From his position on the faculty of the Divinity School of Chung Chi College, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Tobias Brandner has access to nearly first-hand sources from which to construct a critical analysis of a key component of the “Back to Jerusalem [BTJ] Movement.”
Because of the length and cost of these two scholarly volumes, making them inaccessible to all but a few, we are greatly indebted to this fine review by Joseph Lee. The first volume studies the perception of the Jesus by...
From this brief examination of the life and ministry of John Song, we see how he, along with many other Chinese Protestants in the same era, brought peace, calm, and even joy and hope, in a world wracked by chaos and suffering.
Who said history wasn’t relevant? Though at first glance a biography of a largely-discredited independent German missionary who was born almost two centuries ago might seem to have little to do with our current situation, Jessie Lutz’ masterful narrative and analysis of the life and times of Karl Gutzlaff provokes the question, Has anything changed?
The stories in this volume come from one end of China to the other. They speak of rural and urban evangelism; healing and exorcism, compassionate care for needy children, community life of the Jesus family, church planting and growth in remote areas not penetrated by outside Christian witness, and the impact of the gospel to produce economic prosperity.
As the first Protestant missionary to China, Robert Morrison laid a foundation for what would become the imposing edifice of today’s Chinese church. Morrison was quite conscious of his role, and worked deliberately to prepare for others, Chinese and Western,...
There has always been a close correlation between the state of U.S.-China governmental relations, and Chinese official attitudes toward Christianity and the treatment of the Chinese church. A brief historical review illustrates this.
This is a marvelous book, and represents the learned Sinology of a long line of French Roman Catholic scholars, going back for hundreds of years. Though he devotes most of his attention to the story of Roman Catholicism, the author does give fair and generous summaries of important aspects of Protestantism in China.
Hudson Taylor believed not only in the theological truth of Christ's incarnation, but also in its missiological necessity and the numerous practical advantages which flowed from following the example of Christ.
That Protestantism has become a Chinese religion is demonstrated by its history; indigenous leadership; contextualized literature; rapid growth; geographical distribution; numerical strength; social impact; self-propagation; and official status. I shall expand on this statement briefly before talking about just how culturally “Chinese” this relatively new faith in China is.
A colloquium on Chinese biblical studies sponsored by the Center for the Study of Christianity in China, King’s College, London, was held January 17th-21st. This symposium showcased some of the fine scholarship being done by Chinese around the world. One of the largest such gatherings in recent decades, it both marked the progress of biblical studies by Chinese and advanced the conversation in a number of key areas
Confronting Confucian Understandings of the Christian Doctrine of Salvation will now be required reading for anyone seeking to understand why Chinese intellectuals have accepted, rejected, or modified the Christian message since the time of Matteo Ricci. Paulos Huang has given us a fine, clearly-organized study with a great deal of thought-provoking findings and suggestions.
Though certain to stir up controversy, this book contains a message which should be pondered by Western, especially American, Christians with a burden for China. Falkenstine seeks to “clarify perceptions of China and her church,” so that Western Christians may understand the current situation and serve more effectively.
Through a century of political turmoil and disillusionment, waves of Chinese intellectuals have come to Christ.
Since the Bible serves as the main source of Christian doctrine, the nature of its reception, interpretation and influence must be understood in order for us to comprehend the varying streams of Chinese Christian faith and practice and the different responses to Christianity among non-Christians.
“No” – The traditional view The answer to this question would seem to be obvious, at least to some. Almost all books on Chinese religion discuss Daoism (Taoism), Buddhism, Chinese popular religions, Islam and – as a belief system that...
The number of religious believers in China continues to grow almost exponentially, far outpacing population growth.(1) Meanwhile, vague and unchanging official estimates, which since 1994 have reported “over 100 million faithful” in the country, reflect the government’s tendency to mask...
Today’s Chinese Christians have roots that go back over 200 years for Protestants and 400 years for Catholics. In my view a grasp of the essentials of that history, at least for the 20th century, is crucial for us to understand the Chinese church under Communist rule.
Let me start by explaining the choice of terms used in my title: “Greater China” refers to the Chinese diaspora of traders, emigrants and political exiles from the coastal provinces – including many Christians --who played a very important role...
The purpose of this brief paper is to explain the existence of the Three Self-Patriotic Movement/China Christian Council and the resistance of the government to unregistered house churches.
