Nationalism Before Nationalism?
National Spirituality in Early Armenian Historiography
Keywords:
Armenia, historiography, national, ChristianityAbstract
Since the fifth century, Armenian historiography has proceeded on the basis of thequestions of what constitutes national Christianity and Christian nationality, and of how one delineates these in literature. Historians emphasized the Christian character of the nation and its spirituality, especially by means of three closely-related mechanisms: scripturalization, the concept of the covenant, and the ideology of martyrdom. These function by conversing the Christian spiritual reality to the national level, not by Christianizing the national phenomenon.
The historians’ way of coupling together the spiritual and national dimensions can seem rather one-sided. Many related questions, such as the cultural wealth of the national tradition, are left untreated or mentioned only cursorily. Instead, the models and expressions of the sacred scriptures were employed in many ways. In the hagiographical historians (Koriun, Agathangelos), this is self-evident, but other historical writings aswell emphasize the significance of Scripture. When the literary language was new, itwas natural that in the literary tradition the holy texts were a usable model and treasuryof figures of speech.
