A History of Christianity in Asia, Vol. 1: Beginnings to 1500 [First Edition] 0060657790, 9780060657796
Moffett (ecumenics, emeritus, Princeton Theological Seminary) begins a thorough and scholarly recounting of a neglected
119 85 236MB
English Pages 560 [598] Year 1992
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Citation preview
School of Theology at Claremont II IIIll IIll IIll IIll IIll II Ill II II Ill I1111111111111111
1001 1395998
The Library of the
School of Theology ·a t Claremont
1325 North College Avenue Claremont, CA 91711
A HISTORY OF
Christianity in Asia VOLUME I
A HISTORY OF
Christianity in Asia VOLUME I: BEGINNINGS TO 1500
Samuel Hugh Moffett
•
11111111
HarperSanFrancisco A Division of HarperColliosPublishers
Acknowledgments are found on page 559 .
..
A HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY IN ASIA. VOLUME I: BEGINNINGS TO
1500. Copyright ©1992 by Samuel Hugh Moffett. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For information address HarperCollins Publishers, 10 East 53rd Street, New York, NY 10022. TEXT DESIGN BY RICK CHAFIAN MAPS BY CLYDE W. BREITWIESER FIRST EDITION
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Moffett, Samuel H. . A history of Christianity in Asia/ Samuel Hugh Moffett.1st ed. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. Contents: v. 1. Beginnings to 1500. ISBN 0-06-065779-0 (v. 1: alk. paper) 1. Asia-Church history. I. Title. BR1065.M63 1991 275-dc20 91-55085 CIP 92 93 94 95 96 RRD(H) 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 This edition is printed on acid-free paper that meets • the American National Standards Institute Z39.48 Standard.
To Eileen, my partner in Asia, for all these happy years together
f
Contents Acknowledgments Introduction
xzz
xm
Maps Strabo's Map of the World, A.D. 19 xvii West Asia and the Sassanid Empire, ca. A.D. 600 xvzzz East Asia and T'ang Dynasty China, ca. A.D. 800 xx West and West Central Asia under Islam: The Abbasid Caliphate, ca. A. D. 800 xxii The Mongol Empire at its Greatest Extent, under Kublai Kahn, ca. 1260-1300 xxzv Asia, ca. 1500 xxvi
Part I: From the Apostles to Muhammad SECTION ONE: THE FIRST TWO HUNDRED YEARS Chapter 1: Asia and the World of the First Century 3 Greco-Roman Asia 6 Iranian (Persian) Asia 10 Sinic (Chinese) 13 Indian Asia 16 ' Notes 20 Chapter 2: The First Missions to India 24 India and "The Apostle to Asia" 25 The Acts of Thomas 26 The Tradition Evaluated 29 The Mission of Pantaenus (ca. 180 or 190) 36 Notes 39 Vll
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Chapter 3: The Church of the East: The Syrian Period 45 The Abgar anci Addai Tradition 46 The Tradition Evaluated 50 "The First Christian Kingdom" 56 Bardaisan of Edessa 64 The Assyrian Christians of Arbela 70 Tatian the Assyrian 72 Tatian and the Encratites 75 Asceticism and Asian Missions 77 Notes 80
SECTION TWO: THE EARLY SASSANID PERIOD IN PERSIA (225-400)
Chapter 4: The Sassanid Revolution and the Church 91 Rome and the Sassanid Shahs 92 Church Life in Third-Century Persia 94 The Sons and Daughters of the Covenant 97 Missionary Outreach 100 Notes 101 Chapter 5: The Clash of Religions: Christian, Zoroastrian, and Manichaean 105 Notes 112 Chapter 6: First Steps Toward a National Persian Church 116 The Episcopacy of Papa and the Synod of Seleucia 120 Jacob of Nisibis and the Beginnings of Monasticism 122 Aphrahat the Persian 125 Notes 130 Chapter 7: The Great Persecution (340-401) Notes 145
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SECTION THREE: THE LATER SASSANID PERIOD IN PERSIA (400-651)
Chapter 8: The Reorganization of the Persian Church 149 The Synod of Isaac (410) 151 The Synod of Yaballaha (420) and Further Persecution 157
CONTENTS
The Synod of Dadyeshu (424) and the Independence of the Asian Church 161 Notes .· 164 Chapter 9: The Great Schism 168 The Nestorian Controversy 170 "Nestorianism" Examined 175 Notes 180 Chapter 10: The Controversy Spreads into Asia 185 Edessa, Rabbula, and the Monophysites 186 Chalcedon and Schism in Africa 190 The Persian Church Becomes Nestorian 193 Barsauma of Nisibis 194 The Synod of Acacius (486) 197 The School of Nisibis 200 Controversy and Decline 204 Mission into Central Asia 207 Notes 209 Chapter 11: Patriarch and Shah 216 The Synod of Mar Aba (544) and His Reforms 217 Chosroes I and Mar Aba 220 Abraham of Kaskar and Monastic Revival 225 Notes 228 Chapter 12: The Decline of the Persians (622-651) 230 Shah over Patriarch 231 The Controversy over the Teachings of Henana 234 The Breakdown of the Patriarchate 242 The Spread of Monophysitism in Persia 243 The Nestorian Counterattack 247 The Fall of the Sassanid Dynasty 251 The Late Flowering of the Persian Church 254 Notes 257 SECTION FOUR: CHRISTIANITY IN SOUTH ASIA
Chapter 13: Indian Christianity and Its Relation to Persia 265 Notes 270 Chapter 14: The Christian Kingdoms of the Arabs 272 Notes 281
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Part II: Outreach: The Ends of the Earth ' (From Alopen to the Crusades) Chapter 15: The First Christian Mission to China 287 How Old Is Chinese Christianity? 288 Alopen and the First Christian Mission (635-649) 291 Beginnings of Persecution (656-712) 293 Recovery of the Church (712-781) 295 Disappearance of the Nestorians from China (781-980) 302 Notes 314 Chapter 16: Christianity and Early Islam (622-1000) 324 Muhammad and the Christians 326 Christianity and the Koran 329 Christianity Under the Patriarchal Caliphs (632-661) 333 Christianity Under the Umayyad Caliphate (661-750) 340 Christianity Under the Early 'Abbasids (750-850) 348 Timothy I and the Caliphs 349 The Decline of the Church (850-1000) 357 Notes 361 Chapter 17: The Survival of Christianity Under Medieval Islam (1000-1258) 374 The Beginning of a New Millennium 375 The Breakup of the 'Abbasid Caliphate (1000-1258) 377 Christians During the "Persian Renaissance" (945-1055) 378 Christianity in Asia Under the Fatimids of Egypt (969-1043) 381 The Rise of the Turks (992-1095) 384 The Crusades (1095-1291) 386 Notes 391
