Religious Origins of Nations?

Bas ter Haar Romeny, Ph.D. (1997), Leiden University, is Professor of Old Testament and Eastern Christianity at Leiden University. He has published extensively on Syriac Christianity, Late Antiquity, and history of biblical interpretation, including From Rome to Constantinople (Peeters, 2007).

• PrefacePresentation of the results of the Leiden projectThe Formation of a Communal Identity among West Syrian Christians: Concluding Essay of the Leiden Project, Bas ter Haar Romeny, et al.Reaction from a social scientistEthnicity and Ethnogenesis: Anthropological Perspectives, Wim HofsteeReaction from a specialist in Syriac exegesisDaniel of Salah and Identity Formation in the Earliest West Syrian Exegesis, David TaylorReactions from specialists in Syriac historiographySyriac Historiography and Identity Formation, Muriel DebiéMichael the Syrian and Syrian Orthodox Identity, Dorothea WelteckeReactions from art historiansIconography and Identity: Syrian Elements in the Art of Crusader Cyprus, Annemarie Weyl CarrArt and Identity in an Amulet Roll from Fourteenth-Century Trebizond, Glenn PeersOther sources for our knowledge of the identity formation of the Syrian OrthodoxSyriac, Arabic, Muslim – Bar Salibi, Bar Shakko, and Bar Hebraeus, Herman TeuleSeeking Justice among the ‘Outsiders’: Christian Recourse to Non-Ecclesiastical Judicial Systems under Early Islam, Uriel SimonsohnCases that may be comparableTradition and the Formation of the ‘Nestorian’ Identity in Sixth- to Seventh-Century Iraq, Gerrit ReininkThe Formation of an Armenian Identity in the First Millennium, Theo van LintThe Copts: Modern Sons of the Pharaohs?, Jacques van der VlietDominance and Diversity: Kingship, Ethnicity, and Christianity in Orthodox Ethiopia, Steven KaplanThe Development of a Chalcedonian Identity (451-553), Richard PriceConclusionsIndexes

"The editor and contributors are to be congratulated, for they have produced a volume which is sure to be foundational to future study." – Bradley Marsh, University of Oxford, The Journal of Theological Studies (2012)"...an eye-opener for the complexity of today's nationalism." – Chris Vonck, European Observatory of Religions and Secularism, in: Acta Comparanda XXI"I am genuinely impressed by this volume; the individual authors have engaged well with the subject. This book will be a very rich contribution to the field." – Robert Hoyland, University of Oxford"[This] volume is both stimulating and worthwhile; the contributions, all by leading scholars in their respective fields, are consistently of a high quality." – Sebastian P. Brock, Oxford University Oriental Institute, in: Logos: A Journal of Eastern Christian Studies 52/1-2, pp. 125-128