When I begin teaching the first part of church history (up to the Reformation) I usually start by saying something like this: “Jesus was an Asian.” He was born in Western Asia and never left the continent. In the earliest period of Christianity, followers of Jesus grew most rapidly in Asia—all the way to China—and also in Africa. Europeans, however, severely persecuted the early Christians and so growth was minimal. We know this from stories of believers being fed to the lions in the Colosseum as being historical fact, not myth.

Starting with this frame of reference de-centers our understanding of Christianity as a “Western” religion. Before it flourished in the West, it was growing and spreading as an Asian religion with missionary zeal. My dissertation was on Narsai of Nisibis (c. 399–c. 502), one of the most important Syriac-speaking Christian theologians, teachers, and poets of Late Antiquity, especially within the Church of the East. He had been the president (“Interpreter”) of the seminary in Nisibis with over 1,500 students. It was from this region (Syria, Turkey, and Iraq) where peripatetic missionaries were trained and sent out. They would not be tied down; they wandered and spread the gospel to the ends of Asia by A.D. 635. And this is amazing because it was not until over 300 years later, in 986, that the first missionaries arrived in Kiev initiating the missionary movement in Russia. And Kiev is 5,000 miles closer to Jerusalem than Xian, China!

With a slow start, Christianity was adopted much later as the imperial religion in Europe and greater Russia over the course of 1,000 years. However, Christianity was never adopted as an imperial or national religion in Asia except for the Philippines (under European Christian rulers). To this day, Asia remains the region that is most resistant to the good news of the Son of God. Why is this, given that Christianity started out so strong in Asia?

First, the major “intercultural religions” (called world religions) are from Asia. In Africa, Europe, and the Americas Christianity did not encounter world religions, but only local religions that were tribal and mostly attached to nature and the seasons. Think local and tribal rather than intercultural.

Christianity was well received as an ethical belief system when it confronted mostly ritual-based religions in Europe and Africa. These religions required rituals over against moral or ethical behavior for salvation or to avoid hell or the place of the dead. In Asia, in contrast, there were intercultural and literate moral religions: Buddhism expounds the benefit of being unattached to things that are impermanent and instead to follow the eight-fold path. In Confucianism, the teachings of Confucius and Mencius show them to be teachers of morality and ethics. Even in Hinduism where there are many gods often requiring ritual sacrifice, there are the Vedas and the Upanishads which point toward ethical behavior.

Second, each of these religions[1] possesses sacred scriptures that have been translated into local tongues and so have been able to spread to other cultures. Confucianism is found in most East Asian countries. Buddhism is found in South and East Asia. Hinduism is found in South Asia, and also in parts of Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand and adjoining countries. Intercultural religions are more resistant to new teachings because of their written tradition.

Finally, the rise of Islam, as the Umayyad and then Abbasid imperial religion affected Christianity in the same way that Christianity affected the tribal religions of Europe: basically, it removed the indigenous religions with its literate, militant, and ethical life. Christianity, similarly, was itself almost extinguished by the imperial pagan Roman Empire and was likewise nearly wiped out by the imperial militant Islamic empires.

Today, at Gordon-Conwell, we pay attention to this history and the need for the gospel to flourish in Asia. Though the modern missionary movement in Asia has been robust and operating for centuries (beginning in the sixteenth century for Roman Catholicism and the eighteenth century for Protestants), Asia remains only about 8 percent Christian. Approximately 25 percent of the world’s missionary force serve in Asia where 60 percent of the world’s population lives and where only 14 percent of the world’s Christians live. The point is, Asia should be the missional priority for the global church, but at this point it is not the priority. We are working to change this.

Gordon-Conwell recently launched its CACSemlink Chinese Theology Online Education Program with a digital ceremony for an inaugural cohort of over 80 students. The program translates Gordon-Conwell’s core curriculum into Asian languages and delivers theological education online to serve churches and ministry leaders across Asia.

So perhaps the trend of resistance to the gospel in Asia may yet become an impetus toward renewal.

[1] Technically speaking Confucianism is not a religion, but it usually functions as a religion with sacred teachings, teaching about the ancestors, social order and even temples for worship, or to honor the dead.

Dr. Scott W. Sunquist, president of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, is author of the “Attentiveness” blog. He welcomes comments, responses, and good ideas.