Introduction: The Development of Christianity in East and Southeast Asia

The development of maritime intercourse between East and West, including Africa and "the New World," during the 16th and 17th centuries stimulated greater contact enjoyed by East and Southeast Asians with Europeans, other Asians, Africans, and inhabitants of the Americas.These encounters introduced not only new commercial goods and foodstuffs, but also unfamiliar political ideas, cultural practices, and religious beliefs to East and Southeast Asians.Such exchanges inevitably influenced the existing social order, generating political, economic, social, and religious transformations of the region.The present issue focuses on one particularly revealing example of these broader transformations: the adoption, adaptation, and development of Christianity in Vietnam, Macao, and Japan. 1) Between the 15th and 17th centuries, Southeast Asia experienced what Anthony Reid has termed "the Age of Commerce," as port cities attracted merchants from West Asia, India, Europe, and East Asia seeking spices and forest products. 2)East Asia, too, saw the flourishing of the China-Japan silk and silver trade and later the China-Manila galleon trade.Religious transformations accompanied these commercial and political shifts.On the religious front, increasing numbers of Southeast Asians adopted Islam and Christianity, drawn by the wealth of Muslim and European merchants, the military superiority of their firearms, their healing arts, and the portability of universalistic faiths that promised protection in unfamiliar environments. 3)East Asians who converted to Christianity often did so in response to the arrival of Iberian merchants and the medical and technological expertise of missionaries.The rise of Christianity in East and Southeast Asia was closely intertwined with developments in Islam, Confucianism, and Buddhism.Portuguese efforts to monopolize spice exports to Europe through the occupation of Malacca in 1511 and subsequent contacts with Maluku Islanders led the new Islamic forces of Aceh and Banten to solidify relations with the Ottoman empire and other Islamic powers.