Sent alone to China by the London Missionary Society in 1807, Robert Morrison (1782–1834) was one of the earliest Protestant missionaries in East Asia. During some 27 years in China, Macau and Malacca, he worked as a translator for the East India Company and founded an academy for converts and missionaries; independently, he translated the New Testament into Chinese and compiled the first Chinese-English dictionary. In the process, he was building the foundation of Chinese Protestant Christianity. This book critically explores the preparations and strategies behind this first Protestant mission to China. It argues that, whilst introducing Protestantism into China, Morrison worked to a standard template developed by his tutor David Bogue at the Gosport Academy in England. By examining this template alongside Morrison’s archival collections, the book demonstrates the many ways in which Morrison’s influential mission must be seen within the historical and ideological contexts of British evangelism. The result is this new interpretation of the beginnings of Protestant Christianity in China.
During the nineteenth century, Christian missionaries vied for the Chinese souls they thought they were saving. But many things held them back: Western gunboat diplomacy, unequal treaties and their own prejudices, which increased hostility towards Christianity. 'One more Christian, one less Chinese,' has long been a popular cliche in China. Guns and Gospel examines the accusation of 'cultural imperialism' levelled against the missionaries and explores their complex and ambivalent relationships with the opium trade and British imperialism. Ambrose Mong follows key figures among the missionaries, such as Robert Morrison, Charles Gutzlaff, James Hudson Taylor and Timothy Richard, uncovering why some succeeded where others failed, and asks whether they really became lackeys to imperialism.
With a focus on Robert Morrison, Protestant Missionaries in China evaluates the role of nineteenth-century British missionaries in the early development of the cross-cultural relationship between China and the English-speaking world. As one of the first generation of British Protestant missionaries, Robert Morrison went to China in 1807 with the goal of evangelizing the country. His mission pushed him into deeper engagement with Chinese language and culture, and the exchange flowed both ways as Morrison—a working-class man whose firsthand experiences made him an “accidental expert”—brought depictions of China back to eager British audiences. Author Jonathan A. Seitz proposes that, despite the limitations imposed by the orientalism impulse of the era, Morrison and his fellow missionaries were instrumental in creating a new map of cross-cultural engagement that would evolve, ultimately, into modern sinology. Engaging and well researched, Protestant Missionaries in China explores the impact of Morrison and his contemporaries on early sinology, mission work, and Chinese Christianity during the three decades before the start of the Opium Wars.
Literary Representations of Christianity in Late Qing and Republican China contributes to the “literary turn” in the study of Chinese Christianity by foregrounding the importance of literary texts, including the major genres of Chinese Christian literature (novels, drama and poetry) of the late Qing and Republican periods. These multifarious types of texts demonstrated the multiple representations and dynamic scenes of Christianity, where Christian imageries and symbolism were transformed by linguistic manipulation into new contextualized forms which nurtured distinctive new fruits of literature and modernized the literary landscape of Chinese literature. The study of the composition and poetics of Chinese Christian literary works helps us rediscover the concerns, priorities, textual strategies of the Christian writers, the cross-cultural challenges involved, and the reception of the Bible.
