ABSTRACT
The Christian East was divided forever by the Christological controversies of the fifth century which resulted from the struggle between Cyril of Alexandria and Nestorius of Constantinople. As a result of the Council of Chalcedon in 451, many of those churches loosely described in the Nicene period as East Syrian refused to condemn Nestorius, and would become the Church of the East. Opponents would describe them as ‘Nestorian.’ In contrast, large areas of the Syriac-speaking Church in the region of Antioch, together with the Egyptian Church and the Armenian Church, refused to accept Chalcedon, and espoused the theology of Cyril of Alexandria. They would become known as the Oriental Orthodox Churches. Opponents would call them ‘monophysites’. One Syriac-speaking group which remained Chalcedonian was the Maronites. In this chapter we turn to consider the rites of the Church of the East, the Syrian Orthodox Church and the Maronite Church.
