Ten Classics from Pre-Modern African and Asian Christianity

This course will examine a sampling of Christian texts from Ethiopia, Syria, Persia, and China from before the era of European exploration, colonization, and missions. These writings offer glimpses into the experiences of believers from African and Asian contexts, Christians whose lives differed in remarkable ways from those of their European counterparts. Our sources come from a variety of hymns, sermons, treatises, hagiographies, and monumental inscriptions, including The Book of Laws of Countries by Bardaisan of Edessa, the Apology of Patriarch Timothy of Baghdad before the Caliph Mahdi, and the Life and Struggle of Our Holy Mother Walatta Petros.