Jessica’s series about the Church of the East reminded me of one of the documents of enduring interest from its history. It has been put on line by Roger Pearse, to whose efforts anyone interested in the Early Church is much indebted. It is a dialogue between the Nestorian Catholicos, Timothy I (780-823) and the Abbassid Kaliph al-Mahdi.
An interesting document in its own right, it has two other claims on our attention. It is an example of how the two faiths could confront each other without the sword; it is also an example of how to engage in such dialogue.
On another level, for those of us with an interest in Apologetics, it provides an example of Nestorian Apologetics; reading it, I was struck by the way it is based entirely in Scripture; there is no appeal to Tradition.
In 781 the Caliph asked Timothy to engage in a two day debate over the merits of Christianity and how it compared with the rising relgion of Islam. The ‘Defence of Christianity’ which Timothy produced was one which elicited the admiration of the Caliph, and in these darker days, deserves to find wider circulation as an example of both faiths at their best.
The Caliph touches on topics which his co-religionists pick to this day: the Virgin birth; the nature of God; the identity of Christ – and the Trinity.
In response to the usual Muslim accusation that in believeing in Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Christians believed in ‘three Gods’, Mar Timothy denied it:
“The belief in the above three names, consists in the belief in three Persons, and the belief in these three Persons consists in the belief in one God. The belief in the above three names, consists therefore in the belief in one God. We believe in Father, Son and Holy Spirit as one God. So Jesus Christ taught us, and so we have learnt from the revelation of the books of the prophets. As our God-loving King is one King with his word and his spirit, and not three Kings, and as no one is able to distinguish him, his word and his spirit from himself and no one calls him King independently of his word and his spirit, so also God is one God with His Word and His Spirit, and not three Gods, because the Word and the Spirit of God are inseparable from Him. And as the sun with its light and its heat is not called three suns but one sun, so also God with His Word and His Spirit is not three Gods but is and is called one God.”
His defence for this lay in the Psalms, the words of the Prophets and the words of the Evangelists.
Respectful of Mohammed, Mar Timothy is firm in telling the Caliph that there in no Scriptural warrant for him:
“If he were mentioned in the Gospel, this mention would have been marked by a distinct portraiture characterising his coming, his name, his mother, and his people as the true portraiture of the coming of Jesus Christ is found in the Torah and in the prophets. Since nothing resembling this is found in the Gospel concerning Muhammad, it is evident that there is no mention of him in it at all, and that is the reason why I have not received a single testimony from the Gospel about him.”
Jessica wants to say something on this discourse, but I thought it might help to place it in context. The whole piece is well worth studying.
All Along the Watchtower 
Fascinating, both the Apologetic and the site as well. Thank you.
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I am glad you liked it. The site is an excellent one.
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It is, indeed. I shall be frequenting it, at least on occasion.
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Timothy’s (probably fictional) dialogue with al-Mahdi is, in my view, by far the most interesting of his surviving works. It is also, as I have mentioned elsewhere, a gripping treatment of a theme of the first importance. By pure coincidence, I favourably reviewed the Gorgias Press edition on amazon.co.uk only last week, so I won’t repeat here what I said then. I would recommend this book to all readers of Jessica’s blog, though with the caveat that it is very expensive. What is really needed now is a fresh paperback edition of the text with a modern English translation and an updated introduction.
I am convinced that Timothy wrote the book for the enjoyment of Muslims as well as Christians – his first version was in Syriac, which few Muslims could read, but it proved to be so popular among Christian readers that he was persuaded to bring out a second edition in Arabic. He would not have done so had there not been a demand for the book from Muslims as well as Christians.
I first read Timothy’s Defence four years ago, while I was writing ‘The Martyred Church’, and was amazed at how its theme resonates today. It is a model of how Christians and Muslims should discuss their differences, and deserves to be far better known outside the academy.
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Thank you for this David. I did write a short review of your book – which is equally deserving of praise.
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Yes, so I saw! Thank you very much for that: you have made my Mum’s day! She’s been showing it to all the neighbours … I was very pleased, too. Five stars, my goodness!
I don’t think many people would disagree with the title of your review: A Sad Story. And yet, and yet … I gave a talk last Tuesday evening to around 40 local Chinese Christians in Hong Kong, who call themselves the ‘Jingjiao Fellowship’, using the Chinese term for the Nestorian Church in China, the ‘brilliant teaching’. They were all interested in knowing more about the history of the Church of the East in China, and I would bet any amount of money that Assyrian missionaries are back in China within the next ten years. In 2010 an Assyrian bishop was consecrated for Teheran, with the blessing of the Iranian authorities; the first time a bishop has been appointed in Iran since the 1979 revolution. I think the Church of the East is far stronger now than it was in, say, 1930, when it was down to only three or four bishops. So let’s hope the story has a happy ending.
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