Christians in Asia Before 1500 | 
| Authors: Ian Gillman, Hans-joachim Klimkeit
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
Category: Book
Buy Used: $346.50
Used (3) from $346.50
Avg. Customer Rating:  1 reviews
Sales Rank: 2526640
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 408
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.7
Dimensions (in): 9.5 x 6.5 x 1.4
ISBN: 0472110403
Dewey Decimal Number: 275
EAN: 9780472110407
ASIN: 0472110403
Publication Date: September 15, 1999
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Condition: 391 pp., hardcover, very good in very good dust jacket
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
The history of Christianity in Asia has, until recently, been little dealt with either by church historians or historians of religion. It is still generally unknown, for instance, that there was a long history of Christianity in Persia, India, Central Asia, and China long before the arrival of the first missionaries from the west. Troubled by this gap in knowledge, Ian Gillman and Hans-Joachim Klimkeit have put together a volume that documents the history of Christianity in Asia from New Testament times to around C.E. 1500. Primarily aimed at general readers, theological students, and those with an interest in missiology and the ways in which Christianity has related itself to various cultures, scholars will also find it useful, as it brings together the results of research otherwise found in a multitude of monographs and periodicals.
The book's twelve chapters delve into the history of early Christians in Syria, Palestine, Arabia, Armenia, Georgia, Persia, India, Central Asia, China and Southeast Asia, systematically taking into account the outward development of the church as well as its inner, theological evolution. Gillman and Klimkeit's work on Central and Southeast Asia, specifically, is especially noteworthy for breaking new scholarly ground in the field.
Christians in Asia before 1500 will enable a wide range of readers to enter into a new, and perhaps first, appreciation of a period in the history of Christianity which included remarkable achievements across vast distances, as well as some sad declines and tragic disasters. For scholars of Asia and the history of religion, even those studying the role of the church in Asia today, this work will be an invaluable and lasting reference.
Ian Gillman is retired from the Department of Studies in Religion, University of Queensland, where he taught from 1964 until 1992. Hans-Joachim Klimkeit is Professor of History of Religions, Bonn University in Germany.
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| Customer Reviews:
A new "bench-mark" for the study of Christianity in Asia November 9, 2001
16 out of 16 found this review helpful
Over the past decade, a number of books on the history of Christianity in Asia have appeared, the best known of these being Samuel Hugh Moffett's A History of Christianity in Asia, Vol.1: Beginnings to 1500, published in 1992. Although Gillman and Klimkeit's book covers much the same territory as does Moffett, it does so in a more balanced and accessible fashion. The authors are experts in the field: Hans-Joachim Klimkeit is Professor of History of Religions at Bonn University, and an authority on religion in Central Asia, and Ian Gillman has recently retired from the Department of Studies in Religion at the University of Queensland, where he taught for 28 years. The result of their collaboration is a magisterial treatment of Christianity in Asia.The book is divided into 12 chapters of varying length. Klimkeit has written two masterful chapters on Central Asia and China, and Gillman the remainder of the book, including comprehensive chapters on Syria and Palestine, "Arabia", Armenia and Georgia, Persia, India and South-East Asia, as well as editing the whole. Both authors write from a wide - indeed, magisterial - knowledge of the field and with empathy for the subject matter. They are circumspect in their analysis, not falling into the trap - as other treatments of the topic have sometimes tended to do - of building a theoretical superstructure upon the foundation of a limited range of evidence. Nor do they uncritically accept the evidence that is available, but use it cautiously, with balance and discernment. Thus, Gillman argues against an unquestioning acceptance of the accounts of the Apostle Thomas' ministry in India, and suggests that the alternative originator of Indian Christianity - Thomas of Cana - might be dated in the 8th, rather than in the 4th, century. Similarly, his chapter on South-East Asia does not claim too much, or to engage in "wishful thinking" based upon slender or non-existent evidence. Both authors present all sides of the question, and argue their case fairly, succinctly and persuasively. I found their treatments convincing. The book covers all aspects of the topic, and its country-by-country coverage of Christianity east of the Mediterranean is set into the overall framework of Jewish and Syriac Christianity, producing an illuminating synthesis. I was particularly impressed with Gillman's summation of the theological controversies that underlay the emergence of Asian Christianity. In a brief 8-page section entitled "A Necessary Excursus into Theology", he manages to produce the clearest account I have yet seen of the complex issues underlying the theological controversies of the 4th and 5th centuries. As he points out, understanding of these various "Christianities" is essential if one is to understand the development of Asian Christianity. The clarity of his treatment is matched by his discernment and wide knowledge of the issues. To sum up, the book is an excellent analysis of Christianity in Asia to 1500. The only criticism that I would make is that Gillman at times betrays a tendency to riddle his text with short indented quotations which do not always appear necessary, and which interrupt the flow of his writing. Having said that, these stylistic issues do not seriously detract from a most valuable book, which I predict will become the new standard text for the study of early Christianity in Asia. If I could afford only one book on the subject of Asian Christianity before 1500, this is the one in which I would invest. (...)
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