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The Jesus Sutras: Rediscovering the Lost Scrolls of Taoist Christianity
In 1907, explorers discovered a vast treasure trove of ancient scrolls, silk paintings, and artifacts dating from the 5th to 11th centuries A.D. in a long-sealed cave in a remote region of China. Among them, written in Chinese, were scrolls that recounted a history of Jesus' life and teachings in beautiful Taoist concepts and imagery that were unknown in the West. These writings told a story of Christianity that was by turns unique and disturbing, hopeful and uplifting. The best way to describe them is collectively, with a term they themselves The Jesus Sutras.
The origins of Christianity seem rooted in Western civilization, but amazingly, an ancient, largely unknown branch of Christian belief evolved in the East. Eminent theologian and Chinese scholar Martin Palmer provides the first popular history and translation of the sect's long-lost scriptures--all of them more than a thousand years old and comparable in significance to the Dead Sea Scrolls. Gathered, deciphered, and interpreted by a team of expert linguists and scholars, these sacred texts present an inspiring use of Jesus' teachings and life within Eastern practices and meditations--and provide an extraordinary window into an intriguing, profoundly gentler, more spiritual Christianity than existed in Europe or Asia at the time, or, indeed, even today.
Palmer has devoted more than a decade to seeking the extant writings and other evidence of this lost religion. His search was triggered by an encounter with an immense, mysterious carved (stele) stone from the 8th century that resides in a Chinese museum collection called the Forest of Stones. The Chinese text on this stone commemorates the founding of a "religion of light" in China by a great Western teacher and features a unique cross that merges Taoist symbolism with the Christian cross. The scrolls, the stone, and a strange map of the area around a hallowed temple (where Lao Tzu wrote the Tao Te Ching before disappearing forever) gave Palmer enough information to rediscover one of the earliest Christian monasteries. At the site was an 8th century pagoda still intact, and within it, in 1998, Palmer and his team found more evidence, including statues, underground passageways, and artifacts, that helped them uncover and recreate the era and rituals of the Taoist Christians.
The Taoist Christians, who wrote the Jesus Sutras recognized equality of the sexes, preached against slavery, and practiced nonviolence toward all forms of life. In particular, this tradition offered its followers a more hopeful vision of life on earth and after death than the dominant Eastern religions, teaching that Jesus had broken the wheel of karma and its consequent punishing, endless reincarnations.
Vividly re-creating the turbulence of a distant age that is remarkably evocative of our own times, Palmer reveals an extraordinary evolution of spiritual thought that spans centuries. A thrilling modern quest that is also an ancient religious odyssey, The Jesus Sutras shares a revolutionary discovery with profound historical implications--imparting timeless messages and lessons for men and women of all backgrounds and faiths.
The origins of Christianity seem rooted in Western civilization, but amazingly, an ancient, largely unknown branch of Christian belief evolved in the East. Eminent theologian and Chinese scholar Martin Palmer provides the first popular history and translation of the sect's long-lost scriptures--all of them more than a thousand years old and comparable in significance to the Dead Sea Scrolls. Gathered, deciphered, and interpreted by a team of expert linguists and scholars, these sacred texts present an inspiring use of Jesus' teachings and life within Eastern practices and meditations--and provide an extraordinary window into an intriguing, profoundly gentler, more spiritual Christianity than existed in Europe or Asia at the time, or, indeed, even today.
Palmer has devoted more than a decade to seeking the extant writings and other evidence of this lost religion. His search was triggered by an encounter with an immense, mysterious carved (stele) stone from the 8th century that resides in a Chinese museum collection called the Forest of Stones. The Chinese text on this stone commemorates the founding of a "religion of light" in China by a great Western teacher and features a unique cross that merges Taoist symbolism with the Christian cross. The scrolls, the stone, and a strange map of the area around a hallowed temple (where Lao Tzu wrote the Tao Te Ching before disappearing forever) gave Palmer enough information to rediscover one of the earliest Christian monasteries. At the site was an 8th century pagoda still intact, and within it, in 1998, Palmer and his team found more evidence, including statues, underground passageways, and artifacts, that helped them uncover and recreate the era and rituals of the Taoist Christians.
The Taoist Christians, who wrote the Jesus Sutras recognized equality of the sexes, preached against slavery, and practiced nonviolence toward all forms of life. In particular, this tradition offered its followers a more hopeful vision of life on earth and after death than the dominant Eastern religions, teaching that Jesus had broken the wheel of karma and its consequent punishing, endless reincarnations.
