Page 40 - THE ARMENIAN CHURCH_Neat

Long History in Brief 41

The Armenian Catholicosate, the admi-
nistrative headquarters of the Armenian
Church, together with its people had been
moved from Armenia to Cilicia in the middle
of the 11th Century. In Cilicia, the Armenian
Church played a decisive role in ensuring the
physical survival of its people and preserving
their internal unity. The Church also pro-
moted Christian unity by engaging in inter-
church relations and theological dialogue
with the Syrian, Greek, and Latin churches
and, through its cultural achievements, it
greatly contributed towards the flowering of
Christian civilization in the east.
In Cilicia, close interaction with the plu-
ralistic environment and continuous contact
with the Christian west and the Muslim
east enriched the Armenian political and
religious culture with new trends and per-
spectives, broadening the views and atti-
tudes of the Armenians towards the po-
litical, social, and theological issues of the
time. This interaction also helped to develop
an inclusive vision and a politico-religious
strategy, characterized by two features:
1) faithfulness to the basic teachings of the
Armenian Church and the core values of
the Armenian culture and national ideology,
and 2) openness and tolerance towards other
churches, cultures, and ethnicities.
This period of time in Cilicia has become
known as the Silver Age of Armenian his-