By David Marshall

    The following is a preliminary list of resources about redemptive analogies: books, Web links, and videos that show how Jesus fulfills truths within non-Christian cultures and belief systems.  If you know of other resources, I'd love to hear from you. I am eager to find more material, especially in regard to Native America, Central Asia, pre-Christian Europe, Africa, and Japan -- oh, anywhere else.  Below I list the books I have found so far, and the books that I have reviewed on Amazon.com are linked to the review. I also list some web sites and a few videos. A few words of explanation are provided where appropriate.

Books on Redemptive Analogies, General

•     Eternity in Their Hearts, Don Richardson
    This is where I first learned about redemptive analogies; a great place to start.  Popular style but with references, short stories from around the world, showing that Jesus is the fulfillment of many cultural ideals.  Five stars.  See review.
•     Jesus and the Religions of Man, David Marshall
    My new book isn't entirely about redemptive analogies, but I give a lot of further examples of how the concept of God is almost universal, of how the Cross fulfills many specific ideals within non-Christian cultures, and a lot of other good stuff.
•     Everlasting Man, G. K. Chesterton
    Five stars.  See review.
•     City of God, Augustine
  
•     Orthodoxy, G. K. Chesterton
    Fairy tales as redemptive analogies -- and other things, presented by Chesterton near the top of his unsurpassable style.  See review.

Books on Europe

• City of God, Augustine
•     Jesus Through the Centuries, Jaroslav Pelikan
    A scholarly and well-written account of how Western peoples have seen Jesus.  Shows in particular (in this context) how Christian faith rooted itself in the Greco-Roman culture, and found plenty to root itself on.  Dante to Virgil: "Through you I became a poet, through you a Christian."  Pelikan may not be as alive to the supernatural aspect of this connection as is Don Richardson, but there's some worthwhile material in here, in conjunction with the insights Chesterton brings.
•     Surprised by Joy, C. S. Lewis
    And everything else by C. S. Lewis.  Lewis is not as overt as Richardson in his presentation of redemptive analogies, but he is certainly the best at creating them!  (Narnia, for example.)  In this autobiography, Lewis describes his own search for truth through the literature of the Western world, and how it finally led him to Christ.  He eloquently states one of the assumptions behind this approach to religion here: "The question was no longer to find the one simply true religion among a thousand religions simply false.  It was rather, "Where has religion reached its true maturity?  Where, if anywhere, have the hints of all Paganism been fulfilled?'"  Lewis explains how he arrived at this insight here, and expresses its value in many of his books. 
•     How the Irish Saved Civilization, Thomas Cahill
  What would you expect from an author with a last name like that?  Only a bit on redemptive analogies in Irish culture . . . would like to see more.  Good book, though, most of the time.
•     In God's Underground, Richard Wurmbrand
  This memoir of a Rumanian pastor who spent many years in communist prisons may seem a surprising place to look for redemptive analogies.  But Richard Wurmbrand is a philosopher as well as a pastor and a prisoner.  As a Jew and also a Christian, having suffered under Nazis and Communists alike, Wurmbrand is extremely sensitive and perceptive, and he is very good at building on truths of non-Christian thinking -- even atheism.  His dialogues with fellow prisoners and even his interogators are fascinating.

Books on China

•     True Son of Heaven: How Jesus Fulfills the Chinese Culture, David Marshall
  
•     The Discovery of Genesis: How the Truths of Genesis Were Found Hidden in the Chinese Language, C.H. Kang and Ethel Nelson
  Attempts to prove that Christian truths have been encoded within Chinese characters.  Four stars.  See my review.
•     Shang Di Gei Zhong Guo De Ying Xu
  A Chinese version of the previous book.
•     Lao Zi vs. Sheng Jing, Yuan Zhimin
  A book by a Chinese philosopher attempting to prove that Lao Zi was a prophet and that he was speaking about Jesus in the Dao Dejing, the founding document of Taoism.  While his thesis may be a bit extreme, he does seem to make some good points along the way.  Avaliable only in Chinese, unfortunately, in the overseas Chinese community.  A shorter version was printed in mainland China as Lao Zi Yu Ji Du  (Lao Zi and Christ).