Vividly re-creating the turbulence of a distant age that is remarkably evocative of our own times, Palmer reveals an extraordinary evolution of spiritual thought that spans centuries. A thrilling modern quest that is also an ancient religious odyssey, The Jesus Sutras shares a revolutionary discovery with profound historical implications--imparting timeless messages and lessons for men and women of all backgrounds and faiths.
288 pages, Hardcover
First published August 14, 2001
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September 5, 2023
Fundamentalists are loath to admit the degree to which their faith is informed by Western culture. Amid the throes of the current Culture War, Christians should be able to distinguish between accumulated cultural artifacts and the core of First Century Christianity. Unfortunately, the Christian Right finds any attempt to identify non-Biblical cultural practices as a thinly veiled attempt to deconstruct their carefully crafted comfort zone. Few contemporary Evangelicals are aware that many of their ancestors as recently as one hundred years ago eschewed such practices as an altar call or “invitation hymn” and used wine rather than grape juice in their communion observances. Instead of an informed awareness of historical developments, they proceed blithely as if today’s worship practices represent the way things have always been done. One of the reasons for this collective ignorance is that we have little opportunity to compare how the church developed in the West with how the church developed elsewhere. We don’t have the opportunity to answer the question, “What would Christianity look like if it hadn’t developed in the West?" Martin Palmer’s The Jesus Sutras provides us with an answer to this very question.
Palmer brings an intimate familiarity with Chinese spirituality to the task of translating and interpreting the various writings from northwestern China of the seventh to the eleventh century. These early Christian texts represent a thread of Christian development that rose, flourished and reached its zenith far removed from the historical controversies and councils that shaped much of Western Christianity. From these sutras or sacred scrolls we can see a vibrant, spiritual faith that was shaped by the Buddhist and Taoist culture around it rather than the pagan influences that impinged on Western Christianity. Additionally, we can trace the development of a form of Christianity that is at once familiar and alternately alien to the Christianity to which we are accustomed. More important than providing answers to the shape and nature of Eastern Christianity beyond the influence of the Eastern Orthodox Church, The Jesus Sutras raises questions about how much of what we believe is accumulated baggage and how much is integral to first century Christianity. This book contains no easy answers, but instead raises hearty challenges.
This is not a book for those who feel that we in the West, and particularly in Evangelicalism, have everything nailed down. Rather, such folk will find much to criticize in this book. Palmer is certainly no advocate for Evangelical Christianity and does nothing to assuage any misgivings denominational partisans might have. Instead, he arranges the sutras in chronological order and allows the reader to discover how China shaped a form of Christianity that was able for centuries to speak Jesus Christ into a Buddhist culture. The language, idioms, metaphors and allusions are so alien to our Western way of thinking that many would find these works to be heterodox declensions from an otherwise “pure” faith. What the detractors would miss, however, is that much of what we accept in Western culture is the same sort of culture-centric language, idioms, metaphors and allusions informed by the pagan culture into which it was translated. If one can imagine a theology of the afterlife that was uninfluenced by the likes of Dante or Milton, one can then read The Jesus Sutras and find something worthwhile in these medieval Chinese texts.
The Jesus Sutras is an eminently readable chronicle and should be required for any student of comparative religions and theology. Palmer does a masterful job of telling the story of his personal discovery of an eighth century pagoda that was the earliest known monastery in mainland China and a stone stele containing a sutra with distinctly Christian motifs unique to China. While relatively unknown to the West, the local inhabitants recognized that the Da Qin monastery was the most famous Christian mission in China during the Tang Dynasty. Palmer’s story-telling ability extends to the way he gradually unfolds the sutras that chronicle the development of a uniquely Chinese version of Christianity. The Jesus Sutras unfurls an astounding story of Chinese Christian development that both parallels and diverges from our own cultural heritage. If anything, it should humble the current crop of Culture Warriors and give them pause to evaluate exactly what it is they are making war on. Are they seeking to protect Christianity from the onslaught of “cultural relativism” or have they already succumbed to cultural relativism by adapting their Christianity to Western culture? The Jesus Sutras provides us with a way of exploring this question.
