Content Summary:
While Paul and other missionaries were converting Greeks, Romans and the barbarian tribes in the west, there was equally a movement of Christianity to the East – Edessa, Persia, Arabia, Central Asia, China and India. Though the evidence of the presence of Christianity in some of the South East and East Asian countries is scanty and fragmentary, there is sufficient evidence to show that Christianity was present in Ceylon, Burma, Indonesia and Korea before the arrival of the western missionaries. It is a surprise to many people to learn that there was a large and widespread Christian community throughout the whole of Central Asia and that such countries as Afghanistan and Tibet which are considered today as lands closed to Christianity were once centres of Christian activity. This book is an introduction to the exciting and fascinating story of the movement of the gospel in Asian lands, east of the Euphrates. It explores the missionary impulses of the early Asian Christian communities and the theology that motivated them. It discusses the reason for its decline by AD 1500, after a millennium and a half of heroic efforts and phenomenal growth.