Skip to main content

IMC 2009: Sessions

Session 1604: Defining Identities in Foreign Lands

Thursday 16 July 2009, 11.15-12.45

Moderator/Chair:Hugh Kennedy, Department of the Languages & Cultures of the Near & Middle East, School of Oriental & African Studies, University of London
Paper 1604-aStephen of Siwnik (c. 680-735) and the Re-Defining of Armenian Orthodoxy under the Islamic Rule
(Language: English)
Igor Dorfmann-Lazarev, Department of the Languages & Cultures of Near & Middle East, School of Oriental & African Studies, University of London
Index terms: Byzantine Studies, Ecclesiastical History, Theology
Abstract

This session deals with the role of questions of orthodoxy and faith in differing narratives of colonisation and settlement.

Paper -a:
The paper intends to address the lack of studies on the religious history of the Caucasus after the 'Great Schism of the East'. Stephen of Siwnik's activity coincides with the turning point in Armenian history, the beginning of the direct Islamic rule (701). I shall discuss Stephen's theological debate with the Patriarch Germanus of Constantinople. By rejecting Chalcedon, the Armenian church had detached itself from the consequent Byzantine theological elaborations while opening up the door to new Christological queries which involved the entire non-Chalcedonian Christendom. Therefore, I shall also analyse Stephen's role in the re-shaping of Armenian orthodoxy in view of the rapprochement with the West-Syrian church at the council of Mantzikert (726).