The world's oldest Protestant Church building

[Djamila]

Historians now believe the medieval Bosnian Church, my country's own indigenous form of Christianity, can be described as a Protestant Church - making it the first Protestant Church in the world.

The Bosnian Church developed in Bosnia and Herzegovina sometime between 800 - 900 A.D., becoming the dominant religion in Bosnia and Herzegovina by the 1100s . It lasted until the Osmanli (Islamic) Empire conquered Bosnia and Herzegovina in the 1400s.

I assume, therefore, that the Old Bosnian Church at Mile, a short drive northwest of Sarajevo, is the world's oldest Protestant Church building.

Here are a few photos:

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[ayani]

how cool! are there any plans to try and rebuild a church near the site? are there any remnants of the Bosnian Chruch today?

 

[Djamila]

There are a lot of architectural remnants - and they've all been adopted by Bosnians of the religions present here today.

For example, the Old Bosnian Church at Bihac is now the Fetihja Mosque:

As another example, the Old Bosnian Church at Jajce - an underground Church - which is now a Roman Catholic site:

In terms of surviving as a faith, no - although there are several Roman Catholic communities that revere the leaders of the Bosnian Church as Saints and try to continue the Church's traditions - but they suscribe to mainstream, Catholic theology.

 

[James the Persian]

I'm not sure that you can consider the Bogomils to be Protestant. They were a dualistic Gnostic sect that originated in Bulgaria and made their way to Bosnia. Just about all the evidence I've seen suggests that the indigenous Bosnian church was, in fact, a Bogomil church (including the fact that apparently they even sometimes referred to the themselves as Bogomils). They clearly were independant (all heretical groups were, after all) but that fact alone doesn't make you a Protestant.

Also, if you're going to call independant churches prior to the Reformation Protestant, where do you stop? Are the OOs Protestant (they're older), are the Assyrians (even older), are we (younger, but still pre-Reformation)? And if we are, is it we who are the Protestants or Rome? I think you really need to use the terminology as it generally is, and by those terms, the medieval church in Bosnia was not Protestant.

By the way, I'd find it incredibly dodgy if what you said about Roman Catholics regarding these people as saints is true. Bogomilism is way beyond the pale for Roman Catholicism and so no RCs should ever be venerating adherents of such groups.

James