Fruit of the Contemplative Life
Fruit of the contemplative life: => Contemplative Christianity => : Jhanananda January 12, 2014, 02:45:42 PM
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I have been interested in the various forms of Eastern Christianity ever since I learned that there were close ties to Buddhism.
The Church of the East (Syriac: ܥܕܬܐ ܕܡܕܢܚܐ ʿĒ(d)tāʾ d-Maḏn(ə)ḥāʾ), also known as the Nestorian Church,[note 1] is a Christian church, part of the Syriac tradition of Eastern Christianity. The church of the Persian Sassanid Empire, it quickly spread widely through Asia. Between the 9th and 14th centuries it was the world's largest Christian church in terms of geographical extent, with dioceses stretching from the Mediterranean to China and India.[1] The Church of the East was headed by the Patriarch of the East, continuing a line that, according to tradition, stretched back to the Apostolic Age. Liturgically, the church adhered to the East Syrian Rite, and theologically, it is associated with the doctrine of Nestorianism, which emphasizes the distinctness of the divine and human natures of Jesus. This doctrine and its chief proponent, Nestorius (386–451), were condemned by the First Council of Ephesus in 431, leading to the Nestorian Schism and a subsequent exodus of Nestorius' supporters to Sassanid Persia. The existing Christians in Persia welcomed these refugees and gradually adopted Nestorian doctrine, leading the Church of Persia to be known alternately as the Nestorian Church.
The church grew rapidly under the Sassanids, and following the Islamic conquest of Persia, it was designated as a protected dhimmi community under Muslim rule. From the 6th century, it expanded greatly, establishing ties with the Saint Thomas Christian community which existed in India, having evangelical success among the Mongol tribes in Central Asia, and China, which was home to a thriving Nestorian community under the Tang Dynasty from the 7th to the 9th century. In the 13th and 14th century the church experienced a final period of expansion under the Mongol Empire, which had influential Nestorian Christians in the Mongol court.
From its peak of geographical extent, the church experienced a rapid period of decline starting in the 14th century, due in large part to outside influences. The Mongol Empire dissolved into civil war, the Chinese Ming Dynasty overthrew the Mongols and ejected Christians and other foreign influences from China (also including Manichaeism), and many Mongols in Central Asia converted to Islam. The Muslim Mongol leader Timur (1336–1405) nearly eradicated the remaining Christians in Persia; thereafter, Nestorian Christianity was largely confined to Upper Mesopotamia and the Malabar Coast of India. In the 16th century, the Church of the East went into a schism from which two distinct churches eventually emerged; the modern Assyrian Church of the East and the Chaldean Catholic Church, an Eastern Catholic Church in communion with the Holy See.
The Church of the East and Nestorianism are closely related
Nestorianism is a Christological doctrine advanced by Nestorius, Patriarch of Constantinople from 428–431. The doctrine, which was informed by Nestorius' studies under Theodore of Mopsuestia at the School of Antioch, emphasizes the disunion between the human and divine natures of Jesus. Nestorius' teachings brought him into conflict with some other prominent church leaders, most notably Cyril of Alexandria, who criticized especially his rejection of the title Theotokos ("Bringer forth of God") for the Virgin Mary. Nestorius and his teachings were eventually condemned as heretical at the First Council of Ephesus in 431 and the Council of Chalcedon in 451, leading to the Nestorian Schism in which churches supporting Nestorius broke with the rest of the Christian Church. Afterward many of Nestorius' supporters relocated to Sassanid Persia, where they affiliated with the local Christian community, known as the Church of the East. Over the next decades the Church of the East became increasingly Nestorian in doctrine, leading it to be known alternately as the Nestorian Church.
Nestorianism is a form of dyophysitism, and can be seen as the antithesis to 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."[1] Both Nestorianism and monophysitism were condemned as heretical at the Council of Chalcedon. Monophysitism survived and developed into the Miaphysitism of the modern Oriental Orthodox churches.
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 Persian city of Nisibis in 489 (where it became known as the School of Nisibis). Nestorianism never again became prominent in the Roman Empire or later Europe, though the diffusion of the Church of the East in and after the 7th century spread it widely across Asia. But not all churches affiliated with the Church of the East appear to have followed Nestorian Christology; indeed, the modern Assyrian Church of the East, which reveres Nestorius, does not follow all historically Nestorian doctrine.
The Saint Thomas Christian are historically connected to the Nestorian and the Church of the East.
The Saint Thomas Christians, also called Syrian Christians or Nasrani, are an ancient community of Christians from Kerala, India who trace their origins to the evangelistic activity of Thomas the Apostle in the 1st century. The community was historically united in leadership and liturgy, but since the 17th century have been split into several different church denominations and traditions.
