Product Description

Not until now has the ancient wisdom of Lao Tzu been presented alongside the otherworldly revelation of Jesus Christ in a way that encompasses the full significance of both. Christ the Eternal Tao presents the Tao Teh Ching as a foreshadowing of what would be revealed by Christ, and Lao Tzu himself as a Far-Eastern prophet of Christ the incarnate God.

Through heretofore unpublished translations and teachings of Gi-ming Shien -- perhaps the greatest Chinese philosopher to have ever come to the West -- this book uncovers the esoteric core of the Tao Teh Ching. Then, through the transmission of mystics of the ancient Christian East, Lao Tzu's teaching is brought into a new dimension, exploding with new meanings. Christ, in turn, is seen in a unique light, His pure image shining in the clarity of Lao Tzu's intuitive vision.

With its practical, time-tested advice on how to unite oneself with the incarnate Tao and acquire uncreated Teh, this is both a philosophical source-book and a spiritual manual, touching the heart and leading one to profound inward transformation. It is a long-awaited Answer to those who, having turned away from modern Western "churchianity," are drawn to the freshness, directness and simplicity of Lao Tzu, and at the same time are strangely, inexplicably drawn back to the all-compelling reality of Jesus Christ.

The book is adorned with Chinese calligraphy and seals (created especially for it by well-known Chinese artists), and with traditional Chinese paintings of the life of Christ.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #112082 in Books
• Published on: 2004-03
• Binding: Paperback

Parabola Magazine, November 1999
This is a remarkable book, and one that should be read not only by those interested in comparitive religion, not only by those who have turned to the East in their search for reality, not only by those who feel that Christianity is no longer pertinent, but also by those who wish to deepen their spiritual lives and come to know, love, and serve God. --Rama P. Coomaraswamy

The Wichita Eagle
"Christ the Eternal Tao" is a complex, challenging and mystical work, full of a wealth of aesthetic and spiritual insights." --Alice Davenport

The Empty Vessel: A Journal of Contemporary Taoism, Winter 1999
When we at the Abode received the proof copy of this amazing tome, I jumped upon it instantly.... I have been moved by the mystical spirit permeating this labor of love.... This volume is a bridge between cultures and faiths, but even more, it is a bridge between the individual and the Uncreated Light

Customer Reviews

Truly Eastern Christianity
I read "Christ the Eternal Tao" five or six years ago. I had become a severely disillusioned American Evangelical Protestant. I was in a great deal of emotional pain at that point in my life and had grown weary of pious platitudes and simplistic theology. I wanted a religion or philosophy that addressed suffering with some depth. I longed for beauty, simplicity,harmony, and silence. I found some in Zen and Taoism. I also discovered the Tao Teh Ching to be strangely trinitarian (the One gives birth to Three). That intrigued me.
Then I found "Christ the Eternal Tao". I actually cried while reading it. It showed Christ as the fulfillment of all mankind's deepest longings. It showed classic Chinese culture as having the simplicity, silence, beauty, etc. that I most craved. I discovered that I didn't have to label all other religions as completely false in order to believe in Christ. Every culture gets some things right. You have to build on what is true in any given situation.
It gave Christianity context. Believe it or not, I had never heard of Eastern Orthodoxy. I saw how the Greeks evangelized the Russians who evangelized the Chinese and the Alaskans. I saw the martyr connections between the churches. Christ was not painted as a westernized, blue-eyed person.
Christ says He is the Way. Tao is Way in Chinese. The humility of Taoism is profuoundly Christian. Lao Tzu wasn't wrong. He was prophetic. He saw through a glass darkly, as we all do. I had come full circle: converted by the Protestants, leaving that for the beauty and simplicity of Zen and Taoism, and returning to Christianity through the Eastern door. I had finally come home.

Taoism is not a nihilist religion
Contrary to almost every translation of the Tao-Te-ching that is available nowadays,this book shows what Lao Tse really had in mind when he spoke of TAO.Not the nihilist,"buddhist" approach,neither the new age approach,but the real meaning.TAO meaning GOD,Infinity,not created and never ending.And then suddenly the Tao Te Ching makes sense.Sometimes when I read books about taoism it seemed to me that the author was "bending backward" trying to make the reader see that Tao has nothing to do with a creator.And that is what made not too much sense,in my opinion.Finally through the work of an orthodox monk I saw the "light".

A work of true wonder and warmth
Hieromonk Damascene is an Eastern Christian Monk. For him it is truly East meets East, thus this book synergizes the truth revealed through the Church, the illumination of the Holy Spirit and the truth revealed to a humble human, Lao Tzu, when he left pride far behind him in a search for the true way, the Tao.

This book includes little to none western nuances or anything hinting to rationalism. The only ideas from the west that parallels the contents of this work are leftovers from the theology of the Church the West left behind a thousand years ago.

Christ the Eternal Tao is an amazing work. Please read it and feel the warmth both these traditions have to offer when centered around the message, life and being of the eternal Logos and Tao, Jesus Christ.