Part III: The Pax Mongolica: From Genghis Khan to Tamerlane Chapter 18: The Mongols and the Recovery of Asian Christianity 399 Christian Keraits and Shamanist Mongols 400 ' The Mongol Empire 404
CONTENTS
The First Franciscan Missions to the Mongols 405 William of Rubruck 409 Notes 414 Chapter 19: The Mongols and the Church in Persia 421 Hulegu and. the Christians 422 Ilkhans arid Patriarchs in Mongol Persia 425 Bar Hebraeus and the Jacobites 428 The Travels of the "Monks of Kublai Khan" 430 Intimations of Weakness in Persian Christianity 435 Notes 436 Chapter 20: Christianity in Mongol China 442 Sorkaktani and the Line of Dynastic Succession 443 The Polos at the Court of Kublai Khan (1266-1292) 445 Nestorian Church Organization 448 Prince George of the Onguts 450 The Religious Policies of Kublai Khan 451 John of Montecorvino and the Roman Catholics 456 The Outer Limits of Nestorian Advance 459 Notes 462 Chapter 21: The Eclipse of Christianity in Asia 470 The Second Disappearance of the Church in China 471 The Conversion of the Persian Ilkhanate to Islam 475 Tamerlane, "Scourge of God and Terror of the World" 480 Notes 488 Chapter 22: The Church in the Shadows 495 The Middle East 497 St. Thomas Christians in the Middle Ages 498 Conclusion 503 Notes 509 Appendix: The Nestorian Monument's Theological Introduction 513 Notes 516 Bibliography 519
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Acknowledgments It would be impossible even to list the names of those who have helped me immensely along the way, but I do want to mention a few. For the financial grant that enabled i:ne to begin this project I thank the Institute for Advanced Christian Studies, and for a study in which to pursue it, Dr. McCord and the Center of Theological Inquiry in Princeton. The Presbyterian church's Commission on Ecumenical Mission and Relations and its Program Agency gave me important and much appreciated study leaves at Cambridge University. My classes and faculty colleagues at the Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Seoul, Korea, and at the Asian Center for Theological Studies and Mission challenged me to turn to the history of the church in Asia; and at Princeton Theological Seminary a different set of students and colleagues taught me the importance of endeavoring to make that history intelligible to Westerners. I am immensely grateful to Speer Library at Princeton Seminary, to Firestone Library at Princeton University, and to the Cambridge colleges of Fitzwilliam and Westminster and the university library on that idyllic campus for the privilege of happy hours of study and research. In a more personal vein, I gratefully number the names of Mackay, Latourette, and Bainton among my mentors; and for technical assistance in this age of bewildering technological advance I must mention John Webster, Kate LeVan, Patricia Grier, and Brenda Williams. But to no one do I owe more than to Eileen, my wife, who century by century, figuratively speaking, encouraged me to come out of the past to write for the living.
Princeton, New Jersey September, 1991
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Introduction The story of Christianity in the West has often been told, but the history of Christianity in the East is not as well known. The seed was the same: the good news of Jesus Christ for the whole world, which Christians call "the gospel." But it was sown by different sowers; it was planted in different soil; it grew with a different flavor; and it was gathered by different reapers. It is too often forgotten that the faith moved east across Asia as early as it moved west into Europe. Western church history tends to follow Paul to Philippi and to Rome and on across Europe to the conversion of Constantine and the barbarians. With some outstanding exceptions, only intermittently has the West looked beyond Constantinople into Asia and given attention to the long, proud traditions of a Christianity that chose to look neither to Rome nor to Constantinople as its center. It was a Christianity that has for centuries remained unashamedly Asian. The following survey of early Asian Christianity is undertaken with the hope that it may serve as a reminder that the church began in Asia. Its earliest history, its first centers were Asian. Asia produced the first known church building, the first New Testament translation, perhaps the first Christian king, the first Christian poets, and even arguably the first Christian state. Asian Christians endured the greatest persecutions. They mounted global ventures in missionary expansion the West could not match until after the thirteenth century. By then the Nestorian church (as most of the early Asian Christian communities came to be called) exercised ecclesiastical authority over more of the earth than either Rome or Constantinople. One reason, of course, for the neglect of the Asian dimension in church history is the comparative paucity of available source materials on the Eastern roots of Christianity outside the Roman Empire. Xlll
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The surviving documents are too slender a base to supp