Product Description

“The Jesus Sutras tells a valuable history of the beautiful teachings of a faith built on living practices of brotherhood and peace. The Sutras show us the interbeing nature of Jesus, Buddha, Tao, peoples, cultures, transformation, salvation and unity through deep and mindful living.” --Thich Nhat Hanh, author of LIVING BUDDHA, LIVING CHRIST

"In offering a tantalizing glimpse of a distant past when Christian, Taoist and Buddhist ideas achieved a brilliant fusion in China, *The Jesus Sutras*inspire hope for a future in which celebration of diversity may one day triumph over the sterile certainties of exclusivism." -- Stephen Batchelor, author of Buddhism Without Beliefs

"The Jesus Sutras vividly brings to life the partnership teachings of Jesus and their application in a surprising setting. Palmer’s account of Chinese communities that honored both women and men and lived equitably and nonviolently is a fascinating story and a stunning contribution to religious history. Riane Eisler, author of The Chalice and The Blade, Sacred Pleasure, and Tomorrow’s Children

"The Jesus Sutras is a spellbinding story of the rediscovery of the earliest traces of Christianity in China and an imaginative reconstruction of the subsequent development of this alien faith from the Far West in the Middle Kingdom. Martin Palmer's infectious enthusiasm for his subject is evident throughout and enables him to illuminate numerous facets of the Religion of Light that were hitherto unknown to modern scholars. The result is not only the moving account of the author's personal quest to comprehend a phenomenally important but strangely mysterious stele inscription, it is also one of the most fascinating chapters ever written in the history of world religions. --Victor H. Mair, Professor of Asian & Middle Eastern Studies, University of Pennsylvania, Translator Tao Te Ching

“Martin Palmer has written a book in the great tradition of English scholars and explorers. He has put together the evidence of the presence of early Christianity, in the first millennium, in China. He has reread and retranslated the Jesus Sutras to present a view of Christianity that was independent of the accepted definitions in the West. He has found in this Christianity, in ancient China, a liberating and healing expression for the whole of the human spirit. Men and women of all the faith traditions will be moved by this book.” Arthur Hertzberg, Bronfman Visiting Professor of the Humanities, New York University

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #661352 in Books
• Published on: 2001-08-14
• Released on: 2001-08-14
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 288 pages

Amazon.com Review
It's no secret that there were Christians in China as far back as the seventh century. But exactly what they believed has been difficult to discern. In his book The Jesus Sutras, translator and interfaith pioneer Martin Palmer begins to shed light on what he has come to call Taoist Christianity, referring to ancient texts found only a century ago and drawing on his own sleuthing in China. In a book of ambitious scope, Palmer recounts Christianity's spread eastward from Jerusalem, where it encountered and adapted to local cultures. One of those cultures was the most powerful and advanced civilization in the world--Tang China--but which was also steeped in a retro-shamanic faith known as Taoism. Just as the Chinese assimilated Buddhism by interpreting it in Taoist terms, a similarly fascinating fusion of beliefs appears to have taken place in China's Christian monasteries. Palmer takes us to the site of one of these sanctuaries, which was once the Taoist equivalent of Canterbury Cathedral and which the Chinese government is now excavating and restoring in earnest. He also offers full English translations of what he calls the Jesus Sutras, Christian tracts translated into Chinese from an unknown Eastern language. While bearing clear resemblance to traditional Christianity, differences, and what one may call advances, are also apparent--for instance, original sin becomes the goodness of original nature. The Jesus Sutras is a powerful combination of research, translation, and interpretation that not only brings the past to light but lights the way for future interfaith dialogue. --Brian Bruya

