A History of Christianity in Asia, vol. 1.

It is the precise merit of Moffett's bulky history to think of ancient Palestine as a western border of a vibrant Christianity which was in place not only in the area of Syriac speaking peoples, but in ancient Persia and, following the silk and spice routes, in what is present-day Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, and China. Of necessity, this volume, which brings the story down to 1500, is a welter of names, places, cultural crosscurrents, and varying religious traditions, both within and apart from Christianity. The very detail of this history makes for tough going but the rewards are enormous. Moffett weighs the evidence for the apostolicity of the Thomas Christians of Indians; discusses evidences for early Christian settlements in Korea; traces out the enormous creative theology existing in Syriac; and in numbing detail examines the relationship of Christianity to Islam, etc.

Specific vignettes add spice to the story. My favorite (among many tough choices) is his narration of two thirteenth-century Mongol monks (Nestorian Christians) who walked from the city of Peking on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Sidetracked by war, they spent time in Persia. One made it to Rome where he was received by the pope. After a visit to France and a reception from Philip the Fair (as well as a guided tour of Paris's vast relic collection), he went back to Rome where he was invited to celebrate the liturgy before the pope according to his native usage.

One thing is quite certain: anyone who has the patience to read through this long work will look at the history of Christianity in a quite different light. It should give pause to those who natter on about the church as the realm of Dead White European Males. Moffett brings us a panorama of Semitic, Indian, Asian, Mongol, Persian, and African peoples of both sexes and of many gifts.