Esho Book

تهدف هذه الدراسة إلى تحليل جدلية الانتماء الكنسي والانتماء القومي في تاريخ كنيسة المشرق، من خلال مقاربة تاريخية–تحليلية تُراعي السياقات الاجتماعية والسياسية والفكرية. كما تسعى إلى تفكيك المفاهيم المرتبطة بالهوية، وبيان حدود التماهي أو التمايز بين الكنيسة ككيان روحي عابر للقوميات، والجماعة المؤمنة بوصفها حاملة لتراث لغوي وثقافي وقومي محدد The Church of the East is one of the oldest and most widely dispersed Christian churches in history. From the earliest centuries, it played a theological, educational, and missionary role that extended far beyond Mesopotamia, reaching Persia, Central Asia, India, and China. However, this vast expansion, together with the political, cultural, and theological transformations that accompanied it, gave rise over time to complex questions concerning identity, particularly the relationship between ecclesiastical identity on the one hand and national identity on the other. This book seeks to address this issue through a rigorous scholarly approach, free from emotional polemics or ideological alignments. It does not aim to deny national identities or diminish their significance, nor does it seek to justify them theologically. Rather, its purpose is to distinguish between the respective spheres of identity—that is, to draw a methodological distinction between ecclesiastical identity as a faith-based and apostolic identity, and national identity as a modern historical construct shaped by its own intellectual and political contexts.