Dietmar W. Winkler, Li Tang (eds.), Hidden Treasures and Intercultural Encounters: Studies on East Syriac Christianity in China and Central Asia (2011)

Dietmar W. Winkler, Li Tang (eds.), Hidden Treasures and Intercultural Encounters: Studies on East Syriac Christianity in China and Central Asia (2011)

Paperback: 400 pages
Publisher: Lit Verlag (November 27, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 3643500459
ISBN-13: 978-3643500458

Dietmar W. Winkler is a professor of patristic studies and history of Christianity at the University of Salburg, Austria.

Li Tang is a senior research fellow and lecturer of the department of biblical studies and ecclesiastical history at the University of Salburg, Austria.

East Syriac Christianity spread outside the Roman Empire as a result of the missions carried out by the "Church of the East", formerly known as "Nestorian Church." This volume contains the most recent cutting edge research on this very Church in China and Central Asia. World-renowned scholars from universities and institutions in China, India, Europe, and North America contributed to the study of this fascinating chapter of the history of Christianity.

This volume is a collection of expanded papers presented by a variety of international and interdisciplinary scholars at the second international conference on early Christianity in Central Asia and China. The conference was held in Salzburg in 2006 and focused on the so-called "Nestorian" churches that grew up in the sixth to fourteenth centuries, and especially the Jingjiao church of China. The presenters are linguists of Syriac, Chinese, and other Central Asian languages; archaeologists from China and the West; historians, experts of Buddhism, and the like. While the papers are of varying quality, those interested in early Christianity in China will find the material here much mre reliable than in the ffew popular books that have come out in English on this subject. Those interested in this volume will also want to consult the papers from the first conference in 2003 (Roman Malek and Peter Hofrichter, "Jingjiao : the Church of the East in China and Central Asia," Monumenta Serica [Sankt Augustin: Institut Monumenta Serica], 2006).