Books on India

•     The World of Gurus, Vishal Mangalwadi
  Five stars.  See my review.
•     Christ in Ancient Vedas, Joseph Padinjarekara
  This book contains some fascinating material.  Could be better written and arranged, however.  Available from Don Richardson Book Sales.
•     Karma 'n Chips: the New Age of Asian Spirituality, Ram Gidoomal and Mike Fearon
  Dorky title, and assumes that the reader is an Indian living in Britain, but the book contains a great deal of information that anyone interested in Indian religion and how the Gospel deepens the best insights of Hinduism would, I think, find this book valuable.  The authors know Hinduism well, and discuss such topics as karma, dharma, maya, various yogic practices, gurus, Hindu rituals, liberation, death, and relation to God -- relating each to the Gospel.  I'm just begining to digest the ideas in this book.
•     Crown of Hinduism, J. N. Farquhar
  This book, printed in 1913, might be available in large university libraries.  As the title implies, the author, who was literary secretary for the YMCAs of India and Ceylon, the book presents the argument that the Gospel of Jesus is the fulfillment of the best elements in Hinduism.  The largest part of the contents, however, explain the history and philosophies of Hinduism.  Later in the book, he argues that "Instead of world-surrender, Christ demands self surrender. . . the convert from Hinduism to Christianity is the true modern sannyasi."  There's a lot of strong criticism here of Hinduism, but it seems honest, and not too one-sided, and the author has done his homework.

Books on Japan

•     The Unseen Face of Japan, David Lewis
  By an English anthropologist who did a couple years of research in Japan.  He seems to come up with some interesting facts, and attempts in some rather prelimary ways to build bridges for the Gospel to Japanese culture. 
•     Zen Way, Jesus Way, Tucker Calloway
  An excellent and sensitive comparison of Zen and Christian approaches to reality.  Calloway was a missionary in Fukuoka, Japan who taught comparative religion, and spent many years trying to undestand Zen enlightenment.  A very gentle and easy-to-understand book, both for Christians and Zen Buddhists.  Out of print; the book may be available in major libraries.  I have tried to talk the publishers, Charles Tuttle Co, into reprinting. . . Contact them and see if they've decided to do so yet.

Books on Southeast Asian Tribes

•     Eternity In Their Hearts, Don Richardson
  Richardson gives some amazing stories about the Wa, Kachin, Lahu, Mizo, and other tribes that live in the Golden Triangle area.
•     To the Golden Shore: The Life of Adoniram Judson, Courtney Anderson
  This and another book, whose title I forget, give the story of the conversion of Burmese tribes to Christ, among other things.  Should be available in large university libaries.
•     Wind in the Bamboos, Donna Strom
  Strom's books about India are very interesting, and some of her stories are about tribal peoples who became Christians.  She discusses in passing a little of the cultural background that helped them become Christians, as I recall.
•     Recent Chinese Journal, Vol. III, No. 1 / 1995
  See the article, "Two Missionary Expeditions to Sichuan and Wenchuan, China, in 1986 and 1994," for a fascinating tale of redemptive analogies among the Jiang people in China north of the Himalayas.  The author was a professor of Christian Dogmatics at the University of Edinburg and (more relevantly) the son of a missionary in that area.

Books on Polynesia

•     Perpetuated in Righteousness, Daniel Kikawa
  Not a very scholarly book or a great piece of writing; a little hard to know what is reliable and what is not.  But in general, this is a very interesting introduction to how the Hawaiians became Christians, including both ugly elements in previous Hawaiian religion, and some pretty amazing redemptive elements.  Lots of lively details.   Available from Don Richardson Book Sales.

Books on Jewish Culture

•     This is more familiar ground to most Christian apologists, but I haven't studied it too much.  One book I would recommend is Jewish Doctors Meet the Great Physician, by Purple Pomegranite Press.

Web Links

• Don Richardson Book Sales
  http://www.DonRichardsonbooksales.com
  Search "Keikyo"  (one of the pages here discuss the theory that Nestorian Christians influenced Japanese culture before the Catholic priests arrived in the 16th Century.  Whether or not they are right, it does show some relations between Christianity and Japanese ideas).

            Videos

• Unveiling the Mystery; Good News Production
  This is about a half-hour video on Chinese characters and ancient Chinese ideas that relate to the Gospel.  The dialogue is in Chinese, with English subtitles.  I recommend this for classes or fellowships; I found it very interesting, though you have to concentrate -- there's a lot of material.  I think people who only speak English will probably get most of it.  At the end of the tape there is what I found a very off-putting but paranthetical reference to Noah's ark having been discovered.  I think this one sentence might erase the video's credibility in the eyes of Westerners who can't appreciate the Chinese.  So I'd recommend dubbing that little sentence out before you show it to Western intellectuals. . .