Palmer brings an intimate familiarity with Chinese spirituality to the task of translating and interpreting the various writings from northwestern China of the seventh to the eleventh century. These early Christian texts represent a thread of Christian development that rose, flourished and reached its zenith far removed from the historical controversies and councils that shaped much of Western Christianity. From these sutras or sacred scrolls we can see a vibrant, spiritual faith that was shaped by the Buddhist and Taoist culture around it rather than the pagan influences that impinged on Western Christianity. Additionally, we can trace the development of a form of Christianity that is at once familiar and alternately alien to the Christianity to which we are accustomed. More important than providing answers to the shape and nature of Eastern Christianity beyond the influence of the Eastern Orthodox Church, The Jesus Sutras raises questions about how much of what we believe is accumulated baggage and how much is integral to first century Christianity. This book contains no easy answers, but instead raises hearty challenges.
This is not a book for those who feel that we in the West, and particularly in Evangelicalism, have everything nailed down. Rather, such folk will find much to criticize in this book. Palmer is certainly no advocate for Evangelical Christianity and does nothing to assuage any misgivings denominational partisans might have. Instead, he arranges the sutras in chronological order and allows the reader to discover how China shaped a form of Christianity that was able for centuries to speak Jesus Christ into a Buddhist culture. The language, idioms, metaphors and allusions are so alien to our Western way of thinking that many would find these works to be heterodox declensions from an otherwise “pure” faith. What the detractors would miss, however, is that much of what we accept in Western culture is the same sort of culture-centric language, idioms, metaphors and allusions informed by the pagan culture into which it was translated. If one can imagine a theology of the afterlife that was uninfluenced by the likes of Dante or Milton, one can then read The Jesus Sutras and find something worthwhile in these medieval Chinese texts.
The Jesus Sutras is an eminently readable chronicle and should be required for any student of comparative religions and theology. Palmer does a masterful job of telling the story of his personal discovery of an eighth century pagoda that was the earliest known monastery in mainland China and a stone stele containing a sutra with distinctly Christian motifs unique to China. While relatively unknown to the West, the local inhabitants recognized that the Da Qin monastery was the most famous Christian mission in China during the Tang Dynasty. Palmer’s story-telling ability extends to the way he gradually unfolds the sutras that chronicle the development of a uniquely Chinese version of Christianity. The Jesus Sutras unfurls an astounding story of Chinese Christian development that both parallels and diverges from our own cultural heritage. If anything, it should humble the current crop of Culture Warriors and give them pause to evaluate exactly what it is they are making war on. Are they seeking to protect Christianity from the onslaught of “cultural relativism” or have they already succumbed to cultural relativism by adapting their Christianity to Western culture? The Jesus Sutras provides us with a way of exploring this question.
July 26, 2021
Pros:
- Large sections (probably 25% of the book overall) of untranslated Jesus Sutras
- Maps and images of archaeological sites
- Interpretation and explanation of the text, especially of the relevant Daoist or Buddhist concepts
Cons:
- Massive historical errors.
- Author interprets Church of the East primarily as an opposition and corrective to the Chalcedonian Church both ancient and modern, rather than as an ancient Christian tradition that stands on its own.
- Author imagines the Oriental Orthodoxy and the Church of the East as being functionally the same thing, and that none of the Oriental Orthodox churches were ever interested in worldly power.
- Author imagines that most of the Sassanian Empire, Afghanistan, and Central Asia were Christian. Citation needed.
- Author imagines that Guanyin was directly based on Virgin Mary. Citation needed.
- Bad theology: author argues that Augustine v Pelagius was about whether humans were fundamentally good or fundamentally corrupted, and in his sense of contrarianism to all established Christian theology the author naturally argues in favor of Pelagius. The **actual** controversy about Augustine v Pelagius was about whether or not humans could directly achieve salvation without any supporting grace from God.
In conclusion, I would recommend the sections of the text that deal directly with the Jesus Sutras and then ignore most of the text that attempts to actually delve into Christian history and theology.
- Large sections (probably 25% of the book overall) of untranslated Jesus Sutras
- Maps and images of archaeological sites
- Interpretation and explanation of the text, especially of the relevant Daoist or Buddhist concepts
Cons:
- Massive historical errors.
- Author interprets Church of the East primarily as an opposition and corrective to the Chalcedonian Church both ancient and modern, rather than as an ancient Christian tradition that stands on its own.
- Author imagines the Oriental Orthodoxy and the Church of the East as being functionally the same thing, and that none of the Oriental Orthodox churches were ever interested in worldly power.
- Author imagines that most of the Sassanian Empire, Afghanistan, and Central Asia were Christian. Citation needed.
