THEO2224
History of Christianity in Asia
3 Units
The course introduces the students to the history of Christianity in Asia, from the first century and the eastward movement of earliest Christianity to Christianity in the Sassanid period, life under Islamic rule, the Mongolian period, the missionary spread of Western forms of Christianity in the colonial era and the development of independent forms of Christianity in more recent times. A significant focus of the course will be on recent developments in different parts of Asia (excluding mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong).
Following are the course objectives:
- The course will offer arguments to overcome the still widespread stereotype of Christianity as a Western phenomenon.
- Surveying different historical developments of Christianity in Asia, students will encounter different church and faith models, different forms of contextualization, and different developments of how Christians relate to their cultural and religious environment.
- As Asian Christians are our neighbours both internationally and locally, the study of Asian Christianity is also a study of our own local context.
- The course thus has an important postcolonial dimension; it "[…] deepen[s] our awareness of the way the past and present of the imperial encounter interact with each other" (Edward W. Said, Culture and Imperialism, 1994:39).
Shared With : THEO5324