Wednesday, September 22, 2004
The place of Armenian Christianity within the larger context of world Christianity will be the subject of a lecture by Dr. Ara Dostourian on Thursday, Sept. 30, at 8 p.m. at the Center and Headquarters of the National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR), 395 Concord Ave., Belmont.
Dostourian, a retired professor of history at West Georgia State University and former research fellow in Armenian Studies at Harvard University, has spent decades studying the development and characteristics of Christianity as practiced historically by the Armenian people.
Frequently, when Armenian Christianity is analyzed, it is viewed without reference to world Christianity and other Christian traditions. Moreover, the national or ethnic character of Armenian Christianity is emphasized rather than its position within a larger Christian context.
Dostourian will present an overview of basic Christianity and its relationship to the other Abrahamic faiths (Judaism and Islam) as well as the two major non-Abrahamic world religions (Hinduism and Buddhism) and place Armenian Christianity within the context of the three major Christian traditions: Orthodoxy, Catholicism and Protestantism.
A special emphasis will be placed on Armenian Christianity’s relationship with Orthodox Christianity, as the Armenian tradition is part of the Oriental Orthodox family of churches (with Syriac, Coptic, Ethiopian and Indian). Armenian Orthodoxy will be compared with that of the Eastern Orthodox family (Greek, Russian, Ukrainian, Serbian, Bulgarian, etc.). Finally, the uniqueness of Armenian Christianity as a faith that took root in a particular place and historical context – political, economic and cultural – will be discussed.
Dostourian received a Ph.D. in Byzantine history from Rutgers University, having earlier received a master of arts degree in medieval history from Fordham University and a master of divinity degree from the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge. He is the author of numerous articles on Armenian history and religion, and is the translator and editor of “Armenia and the Crusades, 10th to 12th Centuries: The Chronicle of Matthew of Edessa.”
Admission to the event is free (donations appreciated). The NAASR bookstore will open at 7:30 p.m. Ample parking is available around the building and in adjacent areas.
For more information call 617-489-1610, or e-mail hq@naasr.org.
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