Whereas a great deal has been written about the process of inculturation of Christianity into the Graeco-Roman world, there have been hardly any studies of this phenomenon within the Sasanian Empire, where Christianity was always a minority religion, living alongside the official Zoroastrian state religion. The present volume, which originated in a symposium on the topic, presents the contributions arranged under nine subheadings: i, ‘From heterodoxy to orthodoxy’, with two very different papers, the first (W. Hage) on the beginnings of the Church of the east as seen by the thirteenth-century Syrian Orthodox polymath, Barhebraeus, and the second (G. P. Luttikhuizen) asking whether or not Mani's Baptist background consisted of Elchasites (answering, against Merkelbach and others, ‘no’); ii, ‘On the Gnostic form of the Christian message’, contains three papers all on aspects of Manichaeism: the Manichaean use of the Bible (S. G. Richter), Manichaeism as a form of Persian Christianity (A. L. Khosroyev), and an edition and study of a fragmentary Sogdian text from Turfan concerning a Christian lady who evidently converted to Manichaeism (C. Reck); iii, ‘The Iranian-speaking communities of the Persian Church’, has a single paper (in English) by A. Panaino on the Pazand version of the Lord's Prayer; iv, ‘Archaeological evidence for Christianity in the Sasanian Empire’, has a helpful general survey by S. R. Hauser, and a study of a particular excavated church in the vicinity of Ctesiphon (J. Kröger); v, ‘State and Church in the Sasanian Empire’, likewise contains two contributions, the first on Narseh, Diocletian, the Manichaeans and the Christians (J. Wieshofer), and the second on the background to the persecutions under Shapur ii (K. Mosig-Walburg); vi, ‘The theological profile of the “ancient Church of the east”’, with three papers, of which the first is a helpful study by Th. Hainthaler of the background to the Letter of Simeon of Beth Arsham which gives a hostile account of the beginnings of Nestorianism in Persia. The other two concern the Christology of individual writers, Babai the Great (G. Chediath, in English), and Isho'yahb ii (D. W. Winkler); vii, entitled ‘The representative Christian’, has studies on the self-understanding of the Catholicos-Patriarchs of Seleucia-Ctesiphon (H. Suermann), the pastoral work of the Catholicos-Patriarch Sabrisho' i (M. Tamcke), and the portrait of the poet-theologian Narsai in the church history of Barhadbeshabba ‘Arbaya (K. Pinggéra); viii, on Liturgy and inculturation’, includes two articles by scholars from Kerala (where the topic of inculturation is a hot issue), on common elements in the east and west Syriac liturgical traditions (J. Thekeparampil), and on what is known of the east Syriac liturgy during the Sasanian period (B. Vargese, in English). Two further contributions to this section, of a more general nature, concern the baptismal tradition and inculturation (B. Schmitz) and the ‘sacramentalisation’ of the Syriac Church in the Sasanian Empire. The final section, on the ‘Periphery and the expansion of the Church of the east’ into East Asia, takes the reader well outside the Sasanian Empire with a historical survey (S. N. C. Lieu, in English) of ‘the luminous religion’ (as Christianity was called in China).