 6th centuries.

Modern discourse

The accusations of Nestorianism have been used in contemporary theological discourse. One notable example is the case of John MacArthur, as he has asserted that when Mary gave birth to Jesus, she did not give birth to God, but rather gave birth to Jesus in his humanity and that "it’s heretical to call the blood of Jesus Christ the blood of God."{{Cite web |last=MacArthur |first=John |date=1987-01-01 |title=The Blood of Christ |url=https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/80-44/the-blood-of-christ |website=Grace to You}}{{Cite web |last=MacArthur |first=John |date=2006-04-02 |title=Exposing the Idolatry of Mary Worship: An Overview |url=https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/90-314/exposing-the-idolatry-of-mary-worship-an-overview |website=Grace to You}} These statements have been critiqued as resembling Nestorianism by other Christians.{{Cite web |last=Horn |first=Trent |date=2024-08-14 |title=“Mary is NOT the Mother of God” REBUTTED |url=https://www.catholic.com/audio/cot/mary-is-not-the-mother-of-god-rebutted |website=Catholic Answers}}{{Cite web |last=Hymers |first=Robert |date=2005-07-23 |title=DR. MACARTHUR AND THE BLOOD OF GOD |url=https://www.rlhymersjr.com/Online_Sermons/2005/072305PM_Dr.MacArthur.html |website=Sermons For the World}}

