Christine Chaillot

This article presents the situation of the Oriental Orthodox Churches in India, commonly known as "Orthodox Syrians," within the framework of a historical and descriptive study. Christine Chaillot traces the history of Indian Christianity from the apostolic tradition of Saint Thomas to contemporary ecclesiastical divisions, passing through Portuguese Latinization, the Coonen Cross revolt of 1653, and the introduction of the Western Syriac rite of Antioch. The article sets out the split that occurred in the twentieth century between the group loyal to the Patriarch of Antioch and the one in favor of autocephaly, as well as the persistent legal tensions. It also describes current ecclesiastical life: missionary activities, monastic life with a social dimension, liturgy in Malayalam, and a growing diasporic presence. The contribution of the article lies in its contextualization of this ancient Church in relation to the challenges of Orthodox unity and its integration into Indian modernity.

This article by Christine Chaillot examines the place of images and icons in the Syrian Orthodox Church of Antioch, known as "pre-Chalcedonian" or "Jacobite". Drawing on historical and iconographic study, it relies on Syriac patristic sources, medieval chronicles and fieldwork carried out in Lebanon, Syria, Turkey and Jerusalem. The central argument is to refute the persistent thesis that the Syrian Orthodox were iconoclasts due to their so-called "Monophysite" Christology. Through extensive documentation ranging from the Mandylion of Edessa to contemporary practices, the author demonstrates that this Church has consistently used and venerated images. On the theological level, the article establishes that Byzantine iconoclasm is independent of Syriac Monophysitism, and that the Syriac iconodule tradition is part of a doctrinal continuity consistent with the conclusions of the Second Council of Nicaea.