The Church of the East's Mission to China: Nestorian Stele

In 781 CE, a remarkable stone monument was erected in the Tang Dynasty capital of Chang'an. The Nestorian Stele, or Xi'an Stele, tells the story of how a branch of Christianity—the Church of the East—traveled the Silk Road and established a foothold in imperial China. Lucas and Luna explore the stele's bilingual inscription in Syriac and Chinese, the monk Alopen who led the mission in 635 CE, and how Emperor Taizong officially tolerated the 'Luminous Religion.' They discuss the delicate balance Nestorians struck between preserving their theology and adopting Buddhist and Daoist vocabulary to explain their faith. The episode also touches on the later persecution of foreign religions under Emperor Wuzong in 845 CE, which buried the stele for centuries. Rediscovered in the 1620s, the stele sparked intense debate among European Jesuits and remains a key artifact of global religious history. #NestorianStele #ChurchOfTheEast #TangDynasty #SilkRoad #ChristianityInChina #Alopen #EmperorTaizong #LuminousReligion #XiAnStele #Syriac #ChineseHistory #ReligiousTolerance #Persecution #Jesuits #WorldHistory #History #FexingoHistory #Podcast Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo