Customer Reviews

The Lost Sutras of Jesus: Unlocking the Ancient Wisdom of the Xian Monks

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As a grad student at Univ. Chicago in the early 80s, i played around with the translation of the Jesus Sutras from the Japanese explorer Sakao's transcription -- the only available Chinese text at my disposal back then. It has been an area of study that has continued to intrique me ever since, and i frequently follow the research.

My initial sense from the Riegert's rendition is that it is a quick popularization following on the heels of other more rigorous and better introduced books. Even the title is misleading... it is not like these texts have been "lost" for all these centuries and recently found! Nor does the book really "unlock" any wisdom per se. It is that sort of language and introduction that lends itself to my criticism of a popularization. While it is a fine introduction, the reader interested in early Chinese Christianity, the fascinating story of monks from the Church of the East finding emperial accomodation in Tang China, and the unique syncretic nature of the Jesus Sutras with Taoist and Buddhist ideas would do better with Martin Palmer's Jesus Sutras. Martin was also the individual who deciphered the old spy maps and clues from classical texts to eventually locate the ruins of the primary Christian monastery at Da Qin.

If the improbable, romantic history of Christianity in China doesn't convince you that "truth can be stranger than fiction," what can? Last year I visited the lovely stone pagoda outside of Xian, what remains of the oldest Christian complex in China, where an ancient stone telling the story of the first Christians was found four hundred years ago. Poetic Chinese Nestorian texts blending Buddhism and Christianity were later discovered in caves hundreds of miles towards Afghanistan along the Silk Road. After the long hike to China, the participants in this early meeting of East and West deserve two things: a thoughtful and informed introduction, and the chance to speak for themselves.

Riegert and Moore provide the latter, but not the former. The second half of this book consists mostly of exerpts from the various discovered texts. These are fascinating and often beautiful; sometimes leaning towards Gospel, sometimes towards dharma, at times agreeing with both, occasionally with neither. I have a copy of the Nestorian scroll; difficult Chinese, for me at least, but the translation here seems fairly plausible. While it might be too much to hope for a copy of the original in this popular treatment, I wish they had at least said where they obtained their tranlations. They are quite different from those in Palmer and another available on-line, but no explanation is given of where they came from.

The texts are fascinating, poetic, and often beautiful. By contrast, Riegert and Moore might have written the introductions in a couple afternoons, and drummed up the research for them in a few days. It is not clear that the authors knew a lot about China, or Nestorian Christianity(making them sound like members of the Jesus Seminar), though it is obvious they were fond of Buddhism.

One of the book's key errors appears culpable. The authors claim to be offering "1300 year old scrolls" from China. No hint is dropped that the texts they offer might differ in character. But in fact, the Nestorian stone is 1250 years old; the scrolls are more recent. (According to Palmer. The authors do not argue with him; they just fudge the distinction between the stone and the scrolls. As I recall, Samuel Moffett, whom the authors quote, also points out that the stone reveals a more orthodox Christianity than later scrolls.) The authors are either simplistic, or disingenuous, to confuse later syncretism with the first Chinese Christian text, which appear pretty orthodox.

While I think his enthusiasm for karma and other dubious ideas is naive (see my review in Books and Culture), Martin Palmer's The Jesus Sutras is a better and more interesting book. (Perhaps because it was written for love, while I rather suspect this short, artsy little volume of having been written for money.) There is room for more books on the subject, but I hope the next person who takes it on will approach the interchange of syncretism, dharma, and Gospel, with deeper and more critical thought.

