For more than a century Oriens Christianus has been one of the leading international periodicals in the domain of Eastern Christian Studies. From its very beginning in 1901 it covers the complete range of Eastern Churches and languages as well as liturgy, art, archaeology, and, to a minor extent, Islam. This long-lived periodical is a tool for tracing the development of Eastern Christian studies in general and the history of Oriental scholarship in Germany in particular.

Volumes 1–36 (1901–1941) especially reflect the enthusiasm, progress and institutionalization of Oriental research in the academic and ecclesiastical world. They are a precious archive of information given by articles, reviews, and commented bibliographies. Dominated by the famous German scholar Anton Baumstark (1872–1948), who was the editor and main contributor (140 articles, 145 reviews), the early volumes facilitated the formation of a scholarly Orientalist community. They established a standard of scholarship and criticism beyond national and ecclesiastical polemics. Most of the articles are in German, many in French and Italian, few in Latin. Contributors are such renowned scholars as A. Rücker, G. Graf, F. Nau, G. Mercati, J. Strzygowski, E. Honigmann, among others. This 35-volume collection gathers all the essays of Oriens Christianus from 1901 until 1941.