Religious Syncretism and the Case of Nestorian Christianity in China during the Tang Dynasty

Happy New Year everyone! This blog entry is about the introduction of Nestorian Christianity to China. What happens to religions after what is known as " syncretism" occurs is very interesting. Religious syncretism occurs when a foreign religion is introduced to an indigenous culture of belief system and the beliefs, principles, and doctrines are mixed. In the process of transmission and establishment, the new religion takes a new shape that might be very different from its initial form. Similar to the process of sinification of Buddhism, Christian theology was progressively indigenized in China.

The government of China had a tolerant and protective attitude toward foreign faiths during the eighth century. Buddhists, Nestorian Christians, and Manicheans, among people from other faiths, could establish their places of worship and perform their own practices and rituals within the cities of China.

Nestorianism is a form of Christianity that was developed by travelers from Syria. They believed that Christ had two natures: One human and one divine. This tradition was introduced to China by the Nestorian traders and monks. The newcomers faced numerous challenges in establishing their faith in China. Foremost among these challenges was the problem of language. The Christian scriptures that were brought to China A-lo-pen and others needed to be translated to Chinese. In order to make the text understandable, translators sometimes had to borrow from local terminology and concepts. According to Flinn and Hendricks, there is evidence showing that there was collaboration between translators of Christian and Buddhist texts. Also, it is apparent that in an effort to express in Chinese their Christian theology, foreigners had to use Buddhist, Manichean, and Chinese classical terminology. Thus, it appears that Christianity interacted with the aforementioned traditions in a way that can be viewed as syncretistic.

The question becomes whether Christianity remained faithful to its origin or was transformed and changed by the sinitic culture. I think it is fair to say that, like many traditions, we cannot assume an unchanging core to Christianity. Christianity had to change and adapt to its host culture in order to survive. After all its syncretistic transformation over time, can we still call "Chinese Christianity" Christianity? Well, I do not know. As scholars, we are only interested in changes that occur in traditions in different contexts over time. It is safe to leave this sort of judgment to people practicing the faith. I appreciate everyone's feedback.