From Publishers Weekly
almer (Kuan Yin; Travels Through Sacred China) has the ability to make readers feel as if they have joined him in an exuberant and breathless Indiana Jones-style adventure, as he weaves his clues and discoveries of the early Christian Church in China. Here he examines the "Jesus Sutras," discovered by a Taoist priest in a cave in northwestern China near the end of the 19th century. Among hundreds of scrolls, books, artwork and artifacts were Christian documents dating from the early seventh to the early 11th century C.E.; the earliest texts seem to have been recorded by Persian missionaries, while those that followed seem more indigenous to Chinese culture. There are sutras of liturgy, as well as odd reinterpretations of the Bible and a form of catechism. These Christian sacred books have been translated into English only twice, both times in the 1930s by translators who knew the language but were unfamiliar with Chinese sacred works such as the Tao Te Ching and the Lotus Sutra. Palmer, with his firm grasp of early Christian history, Buddhism, Taoism, Shamanism, Confucianism and Chinese history and languages, makes a fascinating case for the scrolls' syncretism of classical Western Christian orthodoxy and Taoist beliefs. For example, the texts place a strong emphasis on Jesus' ability to save believers from the wheel of karma. Palmer has written an important and wonderful book that is accessible for a general audience. (Aug.)Forecast: What's next after the phase-out of the Celtic Christianity craze? Given the tremendous interest in Eastern spirituality in America, perhaps the market is ripe for intelligent books like this that marry historic Christianity with the wisdom traditions of the East. Many Judeo-Christian Americans who practice Buddhist or Taoist meditation techniques will be fascinated to know, as Palmer puts it, that "fourteen hundred years ago, the Jesus Sutras had already created a synthesis of Tao, Christ, and Buddha." Promotions in Tricycle and other publications should help move the title, which has a modest initial print run of 15,000.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Palmer's work in recovering the history of Christianity in China, Tibet, and Central Asia reads like an Indiana Jones-style travel adventure, in which the author journeys to faraway lands and escapes countless dangers to recover priceless antiquities. Long before Marco Polo's travels, the Christian faith had spread from the Middle East along the Silk Route all the way to the Pacific. Merchants and diplomats carried it there before the seventh century, and it flourished until at least the 12th. This Christianity, moreover, had adapted to animist, Taoist, Confucian, and Buddhist worldviews and influenced their evolution in turn. Owing to political repression in China and Tibet and the rise of Islam elsewhere in Asia, this brand of Christianity eventually died out. To track its history, Palmer who directs the International Consultancy on Religion, Education, and Culture and has published translations of the Tao Te Ching and other Chinese texts here presents an engaging fusion of scholarly treatise, travelog, and autobiography that will attract both casual readers and scholars. Recommended for both public and academic libraries. James F. DeRoche, Alexandria, VA
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

"Nestorian" Church of the East not Taoist
As a historian of the "Nestorian" Assyrian Church of the East I am troubled by Mr. Palmer's description of this Church as Taoist Christian. The Church of the East was widespread in China, India and Mongolia during the Middle Ages. This Aramaic-speaking Church still exists in Iran and Iraq and there is a large immigrant community of these Eastern Christians in Chicago.(Aramaic was the language spoken by Jesus Christ.) The beliefs of the Church of the East are not as radically different from other churches as Mr. Palmer implies.The Church of the East is theologically orthodox and claims St. Thomas and St. Thaddeus as its founders. It has always been based in the region of Persia and sent out missionaries from there to China and India during the sixth and seventh centuries. Three books give a more balanced treatment of the history and teachings of the Assyrian Church of the East and they also deal accurately with the so-called "Jesus Sutras"-the writings of the Nestorian church written in Chinese and found in Turfan and Tunhuang in western China. These include "A History of Christianity in China" by Samuel Hugh Moffett, "Christianity in Asia before 1500" by Ian Gillman and Hans-Joachim Klimkiet and ""By Foot To China" by John M.L. Young

Great service but flawed introduction
This volume provides a much needed service - source material on early Chinese Christianity. The translations are supported by history of the discovery of the texts, the identification of a site of an early Christian community ... This material has previously been available only in obscure academic sources or more popular literature's hints that such material exist.

This volume is written to appeal to the more general reader and, unfortunately, to readers with a "new age" bent. Palmer attempts to build parallels between "Celtic Christianity" and the "Church of the East". His "Church of the East" is an amalgam of the Nestorians, the Syriac rite Churches (Orthodox, Catholic or Independent), and the Copts (Orthodox, Catholic, or Independent). In short, his Church history is so simplified as to be false - appealing to an inaccurate (but popular) understanding of the relationship of the Celt's Christianity to that of the broader world.

Similarly, he quickly establishes a Tibetian Christian influence on the doctrine of Boddhisattva's without recognition of a competing theory that attributed the changes to Islamic influence. He also strongly stresses the Taoist adaptations of the Christian texts while minimizing the better documented interchange between Buddhism and Christianity within the Chinese silk route context.

