Dr. Samuel Rubenson is Professor Emeritus of Church History and affiliated with the Centre for Theology and Religious Studies at Lund University in Sweden. After spending much of his childhood in Ethiopia, he has dedicated his career to the study of Eastern Christianity, with special attention to patristics, monasticism, and Ethiopian and Egyptian Christianity. The following interview touches on his doctoral studies on St. Anthony, often regarded as the father of Christian monasticism, the origins and distinctives of the Ethiopian Orthodox tradition, Ethiopian monasticism, Coptic Orthodox and Ethiopian Orthodox relations, Christian-Muslim relations in Ethiopia, and modern separatist impulses in the Tigray and Oromo regions that impact the Ethiopian church.

Excerpt 1

MA: Coming to a second question here, what are some of the most important distinctives of this tradition, whether theological or liturgical? Obviously those distinctives may have shifted over the centuries. But if you're going to try to give an answer to that question, what comes to mind?

SR: I can only give a very brief answer that will mention some features, and I cannot be extensive or detailed. But you could say that Ethiopian Christianity has a strong cultural independence. It's not been affected by the later developments of the Roman Empire or the medieval times as much as other forms of Christianity. So, among our Christian traditions, you can say that the Ethiopian is one that is most distinctive from all others. Similar to the Syrian Orthodox or the Syrian Orthodox Malankara church in India, the Ethiopian is very, very distinctive in its cultural independence. In many aspects there are some very interesting features that point to a stronger Jewish component, and I will not be able to go into detail now. One thing that is very important is that there is a lack of episcopal tradition in the sense that Ethiopia only had one bishop. Only one bishop up to the end of the 19^th century, and that bishop was a Coptic bishop sent from Alexandria, who did not know the languages, did not know the country, the culture, or the people. This Coptic bishop, who was formally the head of the church, actually had little impact on most of Ethiopian history.

That also means that the church was less hierarchical and structurally centralized. Parishes, and especially monasteries, became the leading bastions of Christianity and also the theological centers. But there were very many monasteries, and they were independent of one another. So, diversity is also a distinctive feature. You could say Ethiopian Christianity is more diverse than most other forms of Christianity. It's not regularized. It has a very strong monastic presence, stronger than I can see in any other Christian tradition. Also, it has many different monastic practices that are not very strictly organized or regularized and are also quite individual, much less collective. We had many Ethiopian monks who were independent anchorites and hermits throughout history, and even today. And we also have monks who live for some time in one monastery and then move to another to learn more. So, there is a strong impact of what you could call individual search for God and less of a communal, regularized common labor.

Dogmatically, due to a number of factors, you could say that there is dogmatic openness with very few dogmatic regulations or teachings. It is very much a symbolic theology. Here there are strong connections with Syrian Christianity and what we know from Saint Ephraim (d. 373) and other Syrian theological poets. We find this kind of poetic theology with strong symbolic flavors in Ethiopia. And then the final distinctive feature, I would say, is that it is very corporeal. Fasting is very important, the way you fast, how you fast, but also other rituals, like pilgrimage or kneeling. The use of the body is very important.

Excerpt 2

MA: The issue you're describing here is that there are different regions of Ethiopia that have different linguistic and ethnic compositions, and that these different parts of the country end up wanting some kind of separate church somehow. Is that correct?

SR: Yes, it accelerated after Eritrean independence in 1991. Then the part of the church in Eritrea decided to make the Eritrean Orthodox Church. Then there was the recent war in the Tigray region, and the Christians in Tigray felt that they were betrayed by the Ethiopians waging war on them. The bishops in Tigray decided that they could have no close relations with the main church synod in Addis Ababa, and they created the Tigray Orthodox Church, which has not declared its full independence. Negotiations are continuing, and some in the synod want the Tigray church to be more under central control. Others say a more diversified church needs to be accepted. So, there is a debate in the synod. Then a bishop of the Oromo tradition, or several bishops of the Oromo tradition, decided that there are too few bishops in the Oromo areas, which might be true, and that the Oromo identity is not accepted by the central church as it should be. They decided to create their own Oromo synod and ordain their own bishops. They actually were forced to go back, and the bishops were either deposed or had to accept the authority of the patriarch. But some areas of Ethiopia say, "Oh, too much money is going to another area. We are not privileged, and the church doesn't help us. We need our own church to help us." The separatist movements in different parts of Ethiopia are a problem for the church, because in many cases, they are supported by the local people who think that these separatist movements will help them. I think that in the long run they are wrong, because these divisions will not make the states stronger.

MA: So are there two main separatist movements, the Tigray and the Oromo?

SR: Yes. They are the two big ones. The Tigray movement is a very recent phenomenon that had to do with the fact that after communist rule in Ethiopia was overthrown in 1991, the main rulers were all from Tigray, because it was the Tigray People’s Liberation Front who actually threw out the communists. When Meles Zenawi (d. 2012) died, who was a strong Tigrayan leader, the country elected a leader who was not from Tigray. The present prime minister, Abi Ahmed, is not from Tigray. At that point the TPLF said, "We have lost all of our influence." I think this is overstated, but they wanted to say that Tigray is the center of Ethiopia, so the country should be ruled from Tigray, not from the south. The Tigray movement started in the 1990s and began to have an impact on the Church, especially during and after the recent conflict between Tigray and the central Ethiopian government. The Oromo influence in the Church has another background, because the Oromo areas were the areas where the Protestants grew most, so the Oromo Liberation Front was a Protestant movement, you might say. All the leaders of Oromo nationalism in the beginning were Protestants, and then other leaders of the Oromo separatists were Muslims. Oromo is the largest population in Ethiopia, so it's the main ethnic identity. And they said, "Since we are the largest group, we should have a much stronger say." Then, some of the Orthodox Christians also said this. You know it was the Protestants who created the Oromo written language and translated the Bible, and this Protestant emphasis on Bible reading and the language of the people and democracy crept into the Orthodox Church and contributed to this idea of an Oromo Orthodox church.