Customer Reviews

A Study Of The History Of Nestorian Christianity In China And Its Literature In Chinese: Together With A New English Translation Of The Dunhuang ... Asiatische Und Afrikanische Studien, Bd. 87.)

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

 

 

The arrival of Christianity in China in the 600s is one of the unnoticed landmarks in religious history. The documents it left behind are available in English but almost unread. Those who teach about early Christianity in Asia and those who want to know more about it should make use of this resource that comments on and extends the work of those who have gone before. The translations of the documents included here are another great resource for the student. Every library dealing with the history of China, of Christianity or of cultural interchange should have this on its shelves. I wish it had been published when I was teaching in the area.

The author refuses to mention who these' Syrian' peoples are? Or as he puts it from the `East Syrian Church'? Which is unfortunate, because in the face of so much facts, research and knowledge out there it should have been clear and obvious to the author by this time. But it is unfortunate that he decided to stand against waves of evidence.

Simply explained here is that, there was once an Empire in Middle East stretching from Egypt to Persia and Cyprus to the Gulf and this empire was named by at one time a Greek word as The Assyrian Empire. In the year 612 BC Nineveh the capital fell, since then until Christianity appeared in the first century AD, most remaining Assyrians converted to this religion not new but a reformed version of their own OT. They became the first people to do so however the author refuses such honor to be granted upon these people, he refuses to say that the Assyrians were the first non-Jerusalemid converters to Christianity, and how he dose that by actually giving this title to the Jews. I mean come on...we all now that Christianity came out from a Jewish prophet his decibels who first converted were Jewish, that is common knowledge. But the true non-Jeruslemid converters of Christianity were The Assyrians Full Stop

There are also to-much emphasis on the term `Nestorian' in this work, Nestorianism was a doctrine at one time, but it quickly came identified with a certain race, the author should have gone deeper and quickly: (The Aramaeans became Jacobites, Lebanese Catholics became Maronites, Assyrian Catholics became Chaldeans) who remained Nestorian? Even the Cyprus Nestorians called themselves Chaldeans! Yes what remained and carried the `Nestorian' missionary work was non other than the Assyrians, Nestorians are not Syrians, Syria is an Arab Muslim country, the indigenous Christians of Mesopotamia are Assyrians. People like Tatianus Assyrus, if he, as mentioned in the book: `born in the Land of Assyrians p.57' how could you make him a member of the `Syrian' Church then?