As early as AD 781, the writer of the Xi'an Fu inscription described the spread of Syriac Christianity (called Jingjiao in Chinese) to China as a wind blowing eastward. The discovery of the Xi'an Fu Stele, the Dunhuang Jingjiao Manuscripts, the numerous Syriac tombstones and fragments in Central Asia and many parts of China has unearthed a buried history of Syriac Christianity from the Tang Dynasty to the time of the Mongol Empire. The papers in this volume cover a wide range of topics from manuscripts and inscription, to the historical, liturgical and theological perspectives of Syriac Christianity in this geographic realm. Li Tang is Senior Research Fellow at the Department of Biblical Studies and Ecclesiastical History, University of Salzburg.. Dietmar W. Winkler is Professor of Patristic Studies and Ecclesiastical History at the University of Salzburg and Director of the Center for the Study of Eastern Christianity (ZECO) of the University of Salzburg. (Series: Orientalia - Patristica - Oecumenica, Vol. 9) [Subject: Religious Studies, History, Syriac Christianity, Chinese Studies]Ã?Â?

Christianity in China has a history dating back to the Tang Dynasty (618–907 CE), when Allopen—the first Nestorian missionary—arrived there in 635. In the late sixteenth century, Matteo Ricci together with other Jesuit missionaries commenced the Catholic missions to China. Protestant Christianity in China began with Robert Morrison, of London Missionary Society, who first set foot in Canton in 1807. Over the centuries, the Western missionaries and Chinese believers were engaged in the enterprise of the translation, publication, and distribution of a large corpus of Christian literature in Chinese. While the extensive distribution of Chinese publications facilitated the propagation of Christianity, the Christian messages have been subtly re-presented, re-appropriated, and transformed by these works of Chinese Christian literature. This Special Issue entitled “Christian Literature in Chinese Contexts” examines the multifarious dimensions of the production, translation, circulation, and reception of Christian literature (with “Christian” and “literature” in their broadest sense) against the cultural and sociopolitical contexts from the Tang period to modern China. The eight articles in this volume cover a variety of intriguing topics, including the literary/translation endeavors of Western missionaries in Chinese, the indigenous works of the Chinese Christians, the interaction between the Christian and Chinese literary traditions, Chinese reception of the Bible, and numerous other relevant concepts.

The book contains the first annotated English translation of the Correct Explanation of the Tang “Stele Eulogy on the Luminous Teaching” (1644) by the Jesuit Manuel Dias Jr. and other late Ming Chinese Christian sources interpreting the “venerable ancestor” of the Jesuit mission, namely, the mission of the Church of the East in Tang China. Based on this documentation, the book reconstructs the process of “appropriation” by Jesuit missionaries and their Chinese converts of ancient traces of Christianity that were discovered in China in the first half of the seventeenth century, such as the Xi’an stele (781) and other Christian relics

The Xi'an Stele, erected in Tang China's capital in 781, describes in both Syriac and Chinese the existence of Christian communities in northern China. While scholars have so far considered the Stele exclusively in relation to the Chinese cultural and historical context, Todd Godwin here demonstrates that it can only be fully understood by reconstructing the complex connections that existed between the Church of the East, Sasanian aristocratic culture and the Tang Empire (617-907) between the fall of the Sasanian Persian Empire (225-651) and the birth of the Abbasid Caliphate (762-1258). Through close textual re-analysis of the Stele and by drawing on ancient sources in Syriac, Greek, Arabic and Chinese, Godwin demonstrates that Tang China (617-907) was a cosmopolitan milieu where multiple religious traditions, namely Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, Manichaeism and Christianity, formed zones of elite culture. Syriac Christianity in fact remained powerful in Persia throughout the period, and Christianity - not Zoroastrianism - was officially regarded by the Tang government as 'The Persian Religion'.Persian Christians at the Chinese Court uncovers the role played by Syriac Christianity in the economic and cultural integration of late Sasanian Iran and China, and is important reading for all scholars of the Church of the East, China and the Middle East in the medieval period.

