%0 Journal Article
%T Dominican Contributions to Christian Life in Mesopotamia
%A Kristian Girling
%J The Downside Review
%@ 2397-3498
%D 2018
%R 10.1177/0012580618771536
%X A community of particular significance in the development of Mesopotamian-Iraqi Christian life in the modern era was (and is) the Dominican Order which has had a sustained presence since the 18th century. This article serves as an overview of Dominican contributions to Syriac Christian life in Mesopotamia and reflects on the Order¡¯s presence as part of the traditional plurality of Iraqi society. Notwithstanding the rise of Da¡¯esh/ISIL since June 2014 multiple religious traditions continue to exist in Iraq. The willingness of wider Iraqi society to accept a Christian presence is easily forgotten in contemporary narratives which focus on sectarian discourses and avoid acknowledging that the Middle East is not dichotomous in perpetuity: there are wider considerations than Jewish-Muslim, Arab-Kurd, Arab-Persian &c. Moreover, while Islam is an ever present reality in the modern and contemporary Middle East, it is not the only reality
%K Chaldean Catholic
%K Dominican
%K Eastern Christianity
%K Iraq
%K Islam
%U https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0012580618771536