- Author imagines that Guanyin was directly based on Virgin Mary. Citation needed.
- Bad theology: author argues that Augustine v Pelagius was about whether humans were fundamentally good or fundamentally corrupted, and in his sense of contrarianism to all established Christian theology the author naturally argues in favor of Pelagius. The **actual** controversy about Augustine v Pelagius was about whether or not humans could directly achieve salvation without any supporting grace from God.
In conclusion, I would recommend the sections of the text that deal directly with the Jesus Sutras and then ignore most of the text that attempts to actually delve into Christian history and theology.
October 17, 2009
First off, I'd like to say that the subject here is fascinating: in the last hundred years, it's come to light that there was a thriving Christian community in China as early as the sixth century, nearly a thousand years before the next major missionary movement (i.e. the Jesuits). Palmer writes ably about the discovery of this community's artifacts and about the growth of the early Syrian church, which spread from present-day Afghanistan across the silk road to Tibet and even China. His style is toward a popular audience: summation and application reign over investigating thorny scholarly issues. This is no flaw, as I believe it was his intention to get the word out about a unique form of non-Western Christianity. And indeed, such beautiful artwork as lotus flowers and dragons cradling crosses deserve to be brought out into the daylight.
However, Palmer has an ax to grind: he sees Western Christianity as too dogmatically narrow-minded and hopes to offer "Taoist Christianity" (as he calls it) as a remedy, an example of how to adapt to the larger world. In pursuing this hypothetical golden age, he sacrifices rigor and consistency. For example, his translations bounce between Eastern and Western religious terms, placing them as he finds convenient for his situation. The name Jesus is translated as "Jesus" when he wants to make a heterodox text sound more western and as "Ye Su" (Chinese for Jesus) when he wants to make an orthodox text sound more eastern.
He also blames much of Western Christianity's faults upon original sin, which he contrasts with the Taoist/"Taoist Christian" concept of original nature. According to Palmer, the concept of original is invented by Augustine and caused the Church to emphasize guilt and penance, which then led to bitterness and hatred and the crusades and Puritanism and everything else wrong. The Jesus Sutras, instead, borrow a term from Taoism called original nature, which asserts that humanity is primally good and has only been corrupted by evil societies.
This original sin vs. original nature dichotomy is erroneous on several levels. One is that he either willfully misinterprets the doctrine of original sin or just doesn't really understand it. First of all, original sin (or ancestral sin) is upheld by both Catholicism and Orthodoxy, though emphasized in different ways, and has clear biblical grounding in the letters of Paul. Secondly, to ascribe all the errors of the Church to one small doctrine is ludicrous. Third, original sin does not deny the imago dei, or the image of God.
This, I think, would be a better comparison: Taoist "original nature" and the imago dei. Although they are surely different, they overlap in several ways, such as in the affirmation of humanity's innate goodness that has become corrupted over time. They offer different solutions (Taoist: acting without acting, returning to the state of an "uncarved block" or pu; Christian: renewal through eternal, "resurrection" life found in Jesus) but ultimately look at humanity in the same way.
I see Palmer as falling victim to the popular error that wants to assert a kind of conspiracy to the Church, that Jesus in fact propagated a kind of gnostic spirituality that was hushed over by the Council of Nicea in 325. He wants to identify with a "tolerant" church that escaped politicization, one about so little is known that he can project his own beliefs upon it. Surely, the East has succeeded where the West has failed.
In fact, in reading his translations of the source texts (and trying to ignore his commentary), I find a range of beliefs held by the early Chinese church - everything from staunch orthodoxy to syncretic heresy. There are beautiful expressions of the Trinity side by side with a downplaying of the Resurrection, soteriology next to reincarnation. By donning gnostic-goggles, Palmer ignores the real diversity of what happens to Christianity when it engages a new culture.
My final complaint (and perhaps an unfair one for a book aimed at a popular audience) is a lack of the texts in the original language. As a Sinologist, I would like to be able to examine Palmer's translations, some of which come from very rare resources. Some of his translations from the Tao Te Ching are far from the scholarly norm, and I wonder if these errors crept into his Jesus Sutra translations.
