History of The Church of the East

History & overview · every faith gets one

The church that went east when the empire went west.

The ancient church of Persia — dismissed as "Nestorian" by its rivals — which carried Christianity along the Silk Road to India and Tang-dynasty China while Rome was still converting Europe. Reduced by centuries of catastrophe; the Assyrian remnant endures.

The founding

No single founder — The Church of the East accreted rather than began.

What it holds

The divine. One God in three persons.

Death and after. Resurrection and judgment.

The line

descent is public here — where it came from, what left it

Judaism — c. 1000 BCE Christianity — 30 CE The Church of the East — 431 CE

Branches:

The Assyrian Church of the East — The church that went east — to China, and nearly out of existence. The Ancient Church of the East — A calendar quarrel that hardened into a church.

Keep going

Back to the overview — the living page: elements, discussion, the web The Belief room — the claims themselves, with sources and context Branch The Church of the East — inherit everything, change what you must