Bishop Solomon: The Book of the Bee

Questions for Further Study

• 1. The Nestorian Church flourished in the Middle Ages but then largely (but not entirely) disappeared. Why? What historical factors might have accounted for the rise and decline of Nestorianism?
• 2. Few people would probably regard death as “God’s gift to humankind,” as the entry states. Why did the Church of the East hold this belief? How did the Nestorian view of death differ from that of another culture, such as that reflected in, for example, the Tibetan Book of the Dead, the Egyptian “Great Hymn to the Aten,” or Lucretius’s On the Nature of Things?
• 3. The Book of the Bee reflects a wide range of cultural and religious influences, including those from Jews, Muslims, Zoroastrians, Hindus, and Buddhists, among others. What cultural and geographical factors contributed to this? In what ways is The Book of the Bee different from more insulated medieval European documents on religion, for example Francis of Assisi’s “Canticle of the Creatures”?
• 4. A fundamental Nestorian belief—that Christ had “two real natures united in a single person without confusion or change”—was regarded as heretical by the Christian Church in Rome? Why? What did the Church in the West find so outrageous about this view?
• 5. Does it surprise you to learn that “the Nestorian Church was more highly organized and had a much greater membership than either the Roman or Greek Orthodox churches of the West”? Why or why not? What factors might have accounted for this organization and membership?