Historically the Saint Thomas Christian community was part of the Church of the East, centered in Persia. They were organized as the Ecclesiastical Province of India in the 8th century, served by bishops and a hereditary Archdeacon. In the 16th century the overtures of the Portuguese padroado to bring the Saint Thomas Christians into the Catholic Church led to the first of several rifts in the community and the establishment of Syrian Catholic and Malankara Church factions. Since that time further splits have occurred, and the Saint Thomas Christians are now divided into several different Eastern Catholic, Oriental Orthodox, and independent bodies, each with their own liturgies and traditions.
The Saint Thomas Christians represent a single ethnic group. Saint Thomas Christian culture is largely developed from East Syrian influences blended with local customs and later elements derived from indigenous Indian and European colonial contacts. Their language is Malayalam, the local tongue of Kerala.
Terminology
The Saint Thomas Christians are so called due to their reverence for Saint Thomas the Apostle, who is said to have brought Christianity to India. The name dates to the period of Portuguese colonization. They are also known, especially locally, as the Nasrani or Nasrani Mappila. "Nasrani" is a term meaning "Christian"; it appears to be derived from Nazareth, the home town of Jesus. Mappila is an honorific applied to members of non-Indian faiths, including Muslims (Jonaka Mappila) and Jews (Yuda Mappila).[4][5] Some Syrian Christians of Travancore continue to attach this honorific title to their names.[6] The Indian government designates members of the community as "Syrian Christians", a term originating with the Dutch colonial authority distinguishing the Saint Thomas Christians, who used Syriac as the liturgical language, from newly evangelized Christians following Latin liturgy.[7] The term Syrian relates not to their ethnicity but to their historical, religious and liturgical connection to the Church of the East, or East Syrian Church.[4]
Please note here that the Thomas Christians called themselves "Nasrani" and the early pre-Greco-Roman Christian Jews called themselves "Nazara" which has no association with a town called Nazareth, because there was no town called that until the 4th century AD. This means that the terms "Nasrani" and "Nazara", and the references in the Christian Gospels of such a town where Joseph, Jesus' father, was supposed to have come from, are actually references to Joseph and Jesus being "Nazarites."
Nazareth (/ˈnæzərəθ/; Hebrew: נָצְרַת, Natz'rat; Arabic: الْنَاصِرَة, an-Nāṣirah or an-Nāṣiriyyah) is the largest city in the North District of Israel. Nazareth is known as "the Arab capital of Israel";[2][3][4][5] the population is made up predominantly of Arab citizens of Israel, almost all of whom are either Muslim (69%) or Christian (30.9%).[6][7] In the New Testament, the city is described as the childhood home of Jesus, and as such is a center of Christian pilgrimage, with many shrines commemorating biblical events.
Etymology
Nazareth is not mentioned in pre-Christian texts and appears in many different Greek forms in the New Testament. There is no consensus regarding the origin of the name...[8]
Another theory holds that the Greek form Nazara, used in Matthew and Luke, may derive from an earlier Aramaic form of the name, or from another Semitic language form.[14]...
Arabic name, an-Nāṣira
In the Qur'an, Christians are referred to as naṣārā, meaning "followers of an-Nāṣirī," or "those who follow Jesus."[16] Similarly, in Maltese a Christian male is called Nisrani, whilst someone from Nazareth is called Nazzarenu. Whereas Nisrani is of direct Semitic origin, it is very likely that Nazzarenu was adopted via the Italian Nazzareno (from Latin, Nazarenus, meaning Nazarene.)