References

Sources

{{Cite book |last=Badger |first=George Percy |author-link=George Percy Badger |title=The Nestorians and Their Rituals |year=1852 |volume=1 |location=London |publisher=Joseph Masters |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JOPWPqa0aH8C |via=Google Books}}
{{Cite book |last=Badger |first=George Percy |author-link=George Percy Badger |title=The Nestorians and Their Rituals |year=1852 |volume=2 |location=London |publisher=Joseph Masters |isbn=9780790544823 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cnURAAAAYAAJ |via=Google Books}}
{{Cite book |last1=Baum |first1=Wilhelm |author1-link=Wilhelm Baum (historian) |last2=Winkler |first2=Dietmar W. |title=The Church of the East: A Concise History |year=2003 |location=London & New York |publisher=Routledge-Curzon |isbn=9781134430192 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CnSCAgAAQBAJ |via=Google Books}}
{{Cite book |last=Bethune-Baker |first=James F. |author-link=James Bethune-Baker |title=Nestorius and His Teaching: A Fresh Examination of the Evidence |year=1908 |location=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=9781107432987 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=e4ZxBAAAQBAJ |via=Google Books}}
{{Cite journal |last=Brock |first=Sebastian P. |author-link=Sebastian P. Brock |title=The 'Nestorian' Church: A Lamentable Misnomer |journal=Bulletin of the John Rylands Library |year=1996 |volume=78 |number=3 |pages=23–35 |doi=10.7227/BJRL.78.3.3 |url=https://www.escholar.manchester.ac.uk/api/datastream?publicationPid=uk-ac-man-scw:1m2396&datastreamId=POST-PEER-REVIEW-PUBLISHERS-DOCUMENT.PDF}}
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{{Cite book |last=Brock |first=Sebastian P. |author-link=Sebastian P. Brock |title=Fire from Heaven: Studies in Syriac Theology and Liturgy |year=2006 |location=Aldershot |publisher=Ashgate Publishing |isbn=9780754659082 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ey_FW7acTycC |via=Google Books}}
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{{Cite journal |last=Chesnut |first=Roberta C. |title=The Two Prosopa in Nestorius' Bazaar of Heracleides |journal=The Journal of Theological Studies |year=1978 |volume=29 |issue=29 |pages=392–409 |doi=10.1093/jts/XXIX.2.392 |jstor=23958267 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23958267}}
{{Cite book |editor-last=Hill |editor-first=Henry |title=Light from the East: A Symposium on the Oriental Orthodox and Assyrian Churches |year=1988 |location=Toronto |publisher=Anglican Book Centre |isbn=9780919891906 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BmaQAAAACAAJ |via=Google Books}}
{{Cite book |editor1-last=Hodgson |editor1-first=Leonard |editor1-link=Leonard Hodgson |editor2-last=Driver |editor2-first=Godfrey R. |editor2-link=Godfrey Rolles Driver |title=Nestorius: The Bazaar of Heracleides |year=1925 |location=Oxford |publisher=Clarendon Press |isbn=9781725202399 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YVn7DwAAQBAJ |via=Google Books}}
{{Cite journal |last=Jugie |first=Martin |title=L'ecclésiologie des Nestoriens |language=fr |trans-title=The ecclesiology of the Nestorians |journal=Échos d'Orient |year=1935 |volume=34 |issue=177 |pages=5–25 |doi=10.3406/rebyz.1935.2817 |url=https://www.persee.fr/docAsPDF/rebyz_1146-9447_1935_num_34_177_2817.pdf}}
{{Cite book |last=Kuhn |first=Michael F. |title=God is One: A Christian Defence of Divine Unity in the Muslim Golden Age |year=2019 |location=Carlisle |publisher=Langham Publishing |isbn=9781783685776 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mXPnDwAAQBAJ |via=Google Books}}
{{Cite book |last=Meyendorff |first=John |author-link=John Meyendorff |title=Imperial unity and Christian divisions: The Church 450–680 A.D. |year=1989 |location=Crestwood, NY |publisher=St. Vladimir's Seminary Press |isbn=9780881410563 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6J_YAAAAMAAJ |via=Google Books}}
{{Cite journal |last=Reinink |first=Gerrit J. |title=Tradition and the Formation of the 'Nestorian' Identity in Sixth- to Seventh-Century Iraq |journal=Church History and Religious Culture|year=2009 |volume=89 |number=1–3 |pages=217–250 |doi=10.1163/187124109X407916 |jstor=23932289 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23932289}}
{{Cite book |last=Rossabi |first=Morris |title=Voyager from Xanadu: Rabban Sauma and the first journey from China to the West |year=1992 |isbn=4770016506 |publisher=Kodansha International Ltd. |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/voyagerfromxanad00ross}}
{{Cite journal |last=Seleznyov |first=Nikolai N. |title=Nestorius of Constantinople: Condemnation, Suppression, Veneration: With special reference to the role of his name in East-Syriac Christianity |journal=Journal of Eastern Christian Studies |year=2010 |volume=62 |issue=3–4 |pages=165–190 |url=http://poj.peeters-leuven.be/content.php?url=article&id=2061116&journal_code=JECS&download=yes2}}
{{Cite book|author=Stewart, John|title=Nestorian missionary enterprise, the story of a church on fire|year=1928|location=Edinburgh |publisher=T. & T. Clark}}
{{Cite book|last=Wigram|first=William Ainger|author-link=William Ainger Wigram|title=An Introduction to the History of the Assyrian Church or The Church of the Sassanid Persian Empire 100–640 A.D.|year=1910|location=London|publisher=Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge|isbn=9780837080789|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zUYKAQAAMAAJ}}
{{Cite book|last=Wilmshurst|first=David|title=The Ecclesiastical Organisation of the Church of the East, 1318–1913|year=2000|location=Louvain|publisher=Peeters Publishers|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jB8ir0ek8bgC|isbn=9789042908765}}
{{Cite book|last=Wilmshurst|first=David|title=The martyred Church: A History of the Church of the East|year=2011|location=London|publisher=East & West Publishing Limited|isbn=9781907318047|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zfxNtwAACAAJ}}
Luise Abramowski, "Der Bischof von Seleukia-Ktesiphon als Katholikos und Patriarch der Kirche des Ostens," in Dmitrij Bumazhnov u. Hans R. Seeliger (hg), Syrien im 1.–7. Jahrhundert nach Christus. Akten der 1. Tübinger Tagung zum Christlichen Orient (15.–16. Juni 2007). (Tübingen, Mohr Siebeck, 2011) (Studien und Texte zu Antike und Christentum / Studies and Texts in Antiquity and Christianity, 62)
{{cite news |last1=Leonard |first1=Pinto |title=A Brief History of Christianity In Sri Lanka |year = 2013 |url=https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/a-brief-history-of-christianity-in-sri-lanka/}}

External links

{{Cite web|url=http://www.nestorian.org/index.html|publisher=Nestorian.org |title=Unofficial Web Site of the 'Church of the East'}}
{{Cite web|url=http://www.anchist.mq.edu.au/doccentre/Zayton.htm|title=Manichaean and (Nestorian) Christian Remains in Zayton (Quanzhou, South China)|author1=Lieu, Sam|author2=Parry, Ken|access-date=January 24, 2010|publisher=Macquarie University|archive-date=July 19, 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080719190544/http://www.anchist.mq.edu.au/doccentre/Zayton.htm|url-status=dead}}
{{Cite web|author=Dickens, Mark|title=The Church of the East|year=1999|access-date=February 6, 2010|publisher=Oxus Communications|url=http://www.oxuscom.com/ch-of-east.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110514111157/http://www.oxuscom.com/ch-of-east.htm|archive-date=May 14, 2011|url-status=dead}}
{{Cite encyclopedia|url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/10755a.htm |title=Nestorius and Nestorianism|encyclopedia=The Catholic Encyclopedia}}

Category:Church of the East

Category:Assyrian Church of the East