I am delighted to finally have the texts available, to see pictures of the artifacts, to have more historical names and dates. For that I highly recommend the book. Unfortunately, I can not say the same for his interpretation. Two times, his support for his view had me laughing. The number of pages devoted to the Eastern Church in the Penguin History of the Church tells me only the level of interest by Penguin editors not the knowledge of the West of the Eastern Church. Or, after using the Orthodox iconographic tradition to establish that the finger position of a painting was a mudra of teaching, he jumps to the conclusion that worship in the Chinese Church included mudras. Does that mean that the Orthodox must also use mudras in worship?

Yes, I am being harsh but reading this book uncritically could seriously mislead one. I have no interest in seeing a "Chinese Nestorian Christian" new-age movement to parallel the Celtic movement.

Filet Mignon in a Bun
It's not easy to assign a single star rating to "The Jesus Sutras." It's a meaty subject: China's ancient Religion of Light as described in the words of its adherents. But this book gives you a lot of bread with the beef. As a result, the nutritional value and taste experience of the meal fall short of what could have been.

The sutras represent the substance here. These texts, authored by contemplatives of the Da Qin monastery, offer an intriguing picture of early Christianity as it existed in Asia. The author brings qualified collaborators and formidable professional skills to the task of rendering these documents in English. This effort allows readers today to experience the remarkable synthesis of ideas presented in the scrolls.

To serve a feast like this a simple plate works fine. The book gives it to us on a double bun. In addition to the actual Sutras we are served, on side, "Sutras--The Adventure Story." The adventure story shows Palmer taking justifiable pride in calling Da Qin society to the attention of Western scholars. But the attendant publicity hype of this segment as an "Indiana Jones" tale does justice neither to Da Qin nor to Doctor Jones. One can hardly speak of the "discovery" of a Christina monastery in China when residents of the area knew all along what the structure was. And the hypes is unnecessary. The merit of the investigation attests to itself. I'm sure many readers will share my interest in learning more as excavation at Da Qin proceeds.

On the other side we are served "Sutras--The Narrative." This segment offers the history side of the tale to put the Da Qin society in context for the non-specialist. The result is a vivid but romantic description of the Da Qin world. Illustrations abound. The reader gets photos, maps, samples of ancient calligraphy and inscriptions. Some of these make the needle jiggle on the Padding Meter (a clouded photo of a Guan Yin figure, redundant views of the pagoda) but most are helpful.

These portions of the book make it clear that sharing the fruits of scholarship is not the book's primary purpose. This book portrays the ancient Chinese Christians in a romantic light much like the one the film 'Dances with Wolves' used to portray America's indigenous peoples. Curiosity about real people in history takes a back seat to finding in the past The Solution to All Our Modern Problems. Da Qin's history is bathed in the warm light of Utopia. The author tells us he weeps when he visits its ruins. But curious readers will notice many questions, even rather obvious ones, going unanswered. There seems to have been little popular interest in the religion in its own day, for example. Why isn't this discussed? The monastery clearly owed its existence to well-placed patronage. Was any popular interest involved? The book doesn't say. As for the Sutras themselves, the author suggests (p. 254) that "voices from the Church's first millennium, unheard in the second millennium, could be a turning point for Church or Churches in the third millennium"--a vision that just happens to give the author's book a little millennial importance of its own.

Moments like this make it hard to feel we are in the best of hands. The endeavour is valid, of course: the scrolls deserve to be better known. But a book that confesses grandiose visions for the betterment of humanity invites us to ask how many of its conclusions spring from scholarship and how much from ambition. When we are told, for example, that the Da Qin monks treated women in a more enlightened manner than their counterparts in Confucian and Buddhist monasteries, can we trust the statement? Does it find support in historical documents or just in someone's wish list for the third millennium? With only this this book in hand to tell us, we can't be sure.

Score: 5 stars for Beef, 2 stars for Bun

Readers would be well served now with a new translation of the Da Qin sutras--a book that eschews mythmaking and concentrates on the texts. It would be all to the good if this book balanced popular and scholarly interests in its commentary and notes. Perhaps we will soon have such a book. Until then, "The Jesus Sutras" will have to serve.