Invitation to Syriac Christianity. An Anthology, ed. Michael Philip Penn, Scott Fitzgerald Johnson, Christine Shepardson, and Charles M. Stang. Oakland, CA: University of California Press, 2022, xxviii, 431 pp.

The fact that Christianity during late antiquity and the Middle Ages cannot be observed from a Western perspective alone is increasingly recognized in current research. The volume under review makes an important contribution to this change of perspective since it offers insights into the literary production of one of the oldest Christian traditions that has been often overlooked in Western historiography. The churches of the Syriac traditions constituted an important branch of Christianity besides the commonly more well-known Latin and Greek traditions. During the medieval period, Syriac Christians were not only present in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East but also in India and along the routes of the Silk Road extending as far as China. For the first time, this volume, edited by four experts in the field of Syriac Studies, provides a collection of excerpts from the whole range of Syriac literature in English translation which is easily accessible, thus creating a highly valuable sourcebook for the study of Syriac Christianity.