"Sutra," by the way, is his translation of the Chinese character 經, i.e. jing or ching, depending on your romanization system. While it was used to translate the Sanskrit word "sutra," it's generally rendered "classic [text:]" or "scripture" in English. It's the same character in the Tao Te Ching or the I Ching. It's even used in the translation of the Holy Scriptures of Christianity, the sheng jing or 聖經, which, in accordance with Palmer's technique, should be called The Sage's Sutras
However, Palmer has an ax to grind: he sees Western Christianity as too dogmatically narrow-minded and hopes to offer "Taoist Christianity" (as he calls it) as a remedy, an example of how to adapt to the larger world. In pursuing this hypothetical golden age, he sacrifices rigor and consistency. For example, his translations bounce between Eastern and Western religious terms, placing them as he finds convenient for his situation. The name Jesus is translated as "Jesus" when he wants to make a heterodox text sound more western and as "Ye Su" (Chinese for Jesus) when he wants to make an orthodox text sound more eastern.
He also blames much of Western Christianity's faults upon original sin, which he contrasts with the Taoist/"Taoist Christian" concept of original nature. According to Palmer, the concept of original is invented by Augustine and caused the Church to emphasize guilt and penance, which then led to bitterness and hatred and the crusades and Puritanism and everything else wrong. The Jesus Sutras, instead, borrow a term from Taoism called original nature, which asserts that humanity is primally good and has only been corrupted by evil societies.
This original sin vs. original nature dichotomy is erroneous on several levels. One is that he either willfully misinterprets the doctrine of original sin or just doesn't really understand it. First of all, original sin (or ancestral sin) is upheld by both Catholicism and Orthodoxy, though emphasized in different ways, and has clear biblical grounding in the letters of Paul. Secondly, to ascribe all the errors of the Church to one small doctrine is ludicrous. Third, original sin does not deny the imago dei, or the image of God.
This, I think, would be a better comparison: Taoist "original nature" and the imago dei. Although they are surely different, they overlap in several ways, such as in the affirmation of humanity's innate goodness that has become corrupted over time. They offer different solutions (Taoist: acting without acting, returning to the state of an "uncarved block" or pu; Christian: renewal through eternal, "resurrection" life found in Jesus) but ultimately look at humanity in the same way.
I see Palmer as falling victim to the popular error that wants to assert a kind of conspiracy to the Church, that Jesus in fact propagated a kind of gnostic spirituality that was hushed over by the Council of Nicea in 325. He wants to identify with a "tolerant" church that escaped politicization, one about so little is known that he can project his own beliefs upon it. Surely, the East has succeeded where the West has failed.
In fact, in reading his translations of the source texts (and trying to ignore his commentary), I find a range of beliefs held by the early Chinese church - everything from staunch orthodoxy to syncretic heresy. There are beautiful expressions of the Trinity side by side with a downplaying of the Resurrection, soteriology next to reincarnation. By donning gnostic-goggles, Palmer ignores the real diversity of what happens to Christianity when it engages a new culture.
My final complaint (and perhaps an unfair one for a book aimed at a popular audience) is a lack of the texts in the original language. As a Sinologist, I would like to be able to examine Palmer's translations, some of which come from very rare resources. Some of his translations from the Tao Te Ching are far from the scholarly norm, and I wonder if these errors crept into his Jesus Sutra translations.
"Sutra," by the way, is his translation of the Chinese character 經, i.e. jing or ching, depending on your romanization system. While it was used to translate the Sanskrit word "sutra," it's generally rendered "classic [text:]" or "scripture" in English. It's the same character in the Tao Te Ching or the I Ching. It's even used in the translation of the Holy Scriptures of Christianity, the sheng jing or 聖經, which, in accordance with Palmer's technique, should be called The Sage's Sutras
August 31, 2024
An interesting look at the Eastern Nestorian Church, a story not often told and almost forgotten by history, and a brief history of Christianity in the East.
The biggest problems with this book have already been stated by many other reviewers on this app, scholars, critics, and logged by Wikipedia itself. Palmer fails with certain historical inaccuracies in areas when it comes to the greater picture, and makes claims about dates and archeology that most scholars disagree with completely, most notably the Pagoda. Knowing this, I came into the book with a dose of skepticism, but I still found certain things to be problematic. I will note my own biases, that me being a Roman Catholic would be adverse to ideas such as Marian traditions being Egyptian-Pagan. Palmer has more sympathetic view on Nestorius and the Oriental Church that many Western Christians disagree with.
Despite it all, I still found it fascinating the way he weaves together centuries of different east Asian philosophy and religion in a surprisingly understandable way for contemporary readers. I'm now urged to know more about Tao and Confucianism. Perhaps this was not the best introduction, but nonetheless I felt the enthusiasm that Palmer had for the culture and the religion.
