Church history has emerged as a discipline of its own standing for centuries. Scholars practicing this profession have produced a great number of monographs and articles, revealing the life of Christianity in different parts of the world from its inception to the present day. Nevertheless, our knowledge of how Christianity has been lived and experienced is still limited, especially during the great missionary period in non-European territories. In order to uncover those aspects of Christian living, a meticulous investigation into primary sources is indispensable. Nevertheless, such efforts of digging into archival and historical documents remain a great challenge, both because of their nature and the way in which they are deposited and preserved. 
 
In this issue, four of our contributors have devoted themselves to facing such challenges and presenting us with their results. By digging into a number of 16th-century documents, Patrícia Sousa de Faria, sheds light on our understanding of the office of the “Father of Christians in India” during that period, its role in the Christian mission, and the challenges it created for the local communities. Carlo Pellicia investigates the issue of translating the name of God in Cochinchina in the 17th century by examining an unpublished trattato by a Neapolitan Jesuit.

Susana Bastos Mateus attempts to remedy the unfortunate loss of the Franciscan archive in Goa due to political turbulence by reconstructing that part of Franciscan history in Asia that would have been completely lost to us by using other historical sources. Jésus Peña Espinoza furthers our knowledge of the Franciscan presence in Asia by looking into some Mexican sources that relate to the Franciscan missions in the Philippines and China.
 
The final contribution to this issue deals with another topic. Rui Oliveira Lopes focuses on Christian arts in China before the Jesuit missions and evaluates their significance in Christian missionary work and inculturation. This article demonstrates that the study of historical artifacts is equally contributive to the betterment of our appreciation of the cultural achievement in a given period in the past.

Chin Hei (Andrew) Leong