Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

The history of Christianity in Asia during the nineteenth century and much of the twentieth was dominated by the growth of missionary activity’ (McManners 1990: 488). But one must remember that Christianity in Asia is as old as Christianity itself. ‘It is too often forgotten that the faith moved across Asia as early as it moved into Europe … It was a Christianity that has remained for centuries unashamedly Asian’ (Moffett 1992: xiii). That ‘Christianity remained for centuries unashamedly Asian’ may be true for West Asia in the early centuries, but is an overstatement as far as East Asia, South Asia and South-east Asia are concerned. In the past two centuries in particular, development of Christianity in these regions of Asia has been largely shaped by the expansion of the churches in Europe and North America, by missionary efforts ‘at one extreme … to save souls … producing conversions … [and] at the other extreme … aiming at Christianization of society as a whole through humanitarian ideas’ (McManners 1990: 488).The fact of the matter is that these regions of Asia have not been ‘Christianized’. To this day Christians in these parts of Asia have remained less than 5 per cent of the total population of Asia. In spite of the fact that Christianity is a minority religion in East Asia, South Asia and South-east Asia, the extremes mentioned above still prevail today in this first decade ... log in or subscribe to read full text