China’s Millions contains much information that could be used for a concise, objective, and accurate history of the CIM under the leadership of Hudson Taylor. Alas, that book remains to be written.
Like the previous review of Volume II, this one will focus on the sections dealing with Christianity in China. At the outset, we should note Moffett’s the fluent, almost racy, style that makes the book hard to put down, even...
This well-written, beautifully-produced volume represents many years of painstaking study, a firm conviction that the Bible is God’s special revelation, and a profound love for the best in Chinese civilization. As a result, it possesses many strengths and will be...
The establishment of Christian colleges in China by Protestant missionaries was one of the most significant aspects of the Sino-Western cultural engagement in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. These schools were first started as a way of training...
While doing justice to those who still suffer for their faith, Americans need to ensure that our activism supports, rather than hinders, China’s next generation as they seek to add to their hard-won freedoms.
By common consent, development of leaders is the most urgent need for the Chinese church. With explosive growth over the past few decades, there are not enough shepherds for the flock.
Only the sections on the growth Christianity among the Chinese will be discussed. Samuel Moffett has presented us with a work that is comprehensive, yet concise; lucid, yet lively; balanced and yet not totally without an occasional, but mostly-controlled, bias;...
Burklin's book possesses much value as a description of legal Christian activity in China, and as a general overview of some aspects of Chinese Christian history.
Though its title, and especially the sub-title, would lead you to think that God and Caesar in China deals mostly with church-state tensions, this tightly-edited book really represents one of the best overviews of Christianity in modern China.
Marshall’s thesis is that “God’s fingerprints are all over Chinese culture. He has, you might even say, prepared China for the news of Jesus Christ.” Thus, Jesus does not “come as a stranger to the Chinese people” but, in the word’s of the book’s subtitle, “fulfills the Chinese culture.”
In the vast hinterland where 800 million peasants dwell, isolated, tiny meetings in humble homes have multiplied into mighty networks with thousands of churches and millions of members governed by widely-networked leaders.
Broomhall chronicles the life of Taylor and the growth of the China Inland Mission in meticulous detail, drawing upon archives and previously-unused letters, as well as standard histories.
I would like to begin with a review of the history of God’s interaction with the Chinese people, including the centuries-long efforts to bring the Gospel to China since most Americans, even most Chinese people, are very unaware of the long legacy of Christianity in China.
Thomas Harvey traces the conflict of Wang Mingdao and K.H. Ting, and the movements they represent, from the first days of the communist victory in 1949 to the beginning of the 21st century.
This autobiographical account of the great Chinese pastor, Wong Ming-Dao, follows the first forty or so years of his life. The book demonstrates the deep and life-changing effects of Christianity on this man, as well as his distinctive Chineseness. Wong tells the story of his ministry, beginning in his early twenties and ending the account right before World War II.
This substantial volume includes eighteen papers from a conference on its title theme held in San Francisco under the sponsorship of the Ricci Institute for Chinese-Western Cultural History and the Center for the Pacific Rim of the University of San Francisco in 1999.
Almost all observers agree that there is a serious gender imbalance in the Chinese church. David Aikman, in Jesus In Beijing, states that the average ratio is 60-80% women in churches on the Mainland. In Taiwan and elsewhere, the ratio may be less extreme, but there are usually many more women than men attending church on any Sunday morning. The proportion of women serving in the church may be even greater.
Review by
September 6, 2005
Soul Searching, a collection of essays written by Chinese Christian intellectuals, gives a fascinating glimpse inside the Chinese mind and heart. Issues like democracy, culture, and the arts are examined with honesty and clarity.
Review by
August 25, 2005
The Cross: Jesus in China is a 4-DVD set of documentaries exploring the church in China. Each disc examines a slightly different aspect of the church, covering personal testimonies of conversion, the ministries of several of the leaders of the Chinese house churches, the lives of laymen in the churches, and a collection of hymns that are widely used in the churches of China.
The twenty chapters in this collection of essays fall into four sections, entitled: “Christianity and the Dynamics of Qing Society”; “Christianity and Ethnicity”; “Christianity and Chinese Women”; and “The Rise of an Indigenous Chinese Christianity.”
David Aikman has given us perhaps the most controversial introduction to the explosive increase and growing influence of Christianity in China. According to Aikman, we are talking not just about an incredible increase in the number of Chinese Christians in the past fifty years (from one or two million to more than 70 million), but what might become a fundamental shift in world power alignments.
