Christianity In Ancient China Essay

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In ancient China, Christian missionaries propagated their faith into China through innumerous efforts, but the unique eastern culture forced them to blend Chinese background into the doctrines, and the governments greatly hindered their work. The first Christians in China were Nestorian Christians, who were under the doctrines of Nestorianism in the Persian Empire. Close to China geographically, the Nestorians approached China in the 7th century successfully and built a Nestorian Christian church in northern China, and their achievements were recorded on the Nestorian Stele. According to the Stele, a missionary from Persia named Alopen Abraham gained permission from the Tang emperor to preach in northern China. The Stele also introduced Nestorian …show more content…

The primary changes in the doctrines included “accepting worshipping of ancestry and denying the position of holy Mary or after-death purification.” Despite of the smooth start, the emperor expelled all religious movements in 845, and the Nestorians were sent back to Persia. Christianity quitted China temporarily, and in 1278, the Roman Catholic Pope Nicolas III sent five Jesuits to China and wrote to the emperor Kublai Khan to take care of the Jesuits and protect them when they came back to Rome. This marked the beginning of Jesuits’ work in China, which continued intermittently because of government interventions. Catholic missionaries took the same approach as Nestorians, using languages from Buddhism and Confucianism to blend into Chinese culture. The Jesuits published pamphlets and “versions of parts of the Scriptures, especially the Gospels” to approach non-Christians, but there were no publication of the complete Bible. Although efforts were made to please the emperor, the emperor grew resentful to all foreign religions again, and Christians were expelled for a second

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