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...
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,...
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.
Despite very poor writing, this book makes a major contribution to our understanding of Chinese leadership, both ancient and modern, and repays careful and repeated reading.
Just what is “modern Chinese culture”? As I read this superb collection of essays by experts in different fields, I searched for an appropriate image.
Return to Dragon Mountain, the most recent book from the great historian Jonathan Spence, pieces together the dreams and recollections of a man at the center of one of China’s most epic periods. The life of Zhang Dai (1597 –...
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.
In a modern China that has seen development at a pace shocking even in an age of economic boom stories, many have found their moorings coming undone in a sea of ever changing possibilities. The shape of China’s culture and...
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.
A Reader on China expresses much that is lovely and winsome in Chinese civilization, as well as not a little that is annoying and even scary. First, the pretty part: The book itself serves as a showpiece of Chinese visual...
I like this book. Of the several on traditional Chinese culture that I have read, it seems to be both the most comprehensive and the most balanced. On the one hand, the writers and editor display great appreciation for...
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...
China’s growth and manufacturing dominance are two of the biggest global trends of the last ten years. India’s technology, service, and outsourcing industries make it a valued partner [to American business], as well as a formidable competitor. “The stunning rise...
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...
For too long, it has been hard to find balanced analyses of China’s prospects. The media tend to adopt a zero sum approach and exaggerate either China’s growing strengths as an inevitable “threat” to U.S. interests, or its weaknesses and impending failure, sometimes implicitly seeing this as favorable to the U.S.
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.
Hutchings focuses on the “politics, society and economy, and the impact on them of individuals, places, organizations, and ideas ”of modern – that is, 20th century – China.
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.”
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.
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.
Becker’s journalistic skill is on display throughout this fact-filled work, with its combination of specific details, stories of representative individuals, and well-supported generalizations, always founded on a concise historical survey in each chapter.
He reports on the vast changes that have taken place in China, especially since 1978, and notes progress made in a number of areas, especially the economy.
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.
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.
This superb piece of historical writing traces the careers of seventeen Chinese who studied in America and then returned to serve their country. More than that, however, the book ranges widely over the course of China’s history from the late nineteenth century up to the present. Thus, each individual story fits into a coherent narrative, illustrating general trends and finding significance from the overall picture.
“The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom” only lasted about 14 years (1850-1864), but by the time of its demise, much of China had been ravaged, almost 20 million people had perished, the Manchu (Qing) Dynasty had nearly been toppled, and “one of China’s most remarkable megalomaniacs” had tarnished the name of Christ almost beyond repair.
This book takes a vertical slice out of different sub-groups of China’s population by following the lives of nine different people and their families. By tracing their careers over several decades, the authors expose us to the vicissitudes of China’s tumultuous history since the Communist victory in 1949.
Despite its foreboding title and evident academic audience, von Glahn’s treatment of Chinese religion offers a wealth of information and insight to students of Chinese culture.
This collection of first-hand accounts of aspects of China’s history from 1949-1999 provides rare personal glimpses of political and historical movements and trends.
Review by
May 12, 2004
Chang’s treatment of the main Asian religions is a distinctively Christian one. In his discussions of Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism, Zen, Hinduism, and Islam, he includes two chapters on each, one an understanding of the religion from a Christian perspective, and the second a Christian critique of that religion.
At each step, Cooper seeks to fulfill the promise of the title, showing how a case can be made either for Taiwan as a nation-state or as a province of China. Given the incendiary nature of this subject, he has achieved remarkable success in maintaining a balanced and neutral approach.
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.
In this fast-paced volume, China history expert Jonathan Spence studies the lives of sixteen Western advisors of various sorts who went to China to make a difference in that great nation.
