On Friday, November 6, 2026, I will present a paper at the Religion of Late Antiquity (Patristics) Seminar of the Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge. All are welcome, in person or online.
The paper
“Christology in the Jingjiao Dunhuang Texts”
Abstract
What did the first Christians in China say about who Christ is, writing in Chinese and without the Greek and Syriac terms on which Ephesus, Chalcedon and the Persian synods turned? This paper reads the Jingjiao texts from Dunhuang for their grammar rather than their vocabulary, beginning with Yishen lun 一神論 (Discourse on the One God) and Xuting Mishisuo Jing 序聽迷詩所經 (Book of Righteous Mediator). In the passion of the Discourse, each act has its own subject: Mishihe dies in his body, the power of the Honored One of Heaven raises him, and the Honored One is never the one who dies. The Mediator says of one Mishihe what belongs to God and what belongs to a human being, with no fixed term for the natures that make the difference. Then the paper traces its theological root to the Church of the East and identifies its christological indebtedness to figures such as Babai the Great, while investigating its method of contextualization.
Event
- Religion of Late Antiquity (Patristics) Seminar, Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge
- Friday, November 6, 2026, 11:30 a.m.–1:00 p.m. GMT
- Lightfoot Room, Faculty of Divinity, West Road, Cambridge, and online by Zoom (details on the flyer)
Leave a Reply