The biggest problems with this book have already been stated by many other reviewers on this app, scholars, critics, and logged by Wikipedia itself. Palmer fails with certain historical inaccuracies in areas when it comes to the greater picture, and makes claims about dates and archeology that most scholars disagree with completely, most notably the Pagoda. Knowing this, I came into the book with a dose of skepticism, but I still found certain things to be problematic. I will note my own biases, that me being a Roman Catholic would be adverse to ideas such as Marian traditions being Egyptian-Pagan. Palmer has more sympathetic view on Nestorius and the Oriental Church that many Western Christians disagree with.
Despite it all, I still found it fascinating the way he weaves together centuries of different east Asian philosophy and religion in a surprisingly understandable way for contemporary readers. I'm now urged to know more about Tao and Confucianism. Perhaps this was not the best introduction, but nonetheless I felt the enthusiasm that Palmer had for the culture and the religion.
November 29, 2015
this is one of those books that made a lot of things "click" for me regarding spirituality, culture, an integrated worldview, and contextualization.
I wrote about it in 2005, pasted here:
It is an historical account of the first Christian mission to China (led by the monk Alouben) in 635, a piecing together of various strands of evidence: a long-lost Christian monastery now used as a Buddhist temple (with Christian statues in the eighth-century pagoda), a sutra (holy writing) of stone in a stone library, and "The Jesus Sutras," a collection of scrolls found hidden in a secret library that was sealed around 1005.
From these fragments, the author pieces together a framework for what these early Christians believed, how they acted and interacted with the myriad of cultures and religions around them. The result is a fascinating depiction of a Christianity that is adaptive, hospitable, and relevant.
These early Chinese Christians drew upon imagery from their understanding of the Taoism, Confucianism, Buddhism, Jainism and Shamanism of Tang Dynasty China, which allowed them to present a radical image of Christ as the Dharma King, sending "your raft of salvation to save us from the burning streams" - even saving us from karma and reincarnation.
It struck me as an amazing way to interact and dialogue with the Chinese culture, to come at it with such an intimate knowledge of the people's beliefs, fears, and understandings of life and the afterlife. Our Modern, Western, Evangelical, Protestant understanding of the gospel always tends to hinge on the sacrificial death of Christ as atonement for our sins, relying on the legal metaphor of God as judge, accepting some and damning others. But how would we make ourselves understood to a culture that doesn't understand the afterlife in those terms, but rather see them as endless karmic reincarnations, i.e. we are doomed to be forever reincarnated until we get it right here on earth?
Quote from one of the Sutras:
Beyond knowing, beyond words
You are the truth, steadfast for all time.
Compassionate Father, Radiant Son,
Pure Wind King - three in one...
Supreme King, Will of Ages,
Compassionate Joyous Lamb
Loving all who suffer
Fearless as You strive for us
Free us of the karma of our lives,
Bring us back to our original nature
Delivered from all danger.
"Sutra of Praise to the Three Powers", A.D. ca. 780-790
(see page 203)
I wrote about it in 2005, pasted here:
It is an historical account of the first Christian mission to China (led by the monk Alouben) in 635, a piecing together of various strands of evidence: a long-lost Christian monastery now used as a Buddhist temple (with Christian statues in the eighth-century pagoda), a sutra (holy writing) of stone in a stone library, and "The Jesus Sutras," a collection of scrolls found hidden in a secret library that was sealed around 1005.
From these fragments, the author pieces together a framework for what these early Christians believed, how they acted and interacted with the myriad of cultures and religions around them. The result is a fascinating depiction of a Christianity that is adaptive, hospitable, and relevant.
These early Chinese Christians drew upon imagery from their understanding of the Taoism, Confucianism, Buddhism, Jainism and Shamanism of Tang Dynasty China, which allowed them to present a radical image of Christ as the Dharma King, sending "your raft of salvation to save us from the burning streams" - even saving us from karma and reincarnation.
It struck me as an amazing way to interact and dialogue with the Chinese culture, to come at it with such an intimate knowledge of the people's beliefs, fears, and understandings of life and the afterlife. Our Modern, Western, Evangelical, Protestant understanding of the gospel always tends to hinge on the sacrificial death of Christ as atonement for our sins, relying on the legal metaphor of God as judge, accepting some and damning others. But how would we make ourselves understood to a culture that doesn't understand the afterlife in those terms, but rather see them as endless karmic reincarnations, i.e. we are doomed to be forever reincarnated until we get it right here on earth?
