The Iranian Christian Diaspora - by Benedikt Römer (Hardcover)

About the Book

Revised version of a PhD thesis, originally published under the title: Elam in exile: religion and nature among Iranian Christians in the diaspora, and submitted to the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Bayreuth, 2022.

Book Synopsis

Over the past few decades, whilst evading severe governmental restrictions in Iran, the Iranian Evangelical diaspora has grown across Turkey, Germany, the Netherlands, the US and the UK. Far from the censorship of the Islamic Republic, Iranian Evangelical pastors and ministers publish Persian-language Christian magazines and online videos with the aim to reach the transnational Iranian Christian community, as well as potential converts in Iran. This book explores notions of nationhood and diasporic dwelling in the religious narratives and practices of Iranian Christian exilic communities, showing how claims to the authenticity of a distinct Iranian-Christian identity are constructed.
Examining abundant source material available in the Iranian Christian exilic milieu, the book draws extensively upon five unstudied series of Persian-language Christian exile magazines published between the early 1990s and the 2020s, Persian-language video material and a number of interviews with Iranian Christian pastors with leadership positions in the Iranian Christian diaspora. These sources demonstrate the significance of exile and religious affiliation as key factors shaping diasporic images of the homeland and visions of a future return. Benedikt Römerweaves the history and contemporary story of the Iranian Christian community together, placing it in the context of a wider ongoing religious transformation in Iranian society.

Review Quotes

Römer has given us a unique insight into how religion, nationhood, and diaspora intersect to produce an Iranian Christian national identity. In addition to analyzing Persian-language magazines, he examines Iranian Christian YouTube videos and satellite TV channels, a timely contribution to the significance of the virtual world in producing national religious subjects.
Navid Fozi, Assistant Professor, Bridgewater State University, USA

The conversion of many Iranians of Muslim background to Christianity is one of the most salient unanticipated consequences of the Iranian revolution of 1979, as disenchantment with the Islam propagated by the Islamic Republic has been a greater catalyst for conversion than the activities of generations of pre-revolutionary Christian missionaries. Free to practice their religion in the diaspora, these Persian-speaking Christians and their descendants have formed stable communities outside Iran and have drawn on aspects of Iranian culture such as Nowruz and Persian poetry to forge what they believe to be an Iranian Christianity rooted both in Iranian history and the Bible. Römer's meticulously researched study draws on a wide variety of primary sources to reconstruct the history of this community, including its relations with Armenian and Assyrian Christians in Iran, and provides a sober analysis of its attempts to create an authentically Iranian religious community. This book is set to become a classic in the growing field of Iranian diaspora studies.
Houchang E. Chehabi, Professor Emeritus, Boston University, USA

The Iranian religious landscape, both within the boundaries of the Islamic Republic and beyond, has seen dramatic changes. This meticulously researched, theoretically informed and clearly argued book provides insight into discursive claims for Iranianness among Persian-speaking Christians in exile, and their hopes for a future Christian transformation of Iran.
Michael Stausberg, Professor, University of Bergen, Norway

About the Author

Benedikt Römer is a postdoctoral researcher and lecturer at the Institute of Cultural Studies at Bundeswehr University Munich, Germany.