The Journey of Christianity to India in Late Antiquity: Networks and the Movement of Culture by Nathanael J. Andrade (review)
- Autores: Kyle Smith
- Localización: Journal of early Christian studies: Journal of the North American Patristic Society, ISSN 1067-6341, Nº. 1, 2019, págs. 141-143
- Idioma: inglés
- Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
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Resumen
Syriac continues to be used as a liturgical language among many Christian communities in India, and there is extensive evidence for missionary efforts centered out of Rev-Ardashir in the Iranian province of Fars in late antiquity. Thanks to his cameo appearance in Ptolemy's Geography, Maes was believed to have trekked across the Iranian plateau deep into central Asia around 100 c.e. It seems that Andrade's goal in dismissing the supposed voyage of this non-Christian traveler is to prove, yet again, that trade networks were more segmented than fluid in late antiquity and that no first-century merchant (or missionary such as Thomas?) could have traveled directly from the Levant to distant parts of central or south Asia. Christians from Sasanian Persia brought both "Christian culture" and the Thomas narrative to India at some point in the fifth century as their "residential communities" moved eastward; once the newly evangelized Christians of India realized that an apostle they had never known had been martyred on their shores, they built a tomb in his honor; soon after, traders from Roman Egypt re-established direct contact with south India, saw Thomas's tomb for themselves, and delivered to the Mediterranean world news of a Persian-inflected variety of Christianity flourishing in India.