Quote from one of the Sutras:
Beyond knowing, beyond words
You are the truth, steadfast for all time.
Compassionate Father, Radiant Son,
Pure Wind King - three in one...
Supreme King, Will of Ages,
Compassionate Joyous Lamb
Loving all who suffer
Fearless as You strive for us
Free us of the karma of our lives,
Bring us back to our original nature
Delivered from all danger.
"Sutra of Praise to the Three Powers", A.D. ca. 780-790
(see page 203)
January 9, 2010
This is a good translation of the Dunhuang manuscripts. I think there are some earlier translations but this one is the best. It also gives a good general background of the circumstances under which they were discovered and a general account of the rise and decline of early Chinese Christianity.
I don't think that the description of the scrolls as "Taoist" really carries any weight and I don't know where he is getting this. I'd say that the scrolls do not have any particular Chinese ideology, just Chinese terms. God is referred to as "the One Sacred Spirit" or the "World-Honored One," the Holy Spirit as "the pure Wind," Satan becomes the "Great Evil Ghost," angels become "flying immortals," and saints and prophets become "Buddhas." So I see terminology borrowed, but no ideology.
If there is an ideological basis, it would be in Buddhism rather than Taoism, because of the strong aversion to killing. A strong case can be made for Ebionite beliefs being the basis of the Sutras. For example, John the Baptist as well as Jesus are vegetarian, corresponding to the view the Ebionites had of John and Jesus, and this would explain the precepts about not killing.
I don't think that the description of the scrolls as "Taoist" really carries any weight and I don't know where he is getting this. I'd say that the scrolls do not have any particular Chinese ideology, just Chinese terms. God is referred to as "the One Sacred Spirit" or the "World-Honored One," the Holy Spirit as "the pure Wind," Satan becomes the "Great Evil Ghost," angels become "flying immortals," and saints and prophets become "Buddhas." So I see terminology borrowed, but no ideology.
If there is an ideological basis, it would be in Buddhism rather than Taoism, because of the strong aversion to killing. A strong case can be made for Ebionite beliefs being the basis of the Sutras. For example, John the Baptist as well as Jesus are vegetarian, corresponding to the view the Ebionites had of John and Jesus, and this would explain the precepts about not killing.
November 28, 2015
In the 8th century, Christian missionaries arrived in China from the Syriac-speaking Christian world - the Church external to the Roman Empire, that didn't participate in the Councils that defined the religion in the Greek-speaking world. There they established a monastery and worked to spread the gospel, creating missionary literature and liturgies that spoke to the Chinese context. In clear and compelling prose, Martin Palmer tells the story of that mission - so far as we know it - and the story of his interdisciplinary team's work to translate and understand the surviving texts from that Christian mission, which he calls "The Jesus Sutras." In every aspect - texts, context, scholarly methods - this book offers rich material for fruitful religious (and historical) reflection.
I recommend reading it in conjunction with Philip Jenkins' "The Lost History of Christianity," an overview of the history of the Syriac-speaking Church.
I recommend reading it in conjunction with Philip Jenkins' "The Lost History of Christianity," an overview of the history of the Syriac-speaking Church.
January 5, 2019
This is another one of those books which, once read, make you want to shake people by the shoulders and shout "Read This" not because the book is exceptionally well written (though the writing and research are very good) but because it represents something which ought to be part of "the great conversation" on the topic (in this case the history and nature of Christianity) yet somehow isn't.
READ THIS BOOK
READ THIS BOOK
July 18, 2022
Informative. I really enjoyed Palmer's narrative voice. I could really feel his excitement and drive to find the pagoda devoted to the Christian church from the 7th century near ancient Chang'un China, the seat of the powerful Tang Dynasty. His telling of that time and history lessons of the The Church of the East were most interesting, but I got a little bored with the many Sutras and reading, what felt like the same thing over and over, the translations of the original documents found. Obviously they were the whole point of the book, that Christianity made it's way to the ends of the Earth at a time when no one had suspected. But I'm not an early Christianity scholar, so the textual passages were skimmed. I cared about the historical context provided by the expert. I got nothing much out of reading the original text myself.
