Customer Reviews

A Dictionary of Asian Christianity

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

DAC is a welcome publication which will open new vistas for Asian and non-Asian readers.

Some 1260 articles cover the past story and present shape of Christianity from Pakistan east to the Pacific (with some material on west Asia in early centuries. A wide collection of contributors was assembled, with Asian writers supplying artiucles on areas of specifc interest as well as contributing, editorially, to the shape of the whole volume.

Articles cover significant features relating to Christianity as well as to its historical, political, econonomic, social and religious context. This scope makes DAC valuable beyond immediate interests of browsing or researching in the Christian story.

As might be expected in a first attempt at such a vast task, there are some problems. As a matter of definition,Protestant missionary societies, significant individual churches, theological colleges and other educational institutions are purposefully excluded. This produces some odd results - for example there is no separate article on the China Inland Mission (later to become OMF)which has been and remains, an important contributor to Protestant work in Asia. Some articles are of uneven quality - doubtless due to a paucity of sources and difficulty in finding contributors.

These are significant problems and affect the comprehesiveness and reliability of DAC. To some extent, they define the best use of this work as a tool for further reading and research rather than as a a normative standard.

Nevertheless, the significance of the publication and its value, should be noted. Put simply, there is nothing like it on the market and it opens up material that may otherwise remain hidden in local knowledge and lost over time.

DAC is a wonderful step in documenting the story of Asian Christianity and is a timely publication in what has been dubbed 'the Asian century'.