author, True Son of Heaven: How Jesus fulfils the Chinese Culture

Fascinating religious scrolls were discovered in caves in Xian, China at the turn of the century. They were disseminated to museums in France, Britain (UK) and into private collections and not translated for many years. The political upheavals in China left the remaining texts safe ... until 1998 when the monastery where they were stored was discovered. This small volume is a gem that includes translations of the scrolls, although high-priced for only 138 pages, the information contained within is well worth reading. Part I describes the historical background of how Christian monks from Persia in 635 C.E. traveled 3,000 miles over the Silk Road to China. They were honored by the enlightened Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty, who recognized the wisdom of the Christian teachings which he called "The Luminous Religion". He had the monks write down their teaching and included it in the Imperial library that contained 200,000 volumes of scrolls, one of the most substantial places of knowledge in the world. Close to a 1,000 years later the Chinese found the scrolls and built a monument, which at the top had a cross rising from the center of a lotus blossum. On the stele was carved the teachings of Christianity, Taoism, and Confucianism. In the early 1900s, a Taoist priest/monk discovered the caves where the original manuscripts were laid ... he devoted his life to preserving the caves and their contents.

Amazingly it was a Hungarian Jew, Sir Aurel Stein, who grew up in Britain, obtained his Ph.D. at age 21, was raised as a Christian, who brought these texts to the world's attention. Later he received a knighthood and honorary degrees from Oxford and Cambridge. A French archeologist, Paul Pelliot, also deserves credit for his outstanding translations of the numerous scrolls that he took back to the Bilbiotheque Nationale in France and for which he received honors later in life. The book does indeed fall short in providing enough of the translated scrolls themselves, there are only just over 40 pages devoted to this alone, but the overall research and information contained within had my undivided and full attention. This is a most highly recommended book. Erika Borsos (erikab93)

An interesting history, and potentially an inspiring series of ancient texts, sadly limited to a few small selections. It would have been much better to offer the entire text of the scrolls, so readers could determine for themselves their overall importance and meaning, rather than to cherry-pick from them.

The history section, too, is rather spartan and gives a taste of the rich story, but not enough to warrant the price of the book itself. It could easily have been made into a rich, exciting story - instead it is simple, direct, but too brief and ultimately unsatisfying. There are more questions asked after the reading than are answered by it. What did these early monks believe and what were their sources? How did their Christian faith collaborate with Buddhist and Taoist beliefs? What happened to the early Christians in Xian and other parts of China? Where are the scrolls now? Are there alternate translations? What does the stele say? And where can it be seen?

Because of the brevity, this book ends up on the "pop religion" category instead of where it should be: a serious work on an unknown but fascinating piece of religious history. The sutra selections come across as bumper-sticker slogans instead of inspirational texts. Overall an unsatisfying work.

This is a wonderful book! It is well written and consists of different sections. One section documents how these remarkable scrolls were created and how they were lost to history and then rediscovered.Another section presents the translations of the scrolls with insightful commentary by Thomas Moore. Another section presents Prayers from the scrolls. The teachings and Prayers in the scrolls are remarkable for their blending of Eastern and Western religious ideas and for their gentle and wise portrait of Jesus.At 140 pages it is a rich little book and well worth it but it left me wanting more.

Deftly co-authored by established Christian authors Ray Riegert and Thomas Moore, The Lost Sutras Of Jesus: Unlocking The Ancient Wisdom Of The Xian Monks is an expansive introduction to the fascinating and insightful discoveries and explorations of the aged and invaluable understandings of the Xian Monks. Introducing its readers to the often intricate and highly enlightened practices of Eastern religions and their peculiar relationship with Christ, The Lost Sutras Of Jesus follows the tale of a Christian band of missionaries around 640 A.D. and their documentation and transcripts of Christ's doings, and the texts discovery over nine-hundred years later. The Lost Sutras Of Jesus is very highly recommended reading, especially for dedicated students of the Christian religion, Eastern philosophy, and apocryphal the path of Christ and his "missing years" prior to his ministry and death in Israel, granting its readers and invaluable translation of inspirational and engaging, near two-thousand year-old scripture.

This is a necessary reference tool for anyone interested in the effect of culture on religion. If the Church of the East, largely Nestorian originally, had continued to survive, it would have had Taoist, Confuscist, and Buddhist trappings. Already by 800, these effects were clear to anyone in the material found so far (a small remnant of the original). Quite a different church than that of Rome.

The history part of the Lost Sutras is well written and interesting. However I wish all of the available Sutras were published. What is here makes the journeys of the early apostles and Jesus himself more real.