"The Oxford Handbook of the Bible in China deftly examines the Bible's translation, expression, interpretation, and reception in China. Forty-eight essays address the translation of the Bible into China's languages and dialects; expression of the Bible in Chinese literary and religious contexts; Chinese biblical interpretations and methods of reading; and the reception of the Bible in the institutions and arts of China. This comprehensive and unique volume presents insightful, succinct, and provocative evidence about and interpretations of encounters between the Bible and China for centuries past, continuing into the present, and likely prospects for the future"--

Syriac Christianity spread along the Silk Road together with Aramaic culture and liturgy. Because of this, the staging posts of Christian merchants along the trade routes grew into missionary centers. Thus, the mission of the Church of the East stretched from Persia to Arabia and India, and from the Oxus River to the Chinese shores. This book contains a collection of studies on the Church of the East in its historical setting. It sheds new light on this subject from various perspectives and academic disciplines, providing fresh insights into the rich heritage of Syriac Christianity. (Series: orientalia - patristica - oecumenica - Vol. 5)

The Yearbook of Chinese Theology is an international, ecumenical and fully peer-reviewed annual that covers Chinese Christianity in the areas of Biblical Studies, Church History, Systematic Theology, Practical Theology, and Comparative Religions. It offers genuine Chinese theological research previously unavailable in English, by top scholars in the study of Christianity in China. The 2018 volume highlights the five-disciplines of Jingjiao theology and its guest editors are Prof. Xiaofeng Tang from China Academy of Social Sciences and Donghua Zhu from Tsinghua University. Further contributions are from: Paulos Huang and Donghua Zhu, David Tam, Chengyong Ge, Daniel Yeung, Melville Stewart, Mar Aprem Metropolitan, Xiaofeng Tang and Yingying Zhang, Fuxue Yang and Wenjing Xue, Donald Wang, Xiaoping Yin, Zhu Li-Layec, Lanping Wang and Qiaosui Zhang.

Asian Case Studies on Translating Christianity brings historical expressions of Asian Christianity into contemporary theological conversation. The book offers case studies of Jingjiao Christianity in Tang China, the Jesuit mission in Ming China, indigenous theology in colonial Korea, and contemporary Asian-American theology. The case studies especially examine how the names and understandings of the Trinity have been changed in the processes of borrowing, erasing, and elevating the meanings of Eastern local concepts to translate the message of Christianity. Not only are these diverse expressions of Christianity unique and valuable in and of themselves, but they testify that diverse understandings are a God-given phenomenon. Heejun Yang draws on contemporary theological hermeneutics to argue that it is the self-communicative nature of God that helps articulate the diverse understandings of God in these cases. Yang posits the Triune God as both the starting and ending points of the Christian hermeneutic process and claims that this understanding can be a way for the church to embrace different Christian communities while moving forward in their own unique complexities.

Popular Religion and Shamanism addresses two areas of religion within Chinese society; the lay teachings that Chinese scholars term folk or “popular” religion, and shamanism. Each area represents a distinct tradition of scholarship, and the book is therefore split into two parts. Part I: Popular Religion discusses the evolution of organized lay movements over an arc of ten centuries. Its eight chapters focus on three key points: the arrival and integration of new ideas before the Song dynasty, the coalescence of an intellectual and scriptural tradition during the Ming, and the efflorescence of new organizations during the late Qing. Part II: Shamanism reflects the revived interest of scholars in traditional beliefs and culture that reemerged with the “open” policy in China that occurred in the 1970s. Two of the essays included in this section address shamanism in northeast China where the traditions played an important role in the cultures of the Manchu, Mongol, Sibe, Daur, Oroqen, Evenki, and Hezhen. The other essay discusses divination rites in a local culture of southwest China. Both sections of Popular Religion and Shamanism will introduce Western readers to the ideas of Chinese scholars, not just their data.