Christianity is the largest religion in the
world. The faith is currently followed by over 2 billion people from the United States to
even some of the world’s strictest dictatorships, such as North Korea. Originating in
the Middle Eastern region of Judea, Christianity today is often associated with the
Western world despite being a global faith with a foundation in the Mid East. Nevertheless, this
may be in view of the fact of the inability for Christianity to take flight as well in further
East areas, such as Asia, than in the West… From its center point in Judea, Christianity
began its early spread through the surrounding countries of the Levant - what we know now
as Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, and Cyprus. This led to the rollout into the
Asian continent of Christianity as Antioch became a new home base for the faith after
its evangelization allegedly by Peter the Apostle himself as well as Paul and Barnabas.
Apostles Thaddaeus and Bartholomew and Simon and Andrew further evangelized Armenia
and Georgia respectively as the span of the budding religion stretched further to the
Eastern world; passing additionally through Mesopotamia and Parthia, and allegedly
India as well on its way to the Far East. The belief is that throughout these early
centuries, Nestorian Christians eventually moved from the lands of modern-day Iraq into China, with
the earliest known evidence of such contact coming from the age of the Tang Dynasty between the 7th
and 10th centuries. The early Christian mission in China is thus known to have been established
by a priest by the name of Alopen in 635 AD, welcomed by the Emperor himself in spite of
pushback from the local Buddhists and Daoists. The growth of Christianity in China would surge at
first but then hit a stall under the later, less accepting imperial rulers. Efforts to evangelize
would pick up again during the Mongol period as its leaders tended to be more religiously tolerant
and the prodigious Kublai Khan, and many of his relatives, had even married a Nestorian woman.
The Christian faith was not only tolerated but now welcomed under Mongol rule, and when Catholics
attempted to convert the Mongols centuries later, they were amazed to find that Christianity had
already reached them. Still, in response to a request for aid in solidifying the Chinese Yuan
Dynasty, Pope Nicholas IV sent John of Monte Corvino, a Franciscan missionary, to the Mongol
court. John was passionate about solidifying and expanding the Christian faith in the Chinese
territories and even went so far as learning the Mongolian language in order to translate parts
of the Bible for the locals. His work led to further expansion of Christianity in the region
and even some converts shifting from Eastern Nestorian to Western Catholic Christianity. With
the death of the Yuan Dynasty in China, however, came the death of evangelism in the region as the
Ming Dynasty took over and quickly expressed their intolerance. Christianity in China would not
disappear entirely though, and its existence and growth would continue to ebb and flow over
the centuries to come. Today, China is home to an estimated 20 million Christian adults, or roughly
2% of the population as of 2018. It’s a large number, but nothing compared to the over 60% of
America’s population being of the Christian faith… China, of course, was far from the only Far
East country to be reached by Christianity. In Taiwan, many English and Canadian
Presbyterians had brought their religion to the island with notable success.
When mainland Chinese residents soon made their way to the Taiwanese island
after the mainland’s Communist takeover, Christianity multiplied. Today, the Christians
of the island makeup around 3% of the population, which is still small compared to Western
nations but considerable nonetheless. Japan took to Christianity better at the start and
yet much worse now in the present day. Christians in modern-day Japan account for only around 1%
of the contemporary population notwithstanding the masses of converts centuries prior when
Christianity first reached Japanese lands. The 17th century marked the beginning of the end of
this era of success for the faith, known as “the Christian century in Japan”. Some faithful
did remain and when Christian missionaries were eventually allowed to return hundreds of
years later, they would discover this fact. Other Asian nations such as North Korea
furthermore house what one could describe as undercover Christians, thanks to evangelism
in the 1800s by many American Protestants. These early Korean Christians quickly became passionate
and motivated on their own to continue and share their newfound faith. Modern-day South Korea
houses some of the world’s largest Christian churches as a result and a large number
of missionaries of their own are now being sent abroad. Nearly 30% of South Korea’s
population considers themselves Christian today and even under the rigid totalitarian
regime of North Korea, it’s believed that feasibly around 1% - the same as Japan -
of the people follow the Christian faith. The largest Christian population within
any Eastern Asian country can be found in the Phillippines, which is home to
a particularly large Catholic community thanks to colonization by Spain over a
span of almost 400 years. Protestants did make their way to the Phillippines as well
under the later dominion of the Americans, with many missionaries attempting to convert
those that the Catholics had failed to. Today, a stunning 78% to 90% of the population, depending
on who you ask, labels themselves as Christian. That accounts for over 85 million people. This
remarkable success by the Christian missionaries can be attributed to the overwhelming aid they
received from the presence of Catholic Spaniards followed by Protestant Americans during the
colonial era. Furthermore, with no widespread, centralized religion to contest with the
newly introduced faith. The Phillippines was essentially an open door just waiting for
the Christians to enter and spread the Word… Other Asian nations such as Thailand,
Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Cambodia, Vietnam, and even India house small yet
important Christian populations as well, principally as a result of limited missionary
evangelism and, in the case of Vietnam, Communist ideological supremacy in more
recent history. Another vastly significant reason why Christianity failed to surge
in these countries can be attributed to the existence of competing religions
such as Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism. This last factor may be the most prominent
reason why Christianity failed to spread as rapidly or as widely in the Far East as it
had out West. Even if some of the Asian nations had received more Christian missionaries, and
maybe a more united front between Nestorian, Catholic, and Protestant evangelists, it
likely would have made less of a difference than the absence of strongly solidified
local religion to stand in its way. Attempting to convert Buddhists to
Christianity was particularly difficult, and thus those countries, such as Thailand, which
were strongly Buddhist tended to resist the acts of missionaries even more. Most of the Christians
within these nations were immigrants or otherwise, not local Buddhist converts, although
some of course did exist. Additionally, some of these more Buddhist nations, like
Sri Lanka, were home to other faiths such as Hinduism and Islam in addition. Islam is another
faith that historically has held up exceptionally well against the push of outside ideals and it is
Islam that even today stands as the most followed religion across all of Asia. Just behind Islam is
not Buddhism, but Hinduism - another creed that, in the case of India, was a particular
roadblock for Christian evangelists. Other factors as to why Christianity struggled
in Asia might include the fact that the Roman Empire controlled the Middle East at the time
of the faith’s origin, making it far more likely that the religion would spread more West rather
than East. Or, maybe the fact that, considering the placement of such Christian empires as
opposed to that of the large Islamic Empires, there was a general position of Christians to the
West and Muslims to the East throughout much of history - thus contributing to the prevalent lack
of Christian conquest in the Far East. Adding to that idea would furthermore be the concept
that religions often spread through conquest and colonization, both of which were easier to
do closer to the home bases of the Christian nations as opposed to making long journeys
away from home with their military forces. And still, some suggest that there may have
been another important reason - Eastern culture. The idea of guiding principles
and a more philosophical approach to life tended to permeate Eastern cultures,
which meant that the idea of religions like Christianity or even Islam would have been
rather foreign and counterintuitive - although the eventual massive success of Islam
seems to show the willingness of Eastern Asians to adapt to such an idea when more
exposure and an early introduction existed. Thus, while there is not one reason why
Christianity in Asia failed to take a strong hold throughout the majority of nations,
there are a few factors that can be pointed to: The potent presence of Islam, the
pre-existing ideas of Buddhism and other Far East belief systems, and the
limited exposure to the Christian world. Today, Christianity is the world’s
largest religion, but in Asia, especially the farther East you go,
it remains a prevailing minority…