February 28, 2021
This is the story of how Christianity in its Nestorian form arrived in China in the early Middle Ages and of its unique texts that have survived. Palmer believes that in acculturating in China, they absorbed a number of Taoist and Buddhist concepts, which has made him controversial. I'm not a Chinese scholar by any means so I can't say how accurate or valid his translations and viewpoints are. But the book is nevertheless fascinating reading. The Nestorian Church survived for several hundred years, ultimately succumbing to persecution. By the 16th century when Roman Catholic Jesuits arrived, they found no trace of it, apart from noticing that there were those who made the sign of the cross over their food before eating (but without being able to explain the reason for doing so).
June 7, 2018
Yes There were Christians in China before Marco Polo.
April 4, 2019
Fascinating book; the texts themselves are beautiful, the story well told, and the challenge to modern Western Christianity very apt.
June 23, 2023
A surprising read. I now am more knowledgable of the Churchs spread Eastwards. Many translations and facts keep ones attention riveted to this well told history.
April 13, 2016
In The Jesus Sutras, Martin Palmer tells the story of Nestorian Christianity in China by unpacking and commenting on seventh and eight century writings found sealed in a cave at Dunhuang alongside Buddhist and Manichean texts. Palmer’s book is aimed at a popular audience, and he has a rare talent for presenting complex information in a clear and lucid manner without distorting the story. Palmer’s ability to outline the core tenants of major world religions or the rise and fall empires within a couple of very readable paragraphs is rivalled only by the “Jesus Sutras” themselves. As Palmer argues, these texts preached Christianity to an audience familiar with Confucian, Taoist, and Buddhist thought, and they did so using language and concepts that their readers would have understood. One text, which Palmer entitles The Sutra of Cause, Effect, and Salvation, explains that “A Visitor came to this world uniting body and soul: He was happy in this world without troubling His spirit. The union of body and soul was made by the sacred spirit of God. Just as flavor creates food, so the qi [life breath] creates the body and the soul. All this comes from God. Venerate God and all will be as it should be and will become clear to you. Whatever you do in life will have its karmic impact upon your soul and will affect the physical life of the soul. … A person can only change his karma residue by being born again into this world. Do good and you will live to be in the world beyond this world. The other world can be found by doing acts of karma in this life, by living properly in this world. This world is like a mother’s womb in which you are shaped for the world to come.”
Read my full review at: https://wordsbecamebooks.com/2016/04/...
Read my full review at: https://wordsbecamebooks.com/2016/04/...
January 27, 2008
This intriguing work explores the discovery of a Chinese Christian monastery and a cache of writings that prove Christianity was introduced to China as early as the 5th century. These works drew upon the vocabulary of Taoism and Buddhism and adopted cultural idioms in order to communicate the gospel to the Chinese in a way they could understand. Some of the content of these "Jesus Sutras" is very noncontroversial; other components, such as references to reincarnation, may cause orthodox Christians to regard the Taoist Christianity as an heretical form of the religion. The book is fascinating not only for revealing documents produced by early Christian missionaries, but because it provides a good historical overview of the Eastern Church, which often receives very little exposure in Christian histories. The work would have been improved by a better organization of the material, which would also have avoided redundancy. Overall, however, it is an engaging and highly readable book.
April 23, 2015
I absolutely loved this book. At first, I was somewhat irritated with Palmer's Indiana Jones-esque retelling of how he discovered the Da Qin Monastery, but once we got into the Sutras - priceless. How beautiful many of them are - sometimes the text seem forced (more the problem of Christian Dogma than any problem with translation), but other times - particularly regarding the later sutras of JingJing - the fusion of Truth in Christianity, Taoism and Buddhism is just beautiful. It is a lovely object lesson to religionists everywhere - Your branch isn't the end. Truth is Truth regardless of the metaphor. I want more. Too bad nothing else has been discovered!
March 14, 2008
oh man this is a great book- i found out about it when i was in china researching china and christianity and the history of the two together...i read some articles that were similar to watching an indiana jones movie and then ordered the book and it was waiting for me when i got back to the states- wow what a journey it is all about this guy martin palmer and his life journey to find out how christianity came to china and the fall of it and all. cool story - true story that is.
July 4, 2008
I only read the translations and none of the commentary, but I thought these writings from the ancient Nestorians in China were fascinating. They clearly acclimated to the culture and sought to relate the local religion with Christianity. The question is whether or not they went too far in linking the two belief systems.
March 13, 2007
Although the writer seems to be a bit of a new-age'er, the book is fascinating.
May 7, 2015
Lots of interesting history I was unaware of. A pleasant read.
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July 23, 2011Somewhat interesting read.
December 5, 2012
This is a fascinating read.
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