TY - BOOK ID - 96107242 TI - Revival and awakening PY - 2015 SN - 9780226145310 022614531X 022614545X 9780226145280 022614528X 9780226145457 PB - Chicago DB - UniCat KW - Missions to Assyrian Church of the East members KW - Protestant churches KW - Missionaries KW - Evangelistic work KW - Syriac Christians KW - Assyrian Church of the East members KW - Nationalism KW - History KW - Missions KW - Religion KW - Religious aspects KW - Christianity KW - Nestorians KW - Syrian Christians KW - Christians KW - Evangelism KW - Proselytizing KW - Revival (Religion) KW - Theology, Practical KW - Discipling (Christianity) KW - Religious awakening KW - Consciousness, National KW - Identity, National KW - National consciousness KW - National identity KW - International relations KW - Patriotism KW - Political science KW - Autonomy and independence movements KW - Internationalism KW - Political messianism KW - Religious adherents KW - Protestant sects KW - Christian sects KW - Protestantism KW - Missions to Nestorians KW - Missions to Assyrian Church of the East members - History - 19th century KW - Protestant churches - Missions - Iran - History - 19th century KW - Missionaries - United States - History - 19th century KW - Evangelistic work - Iran - History - 19th century KW - Syriac Christians - Iran - Religion - History - 19th century KW - Assyrian Church of the East members - History - 19th century KW - Nationalism - Religious aspects - Christianity - History - 19th century KW - iran, nationalism, religion, politics, middle east, missionaries, evangelism, america, revolution, nation, identity, assyrian christian, nestorian, church, qajar, aramaic, protestant, piety, faith, ottoman empire, science, history, mirza david george malik, poetry, exile, political engagement, nineveh, literature, culture, morality, reform, government, nonfiction. UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:96107242 AB - Most Americans have little understanding of the relationship between religion and nationalism in the Middle East. They assume that the two are rooted fundamentally in regional history, not in the history of contact with the broader world. However, as Adam H. Becker shows in this book, Americans—through their missionaries—had a strong hand in the development of a national and modern religious identity among one of the Middle East’s most intriguing (and little-known) groups: the modern Assyrians. Detailing the history of the Assyrian Christian minority and the powerful influence American missionaries had on them, he unveils the underlying connection between modern global contact and the retrieval of an ancient identity. American evangelicals arrived in Iran in the 1830s. Becker examines how these missionaries, working with the “Nestorian” Church of the East—an Aramaic-speaking Christian community in the borderlands between Qajar Iran and the Ottoman Empire—catalyzed, over the span of sixty years, a new national identity. Instructed at missionary schools in both Protestant piety and Western science, this indigenous group eventually used its newfound scriptural and archaeological knowledge to link itself to the history of the ancient Assyrians, which in time led to demands for national autonomy. Exploring the unintended results of this American attempt to reform the Orient, Becker paints a larger picture of religion, nationalism, and ethnic identity in the modern era. ER -