Though the Bible is a product of West Asia, its influence on Europe and the Americas has received far more attention than its complex career in the East. R. S. Sugirtharajah corrects this imbalance with an expansive new study of Asia's subversive and idiosyncratic relationship with the Bible. This is the story of missionaries, imperialists, exegetes, reformers, and nationalists who molded Biblical texts according to their own needs in order to influence religion, politics, and daily life from India to China.

When the Bible reached east and south Asia in the third century CE, its Christian scriptures already bore traces of Asian commodities and Indian moral stories. In China, the Bible merged with the teachings of Buddha and Lao Tzu to produce the Jesus Sutras. As he recounts the history of how Christianity was influenced by other Asian religions, Sugirtharajah deftly highlights the controversial issue of Buddhist and Vedic influence on Biblical religion.

Once used to justify European rule in Asia, the Bible has also served to promote the spiritual salvation of women, outcasts, and untouchables. The Bible has left a literary mark on Asia in two ways: through its influence on Asian writers and through the reinvigoration of modern Asian vernaculars when proselytizing missionaries introduced Western print culture to the East.

"[Sugirtharajah] focuses on how the Bible has been a beacon of colonial and post-colonial exegesis and how it has been utilized for religious and political motives in Asia…[A] fascinating and illuminating survey." - Publishers Weekly

"The book on the whole makes an interesting study, not just of the religion but of the people who were in direct contact through religious practices, of other regions and their reactions…The author deals with the subject dispassionately, and with a remarkable detachment; nowhere he seems to have taken sides with the people he is dealing with, a point which makes the book an excellent read…This book is a stimulating work; it explores the complex relationship between the Bible of the colonialists and the conquered. It goes far beyond the conventional studies provided so far, which were mostly one-sided and looked from the colonial point of view. In this work he packs a lot of information such as the complex relationship between the Bible and the colonial enterprise examining in depth some areas that have been overlooked in earlier studies." - The Hindu

"The book covers an impressive amount of ground, from how the Bible has been utilized by marginalized groups to the most vibrant arenas of contemporary scholarship…As it stands, this is an important book." - Catholic Herald

"It should particularly engage scholars interested in the encounter between Christianity and the religions of Asia, offering examples of both the creative use of the Bible by non-Christians and the influence of Asian religions on European biblical hermeneutics." - Choice