ASIAN THEOLOGIANS ON THE UNIVERSAL CHURCH

Abstract

Asia was the birthplace of Christianity. But, already in the first centuries, Christianity spread to Europe and gradually the West became the centre of Christianity, which later gave the impression that Christianity is a Western religion. Different historical, social, political, cultural and economic factors might have played their role in this development. However, Christianity continued to exist in Asia, especially in some regions. At the same time, we cannot deny that the West became and to a great extent continues to be the centre of Christianity, though Christianity has its strongholds in other parts of the world; the structures of the Church today, mainstream theology, etc. can be said to be contributions of the West, though evidently, the contributions of the great Asian theologians were also integrated into this. Though Rome became the administrative centre of Christianity, we can say that the East continued to be prominent in the first millennium and only in the second millennium the West gained prominence.