"The history of Christianity in Asia has, until recently, been little dealt with either by church historians or historians of religion. It is still generally unknown, for instance, that there was a long history of Christianity in Persia, India, Central Asia, and China long before the appearance on the scene of the first missionaries from the west.

Troubled by this gap in knowledge, Ian Gillman and Hans-Joachim Klimkeit have put together a volume they hope will increase the awareness of the history of Christianity in Asia from New Testament times to around A.D. 1500.

Primarily aimed at general readers, theological students, and those with an interest in missiology and the ways in which Christianity has related itself to various cultures, scholars too will find it valuable as it brings together the results of research otherwise found in a multitude of monographs and periodicals."--BOOK JACKET.