Reviews
"The Jesus Sutrastells a valuable history of the beautiful teachings of a faith built on living practices of brotherhood and peace. The Sutras show us the interbeing nature of Jesus, Buddha, Tao, peoples, cultures, transformation, salvation and unity through deep and mindful living." --THICH NHAT HANH Author ofLiving Buddha, Living Christ "The Jesus Sutrasis a spellbinding story of the rediscovery of the earliest traces of Christianity in China and an imaginative reconstruction of the subsequent development of this alien faith from the Far West in the Middle Kingdom. Martin Palmer's infectious enthusiasm for his subject is evident throughout and enables him to illuminate numerous facets of the Religion of Light that were hitherto unknown to modern scholars. The result is not only the moving account of the author's personal quest to comprehend a phenomenally important but strangely mysterious stele inscription, it is also one of the most fascinating chapters ever written in the history of world religions." --VICTOR H. MAIR Professor of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies University of Pennsylvania Translator ofTao Te ChingandWandering on the Way "In offering a tantalizing glimpse of a distant past when Christian, Taoist, and Buddhist ideas achieved a brilliant fusion in China,The Jesus Sutrasinspire hope for a future in which celebration of diversity may one day triumph over the sterile certainties of exclusivism." --STEPHEN BATCHELOR Author ofBuddhism Without Beliefs "The Jesus Sutrasvividly brings to life the partnership teachings of Jesus and their application in a surprising setting. Palmer's account of Chinese communities that honored both women and men and lived equitably and nonviolently is a fascinating story and a stunning contribution to religious history." --RIANE EISLER Author ofThe Chalice and The Blade, Sacred Pleasure, andTomorrow's Children "Martin Palmer has written a book in the great tradition of English scholars and explorers. He has put together the evidence of the presence of early Christianity, in the first millennium, in China. He has reread and retranslated the Jesus Sutras to present a view of Christianity that was independent of the accepted definitions in the West. He has found in this Christianity, in ancient China, a liberating and healing expression for the whole of the human spirit. Men and women of all the faith traditions will be moved by this book." --ARTHUR HERTZBERG Bronfman Visiting Professor of the Humanities New York University
