Christianity Traveled Along the Silk Road



Around 1625 a engraved monument was unearthed in China. Later, about 1900, a cache of ancient documents, about 50,000,  was discovered which which expanded on the engraved monument. All of this was discovered in Asia and contained writing about a version of Christianity which traveled the Silk Road trading route between Europe and the East.

The religion described in all of this was a version of Christianity modified to accommodate cultural preference for Buddhism and Daoism. The cache of documents is now called the Jesus Sutras. The faith has been named the Luminous religion.

Along the Silk Road was a mission of a Bishop Asopen who believed the Luminous faith was the true one. Though it must originally have carried with it Augustine's original sin, the culture where is landed would have none of that.

No reference was made to the cross or the Resurrection. The dour notion of sin and punishment was replaced with the Oriental optimism for karma and reincarnation. Mary was merged with the Chinese goddess Guanyin.

The 50,000, documents, written in about 50 languages, dwarf the amount of material found in the Dead Sea scrolls. They are also more important in what they reveal about culture and religion. It is almost as if one could plot the changes in religious beliefs as they follow a path of changes in cultures over land and across histories.

As must have happened thousands of times during the 200,000 years of human existence, a crack down on religious practices put this interesting marriage of Christianity, Buddhism and Daoism out of business.

Fortunately, the monument and manuscripts left us with a lesson in religion and culture.

Comments

  1. little helperSeptember 9, 2019 at 6:37 PM

    Re. "Christianity traveled"; Just as it did from New York to Salt Lake City, and Mountain Meadow. With another prophet.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Jon LindgrenSeptember 9, 2019 at 7:31 PM

      On the way to Salt Lake City, a long stop in Nauvo0, IL. Broke apart and two sets started again.

      Delete
    2. little helperSeptember 9, 2019 at 8:25 PM

      and later, another "broke apart" with the FLDS

      Delete
  2. Ardy BSeptember 10, 2019 at 2:54 PM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Jon LindgrenSeptember 10, 2019 at 6:02 PM

    I don't recall seeing a discussion of this. As I understand it, Buddha did not consider himself divine in any way. Others may have seen him so but not he himself. Those who wrote about the Jesus character as we all know wanted him to be all about the soon to come end.

    ReplyDelete

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