We are a research institution devoted to the study of China, its history, society, and people, with special regard toward Christianity in China

I would highly recommend this book as an initial text on the history of Christian missions in China, an introduction to longer and more comprehensive works. As such, it is almost a “must read” for all those interested in how God used frail and faulty human instruments to establish what has been called “the Chinese church that will not die.”

Dana Robert has given us a slim volume that tells the thrilling story of the spread of Christianity from its beginnings as a tiny minority in Palestine to today, when, as the “largest religion in the world,” “[t]he geographic range, cultural diversity, and organizational variety of Christianity surpass those of the other great world religions.”

Understanding Christian Mission will probably serve as a standard textbook for a long time. We all owe Scott Sunquist a debt of gratitude for what was obviously a labor of love.

Chinese Christians in America build a unity out of diversity. Their varied backgrounds force them “to redefine their identity and expand the meaning of “Chineseness.” Specifically, they tend to conceive of being Chinese not in terms of citizenship in a particular nation (though that is important to many) but in terms of a shared culture heritage.