New Testament references
In English translations of the New Testament, the phrase "Jesus of Nazareth" appears seventeen times whereas the Greek has the form "Jesus the Nazarēnos" or "Jesus the Nazōraios. "[17] One plausible view is that Nazōraean (Ναζωραῖος) is a normal Greek adaptation of a reconstructed, hypothetical term in Jewish Aramaic for the word later used in Rabbinical sources to refer to Jesus.[18] "Nazaréth" is named twelve times in surviving Greek manuscript versions of the New Testament, 10 times as Nazaréth or Nazarét,[19] and twice as Nazará.[8] The former two may retain the 'feminine' endings common in Galilean toponyms.[8] The minor variants, Nazarat and Nazarath are also attested.[20] Nazara (Ναζαρά) might be the earliest form of the name in Greek, going back to the putative Q document. It is found in Matthew 4:13 and Luke 4:16.[8][dubious – discuss] However, the Textus Receptus clearly translates all passages as Nazara leaving little room for debate there.[21]
Nazarenes, Nasranis, Notzrim, Christians
Main article: Nazarene (title)
Around 331 Eusebius records that from the name Nazareth Christ was called a Nazoraean, and that in earlier centuries Christians, were once called Nazarenes.[30] Tertullian (Against Marcion 4:8) records that "for this reason the Jews call us 'Nazarenes'. In the New Testament Christians are called "Christians" three times by Romans, and "Nazarenes" once by Tertullus, a Jewish lawyer. The Rabbinic and modern Hebrew name for Christians, notzrim, is also thought to derive from Nazareth, and be connected with Tertullus' charge against Paul of being a member of the sect of the Nazarenes, Nazoraioi, "men of Nazareth" in Acts. Against this some medieval Jewish polemical texts connect notzrim with the netsarim "watchmen" of Ephraim in Jeremiah 31:6. In Syrian Aramaic Natsarat (ܢܨܪܬ) is used for Nazareth, while "Nazarenes" (Acts 24:5) and "of Nazareth" are both nasraya (ܕܢܨܪܝܐ) an adjectival form.[31][32][33] Saint Thomas Christians, an ancient community of Jewish Christians in India who trace their origins to evangelistic activity of Thomas the Apostle in the 1st century, are known by the name Nasranis even today.[34][35]
History
Ancient times
The Franciscan priest Bellarmino Bagatti, "Director of Christian Archaeology", carried out extensive excavation of this "Venerated Area" from 1955 to 1965. Fr. Bagatti uncovered pottery dating from the Middle Bronze Age (2200 to 1500 BC) and ceramics, silos and grinding mills from the Iron Age (1500 to 586 BC) which indicated substantial settlement in the Nazareth basin at that time. However, lack of archaeological evidence for Nazareth from Assyrian, Babylonian, Persian, Hellenistic or Early Roman times, at least in the major excavations between 1955 and 1990, shows that the settlement apparently came to an abrupt end about 720 BC, when the Assyrians destroyed many towns in the area.
Early Christian era
According to the religious text Gospel of Luke, Nazareth was the home village of Mary and also the site of the Annunciation (when Mary was told by the Angel Gabriel that she would have Jesus as her son). In the Gospel of Matthew, Joseph and Mary resettled in Nazareth after returning from the flight from Bethlehem to Egypt. The differences and possible contradictions between these two accounts of the nativity of Jesus are part of the Synoptic Problem. According to the Bible, Nazareth was also where Jesus grew up from some point in his childhood. However, some modern scholars argue that Nazareth was also the birthplace of Jesus.[38]
The Basilica of the Annunciation
James F. Strange, an American archaeologist, notes: “Nazareth is not mentioned in ancient Jewish sources earlier than the third century AD.
In the Hebrew Bible, a Nazirite or Nazarite, (in Hebrew: נזיר, nazir), refers to one who voluntarily took a vow described in Numbers 6:1–21. The proper noun "Nazarite" comes from the Hebrew word nazir meaning "consecrated" or "separated".[1] This vow required the man or woman to:
Abstain from wine, wine vinegar, grapes, raisins, intoxicating liquors,[2] vinegar distilled from such substances,[3] and eating or drinking any substance that contains any trace of grapes.[4]
Refrain from cutting the hair on one's head; but to allow the locks of the head's hair to grow.[5]
Not to become impure by corpses or graves, even those of family members.[6]
After following these requirements for a designated period of time (which would be specified in the individual's vow), the person would immerse in a mikveh and make three offerings: a lamb as a burnt offering (olah), a ewe as a sin-offering (hatat), and a ram as a peace offering (shelamim), in addition to a basket of unleavened bread, grain offerings and drink offerings, which accompanied the peace offering. They would also shave their head in the outer courtyard of the Temple (the Jerusalem Temple for Judaism) and then place the hair on the same fire as the peace offering. (Numbers 6:18)
The Nazirite is described as being "holy unto YHWH" (Numbers 6:8), yet at the same time must bring a sin offering. This has led to divergent approaches to the Nazirite in the Talmud, and later authorities, with some viewing the Nazirite as an ideal, and others viewing him as a sinner.
In Modern Hebrew the word "nazir" is commonly used for monks, both Christian and Buddhist - this meaning having largely displaced the original Biblical meaning.
The Church of the East, Nestorianism, The Saint Thomas Christian are historically connected to Manichaeism.
