The Jesus Sutras: Rediscovering the Lost Scrolls of Taoist Christianity

The Jesus Sutras - Rediscovering the Lost Scrolls of Taoist Christianity By Martin Palmer From the book cover, "In 1907, explorers discovered a vast treasure trove of ancient scrolls, silk paintings, and artifacts dating from the fifth to eleventh centuries A.D. In a long-sealed cave in a remote area of China. Among them, written in Chinese, were scrolls that recounted a history of Jesus' life and teachings in beautiful Taoist concepts and imagery that were unknown in the West...The best way to describe them is collectively, with a term they themselves used: the Jesus Sutras." This book is an amazing adventure of how the Gospels came from Jerusalem to Antioch and then around the silk routes of Central Asia and ended up in northern China in the sixth and seventh century. It is a fascinating read, particularly how the Gospel was culturally and contextually adapted as it was translated into local languages. It is well written and any student of history and of faith will find this book well worth the read. After reading you understand why this was on the New York Times best seller list.

This is a wonderful book that sets the stage for Christianity to open to and integrate natural non dogmatic all-one-God perspectives. We CAN live together as one people and have one God expressed in many different ways. I see it as the begininng of a whole new and much healthier and respected Christian church.

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.

These sutras provide a fascinating picture of an early Christian community which developed completely apart from the patriarchal structure of the church in the West. This ancient church, called by the Chinese "The Da Qin [Western] Religion of Light," communicated the teaching of Jesus in terms that were relevant to the culture in China at that time -- a culture influenced by Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism, and Shamanism. So instead of a human sacrifice sent to pay ransom as atonement for our sins, Jesus is presented as a beloved Bodhisattva or "Dharma King" who has come to free us from the cycle of karma. Instead of "original sin," these sutras talk about our "original nature" -- a state of goodness and grace to which we can be restored.This book tells the story of this ancient church and provides new translations of the sutras. The familiar stories of Jesus' birth, teachings, healing ministry, death and resurrection can be found here, along with a few surprises which remind us of the power of sacred words. For example: In their story of Creation, humans are given "guardianship" of the earth -- not "dominion" over it, as in our Western translations. And because their translation of the Ten Commandments (called Ten Covenants by them) emphasized kindness to all living beings, these early Christians were vegetarians who believed in the equality of the sexes and (unlike the Buddhist monastics of the same era) did not own slaves."The Jesus Sutras" serves as an example and an encouragement for those of us who believe in the Unity of Religious Ideals. The ancient church in China maintained their Christian beliefs while respecting and interacting with the other religions of their day. This spirit of dialogue (rather than competition) between religious traditions is still needed in today's world.

The Jesus Sutras give a picture of Christianity without the dividing factions that permeate today's Christianity. The missionaries that brought Christianity to China did not seek to inundate China with Western culture, but to bring Christianity into the cultural contexts of the Chinese. For example, rather than saying that the idea of reincarnation is wrong, they said that Jesus came to free them from the endless cycle of reincarnations. The sutra entitled "Returning to Your Original Nature" is a transcript of a teaching that Jesus gave to his disciples. The answer to the search for "truth" and the "way to peace and happiness" is truly there for people willing to open their mind and take it. The simplicity of the sutras has the power to end theological debates on the things that really matter. This book also gives a lot of historical information that brings the time period alive for me like nothing else has (considering that our society only has seemed to be concerned with Western civilization while ignoring the history of the East). I would like to have a copy of the Jesus Sutras (translated of course) alone and by themselves to pour over.