This book is the outcome of the life-long teaching and research experience of its author in Catholic Institutions. Specifically designed for non-native English readers it offers a thorough overview of the amazing history of the Catholic Church in Asia. Inspired by intellectual, spiritual and pastoral intentions it is meant as a tool helping students to:
• Handle the sources of Asian Church history;
• Master the knowledge of the main periods of Asian Christianity with their essential events,
in the framework of the world history;
• Analyze the historical documents in their context and content;
• Understand the present situation of Christianity in the main regions of the continent for
the hoped-for “new evangelization”.
It is divided into 6 chapters:
• Patristic and Byzantine Period: Oriental Churches;
• Muslim Period: Islam expansion and Christianity;
• Mongol Period: the Church in China;
• Discovering Period – New Asian routes: Portugal and Spain patronage, salient missionaries, Japan, Philippines, Propaganda fide, Vietnam and Chinese Rites Controversy;
• Western Empires Period: Netherlands, England and France; new missionaries in Asia; the Holy See and the Churches in Asia;
• Asian Churches after II World War and Vatican II: end of colonialism and the action of the Holy See until John Paul II.
Autori e Curatori
Fernando Guillén Preckler, Sch.P., is Associate Professor of Systematic Theology and Church History at Loyola School of Theology (Manila). During his teaching career He has served as professor of Philosophy and Theology in various centers of learning: the Inter-Congregational Institute “Gaudium et Spes” (Salamanca, Spain); the Diocesan Seminary, the Pontifical University and the Ibero-American University (Mexico City); the diocesan Seminary “Libermann” and the Center of Saint Augustine of Dakar (Senegal); the Catholic University of Central Africa and the St. Cyprian Theological School (Yaoundé, Cameroon). He is the author of many books and articles in English, Spanish and French.