The Wind of the Spirit Is Blowing East: Ancestors,Deities,and the Holy Spirit in the Earliest Mission to China

Abstract

The Church of the East embarked on the earliest mission to China, sending monks to a vibrant land steeped in ancestral worship and a diverse pantheon of deities. This paper will delve into their extant Chinese documents, particularly the xuting mishisuo jing (Book of Righteous Mediator), to explore how the Gospel was contextualized in a culture centered on filial piety and imbued with spiritual beliefs. The argument posits that, as God-fearers (tarsāk, Sogdian), they effectively contextualized their vernacular piety by tapping into Tang China’s spirited world, demonstrating the creative and transformative power of the Holy Spirit.