Jason of Musings of an orthodox Korean Catholic provides some fascinating evidence that Nestorian Christianity made its way to Korea in the Unified Shilla Period. Korean history buffs shouldn’t miss it. Great pics, too.
(Hat tip to Katolik Shinja)
-
English Books on Korea... and More!
-
Visit My Brother's Film Review Site
2 Comments
I tried to post this at Jason’s website, but it didn’t seem to work, and I saw no email address, so I’ll just make my comments here.
Jason notes what looks like a mixture of Christian and Buddhist imagery and muses on Nestorian Christianity having perhaps reached Korea.
If there’s a mingling of Christian and Buddhist symbols, one might need to entertain the possibility that some of these artifacts could be Manichaean. The Manichaeans also reached China, and as a policy, they adopted much of the symbolism and even the terminology of Buddhism — as well as of other religions, whenever this worked to their advantage.
If any of this is Manichaean, that would also be fascinating, for there’s also no evidence, thus far, that the Manichaeans reached Korea.
Manichaeism (for those wondering) was a Gnostic offshoot of Christianity, founded by the Persian Mani. St. Augustine was a Manichaean for about 10 years before his conversion to Catholic Christianity.
Jeffery Hodges
Fascinating.