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A History of
Christianity in Asia:
Volume I:
Beginnings to 1500
By Samuel Hugh Moffett
Orbis Books. 560p $25 (paper)
On April 19, 1998, Pope John Paul II presided at the opening eucharistic liturgy for the Special Assembly for Asia of the Synod of Bishops, one in a series of special gatherings of bishops in preparation for the millennium. In his homily he recalled that St. Thomas the Apostle first brought Christianity to Asia and charted the church's movement eastward across this vast continent, where more than three-fifths of the world's population now live. The Pope urged the assembled church leaders to find new vigor for the proclamation of Christ in Asia: "Ours is the task of writing new chapters of Christian witness in every part of the world, and in Asia: from India to Indonesia, from Japan to Lebanon, from Korea to Kazakhstan, from Vietnam to the Philippines, from Siberia to China....We want to listen to what the Spirit says to the churches, so that they may proclaim Christ in the context of Hinduism, Buddhism, Shintoism and all those currents of thought and life which were already rooted in Asia before the preaching of the Gospel arrived." Subsequent synod discussions introduced realistic and hopeful views on the church in Asia today.
Asia is, of course, a vast continent blessed with diverse cultures, as Samuel H. Moffett, the Henry W. Luce Professor of Ecumenics and Mission at Princeton Theological Seminary, convincingly reminds us in this impressive volume. It is also the home of very ancient civilizations. Christianity has had a long history in Asia, beginning from its birth in West Asia. Moffett's text begins with the probable travels of Thomas the Apostle to...