Has Singapore been living up to its call as the Antioch of Asia? What happens when churches carry out their missions programs without partnering with missions organisations? Is it healthy for churches to apply popular trends or ideas in missions across different cultural fields? In On Being the Antioch of Asia, W. M. Syn speaks to 60 missions leaders and pastors about the health of mission practices in Singapore's churches. While churches seem to be embracing Singapore's call to be the Antioch of Asia by sending out more missionaries, their lack of partnership with missions organisations and short-term strategies has also led to a host of problems that are negatively affecting the Singapore mission system. This book examines the effectiveness of popular trends and ideas in missions, highlights areas that need strengthening, and proposes a new model of missions partnership between local churches and agencies in order to enable Singapore to fulfil its call as the Antioch of Asia effectively.

Religious and ethno-religious issues are inherent in many multiethnic and multi-religious societies. Singapore society is no exception. It has long been multiethnic, multicultural and multi-religious, being at the crossroads of many major and minor civilizations, cultures and traditions, and its religious diversity continues to develop in the current contexts of growing religiosity, religious change and conflict often in the name of religion. Despite this background, there is lack of in-depth knowledge, nuanced understanding and regular dialogue about religions and the meanings of living in a multi-religious world. This volume covering major themes of Singapore's religious landscape, religion in schools and among the young, religion in the media, religious involvement in social services, and interfaith issues and interaction fills important gaps in the knowledge and understanding of Singapore's religious diversity and complexity. A collective effort of researchers and practitioners, it is a timely and useful reference for scholars, decision-makers, leaders and practitioners as well as for concerned citizens and followers.

In our post 9/11 world where there is a growing religious fundamentalism, and when both exclusion and easy tolerance are inadequate options, this book offers a creative alternative arguing that Pentecostalism has the potential to be a peaceful harbinger of plurality. The potential lies in its spirituality - a lively pneumatology and eschatology. The eschatological Spirit is seen as orientated towards the other, crossing boundaries in redemptive embrace, transcending exclusion and easy tolerance. This book's non-Western perspective and the empirical contextual study of Singapore's multicultural and multi-faith context are unique contributions to religion and society. This is a book for students, pastors, teachers, and theologians concerned for an approach to mission that is sensitive to their context, who want to learn from a creative theological voice from what has been perhaps the largest religious movement in history, and who see the immense potential in lively theology by Christians of the Chinese diaspora who can speak to the many millions of ethnic Chinese Christians. This book will also appeal to those outside Christianity who are interested in its attempts to engage with a complex multi-ethnic and multi-religious situation such as that in Singapore.

"The book of Acts tells how the first Christians spread the Gospel efficiently for 200 years without possessing a single building. Our choice? To use their methods or ours. Read this book!"

The history of Christianity in Asia is little dealt with either by Church historians or by historians of religion. It is generally unknown, even amongst theologians, that there was a long history of Christianity in Persia, India, Central Asia and China before the appearance on the scene of the first missionaries from the West. A systematic history of the Christian Church in Asia before 1500 is needed. Drawing on material hitherto unknown in the English speaking world, this is a timely and important book because there is a heightened interest today in the early forms of Asian Christianity. The Church in Asia today seeks to find forms of religious expression that are in harmony with Asian culture as was the case in the earlier period. The book covers the period up to 1500 CE. The geographical areas dealt with are Palestine, Syria, Mesopotamia, Persia, India, Central and South East Asia, China and Japan. The book takes into account the outward development of the Church in these areas as well as the inner, theological issues.

Two prominent New Testament scholars attempt to draw pictures of two of the most important centers of first century Christianity: Antioch and Rome. You will think of Christianity's origins differently when you read this book.

Explores the growth of Christianity in inland Roman Asia, as cities and rural communities moved away from polytheistic Greco-Roman religion.