Research On Chinese Ancient Christian

Until the modern world, among the history of Christianity, European church, theology and administration pattern within the Hellenic world have been a mainstream, yet the church of the eastern world has sunken below the historic horizon. After the finding of "the Nestorian Monument" in17C, and the "Jingjiao documents" and relics in20C, scholars from home and abroad, started to study the manifold ways of acculturation of Christianity in ancient China.This thesis is composed of four chapters and conclusion, keeping the former studies on Christianity in ancient China.Chapter1is an introduction which describes the main stream of the past and current research on ancient Christianity of the east, aims and scope of this study.Chapter2deals with the origin of Nestorian and the development of Jingjiao during the Tang Dynasty. Since the Han Dynasty, the "silk road" had played a major role between the West and the East, interacting with each other and forming multi-cultural characteristics. Jingjiao also belonged to one of them. Jingjiao stemmed from the Syrian Church (generally known as "Nestorian") which was accommodated to Persian Church. Since Alopen, a Persian missionary, arrived at Chang’ an in635Christianity had developed for about210years under the royal support and protection. But due to the execution of prohibition law related to Buddhism in845, Jingjiao was also persecuted, hardly seen in "in-land", yet in north western border or in commercialized area, Jingjiao still survived and prospered. During the Yuan dynasty, Christianity spread among the Mongol tribes, came into the mainland again in the name of "Yelikewen" and became prosperous until the fall of the Yuan Dynasty. From the Tang to Yuan dynasty, Christianity had never ceased in China, moving to and fro under the persecution, lasted more than700years.Chapter3deals with the development of Christian theology within Chinese context. There are unique characteristics in Christian theology developed in ancient China. Thesis author compares Jingjiao documents written at two different periods (early Tang dynasty and late Tang dynasty). The terminology and theological concept have shown a significant difference between two groups yet also contain inner relevance. Author conducts a comparative study between Jingjiao and the orthodox Christian theology from the perspective of systematic theology on God, Christ, man, redemption, and apocalypse. Jingjiao documents show its unique characteristic, which is influenced by Chinese Taoism, Buddhism, Confucianism, and also Persian religions such as Zoroaster and Mani. Nevertheless, they still maintain unity and relevance to the orthodox Christianity in main Christian theological issues mentioned above.Chapter4deals with Christianity’s inter-culturation process under Chinese socio-cultural background. Jingjiao has been deeply related to policies on religion and international affairs. Likewise, Yelikewen’s attempt to accommodate to Chinese society is also deeply influenced by emperor’s policies on religion and international relationship. They tend to take advantage of their cultural strength in spreading "Yelikewen". As time went by, they gradually came to be absorbed into Chinese society through ethnic marriage and educational system. This factor, with other factors like challenges from other religion or inner corruption, influenced Yelikewen’s development.In conclusion, the writer focuses on Chinese socio-cultural characteristic; its openness and its exclusiveness. Christianity’s acculturation process tends to maintain its universal truth and at the same time tries to accomodate to a new cultural context. This characteristic is the crucial factor which formed very unique Christianity in ancient China. The author, considering the important role that China has among the world history and the multi-cultural characteristics that Jingjiao has, took an inter-disciplinary approach. This study result can provide a more holistic understanding of the Christianity of the east which spread to China, and more insight to the present and the future Christianity in China.This study is based on literature research.Firstly, Chinese literature on history of the Tang and Yuan dynasty including "Cifuyuangui","Tanghuiyao", Tongzhetiaoge", and the Western literatures were referred. In addition, relics including "Nestorian Monument" and other tomb stones were also referred.Secondly, Jingjiao documents, or so-called "Dunhuang documents" such as "Yishenlun","Xuting mishiso jing" etc. and the several religious Scriptures, mainly the Bible, and the books on Christian theology were referred for comparative study. Furthermore, the scriptures of Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism were referred for theological analysis.Thirdly, recent literatures on Jingjiao or Christianity in China from home and abroad were studied. Especially, the author referred to the several Korean scholars on Christianity in China. In spite of their profound insight and knowledge on Christianity of eastern world, they are not known to Chinese scholars.Finally, this study has three innovative characteristics.Firstly, the author attempts to study Jingjiao documents in a systematic theological approach. The contents of the documents are analyzed and synthesized according to five main theological topics, compared with Western orthodox theology.Secondly, this study takes inter-disciplinary approach; deals not only a religion but also political, socio-cultural matters as a whole.Thirdly, this study not only focuses on the history of ancient China, but also contributes to provide insight to the future study. In21C, China is facing up to manifold foreign policy issues. The religion policy is one of them. Today’s Chinese Church is a fifth attempt to mainland. As this study shows, Christianity has been regarded as a foreign religion for hundreds of years. How Chinese church overcomes this matter and what attitude the religion policy takes toward Christianity would decide its way to go.