Manichaeism (/ˈmænɨkiːɪzəm/;[1] in Modern Persian آیین مانی Āyin e Māni; Chinese: 摩尼教; pinyin: Móní Jiào) was a major Gnostic religion that was founded by the Iranian[2] prophet Mani (in Persian: مانی, Syriac: ܡܐܢܝ, Latin: Manichaeus or Manes) (c. 216–276 AD) in the Sasanian Persian Empire.[3][4]
While most of Mani's original writings have been lost, numerous translations and fragmentary texts have survived. Manichaeism taught an elaborate dualistic cosmology describing the struggle between a good, spiritual world of light, and an evil, material world of darkness. Through an ongoing process which takes place in human history, light is gradually removed from the world of matter and returned to the world of light whence it came. Its beliefs were based on local Mesopotamian gnostic and religious movements.[5]
Manichaeism was quickly successful and spread far through the Aramaic-Syriac speaking regions.[6] It thrived between the third and seventh centuries, and at its height was one of the most widespread religions in the world. Manichaean churches and scriptures existed as far east as China and as far west as the Roman Empire.[7] It was briefly the main rival to Christianity in the competition to replace classical paganism. Manichaeism survived longer in the East than in the West, and it appears to have finally faded away after the 14th century in southern China,[8] contemporary to the decline in China of the Church of the East – see Ming Dynasty.
An adherent of Manichaeism is called, especially in older sources,[9] a Manichee, or more recently Manichaean. By extension, the term "manichean" is widely applied (often disparagingly) as an adjective to a philosophy or attitude of moral dualism, according to which a moral course of action involves a clear (or simplistic) choice between good and evil, or as a noun to people who hold such a view.
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Please note here that the Thomas Christians called themselves "Nasrani" and the early pre-Greco-Roman Christian Jews called themselves "Nazara" which has no association with a town called Nazareth, because there was no town called that until the 4th century AD. This means that the terms "Nasrani" and "Nazara", and the references in the Christian Gospels of such a town where Joseph, Jesus' father, was supposed to have come from, are actually references to Joseph and Jesus being "Nazarites."
The Bible refers to Jesus, as 'Jesus of Nazareth.' So if there was no town called Nazareth until the 4th century AD, where was Jesus' hometown?
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You might enjoy reading about the hesychasts http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hesychasm (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hesychasm), who we touched on briefly a long time ago when someone came here asking about the monastic text The Philokalia. They have a few key things I find unique:
- They teach about diakrisis, or discrimination
- They talk about the "opening of the heart," which is often accompanied by tears, and meditation on Christ's suffering (i.e. opening the heart chakra)
- Supernatural joy (first jhana)
- And "stillness" (second jhana)
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Thanks for the link, aglorincz. I found this article very interesting. I like the way you can assess their attainments by using the jhanas and the chakras as benchmarks. A powerful tool.
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The Bible refers to Jesus, as 'Jesus of Nazareth.' So if there was no town called Nazareth until the 4th century AD, where was Jesus' hometown?
This reference is all evidence that the version of Christianity that has been heavily marketed since Constantine is deeply flawed. Read every reference in the Gospels to a place called 'Nazareth' as a reference to the nazarite, which is monasticism, and you will be way ahead of any Christian today.
You might enjoy reading about the hesychasts http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hesychasm (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hesychasm), who we touched on briefly a long time ago when someone came here asking about the monastic text The Philokalia. They have a few key things I find unique:
- They teach about diakrisis, or discrimination
- They talk about the "opening of the heart," which is often accompanied by tears, and meditation on Christ's suffering (i.e. opening the heart chakra)
- Supernatural joy (first jhana)
- And "stillness" (second jhana)
Thank-you, aglorincz, for the reminder.
Hesychasm (Greek: ἡσυχασμός, hesychasmos, from ἡσυχία, hesychia, "stillness, rest, quiet, silence")[1] is an eremitic tradition of prayer in the Eastern Orthodox Church and Eastern Catholic Churches of Byzantine Rite practised (Gk: ἡσυχάζω, hesychazo: "to keep stillness") by the Hesychast (Gr. Ἡσυχαστής, hesychastes).
Based on Christ's injunction in the Gospel of Matthew to "when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray",[2] hesychasm in tradition has been the process of retiring inward by ceasing to register the senses, in order to achieve an experiential knowledge of God (see theoria).
Meanings of the term
Kallistos Ware distinguishes five distinct meanings of the term "hesychasm":
"solitary life", a sense, equivalent to "eremitical life", in which the term is used since the 4th century;
"the practice of inner prayer, aiming at union with God on a level beyond images, concepts and language", a sense in which the term is found in Evagrius Ponticus (345-399), Maximus the Confessor (c. 580 - 662), and Symeon the New Theologian (949-1022);
"the quest for such union through the Jesus Prayer", the earliest reference to which is in Diadochos of Photiki (c. 450);
"a particular psychosomatic technique in combination with the Jesus Prayer", use of which technique can be traced back at least to the 13th century;
"the theology of St. Gregory Palamas", on which see Palamism.[3]
It sounds like what some of us are doing.