Written by a team of internationally recognized scholars, Christian Encounters with Chinese Culturefocuses on a church tradition that has never been very large in China but that has had considerable social and religious influence. Themes of the book include questions of church, society and education, the Prayer Book in Chinese, parish histories, and theology. Taken together, the nine chapters and the introduction offer a comprehensive assessment of the Anglican experience in China and its missionary background. Historical topics range from macro to micro levels, beginning with an introductory overview of the Anglican and Episcopal tradition in China. Topics include how the church became embedded in Chinese social and cultural life, the many ways women's contributions to education built the foundations for strong parishes, and Bishop R. O. Hall's attentiveness to culture for the life of the church in Hong Kong. Two chapters explore how broader historical themes played out at the parish level—St. Peter's Church in Shanghai during the War against Japan and St. Mary's Church in Hong Kong during its first three decades. Chapters looking at the Chinese Prayer Book bring an innovative theological perspective to the discussion, especially how the inability to produce a single prayer book affected the development of the Chinese church. Finally, the tension between theological thought and Chinese culture in the work of Francis C. M. Wei and T. C. Chao is examined. "This is one of the finest books on Christianity and Chinese culture to have emerged in recent years. Philip Wickeri has done the almost-impossible, and assembled an outstanding, world-class team of scholars to write on Anglican and Episcopal history in China, with essays focusing on education, liturgy, ministry, ecclesiology and theology. This is a timely, important book—and one that will re-shape the way we understand the place of Anglican and Episcopal churches in the past, present and future."—Martyn Percy, dean of Christ Church, Oxford, UK "This pioneering study provides new knowledge of local parishes, translation of liturgy, as well as mission and theology of Chung Hua Sheng Kung Hui. Comprehensive in scope and original in using new resources, it will stimulate new scholarship in the study of Christianity in China."—Kwok Pui-lan, author of Chinese Women and Christianity, 1860–1927 "The essays included in this important volume offer a refreshingly realistic image of the Christian missionary enterprise and its interaction with Chinese culture and society. The contributors present new angles of interpretation, with more informed and nuanced accounts of the complexities and contradictions that shaped the encounter of one particular strand of Western Christianity and Chinese culture during a turbulent century of change."—R. G. Tiedemann, professor of Chinese history, Shandong University, China
The Christian church was always destined to find its way to China. Long before the birth of the church, China existed, coalescing around profound philosophical concepts and powerful cultural symbols. It developed into a dynamic and enduring civilization. In time, Christian missionaries arrived on its shores, driven to bring the gospel to this people. This book starts with the story of that journey: the arrival of the missionaries who planted the seeds of the gospel in Chinese soil. As the seeds sprouted and grew, a new story of a unique and distinct Chinese church began. The epic narrative opens from uncertain beginnings in darkness, passes through intense hardship and years of struggle, and culminates with the triumphal emergence of the Chinese church from the shadows into the light of the global stage.
The Oxford History of Anglicanism is a major new and unprecedented international study of the identity and historical influence of one of the world's largest versions of Christianity. This global study of Anglicanism from the sixteenth century looks at how was Anglican identity constructed and contested at various periods since the sixteenth century; and what was its historical influence during the past six centuries. It explores not just the ecclesiastical and theological aspects of global Anglicanism, but also the political, social, economic, and cultural influences of this form of Christianity that has been historically significant in western culture, and a burgeoning force in non-western societies today. The chapters are written by international exports in their various historical fields which includes the most recent research in their areas, as well as original research. The series forms an invaluable reference for both scholars and interested non-specialists. Volume three of The Oxford History of Anglicanism explores the nineteenth century when Anglicanism developed into a world-wide Christian communion, largely, but not solely, due to the expansion of the British Empire. By the end of this period an Anglican Communion had come into existence as a diverse conglomerate of often competing Anglican identities with their often unresolved tensions and contradictions, but also with some measure of genuine unity. The volume examines the ways the various Anglican identities of the nineteenth century are both metropolitan and colonial constructs, and how they influenced the wider societies in which they formed Anglican Churches.
The Oxford History of Anglicanism is a major new and unprecedented international study of the identity and historical influence of one of the world's largest versions of Christianity. This global study of Anglicanism from the sixteenth century looks at how was Anglican identity constructed and contested at various periods since the sixteenth century; and what was its historical influence during the past six centuries. It explores not just the ecclesiastical and theological aspects of global Anglicanism, but also the political, social, economic, and cultural influences of this form of Christianity that has been historically significant in western culture, and a burgeoning force in non-western societies today. The chapters are written by international exports in their various historical fields which includes the most recent research in their areas, as well as original research. The series forms an invaluable reference for both scholars and interested non-specialists. Volume three of The Oxford History of Anglicanism explores the nineteenth century when Anglicanism developed into a world-wide Christian communion, largely, but not solely, due to the expansion of the British Empire. By the end of this period an Anglican Communion had come into existence as a diverse conglomerate of often competing Anglican identities with their often unresolved tensions and contradictions, but also with some measure of genuine unity. The volume examines the ways the various Anglican identities of the nineteenth century are both metropolitan and colonial constructs, and how they influenced the wider societies in which they formed Anglican Churches.
This book reconstructs Benjamin Bowen Carter’s (1771–1831) experience learning Chinese in Canton, describes his interactions with European sinologists, traces his attempts to promote Chinese studies to his compatriots, and forces a rewriting of the earliest years of US-China relations.
The Church as Safe Haven conceptualizes the rise of Chinese Christianity as a new civilizational paradigm that encouraged individuals and communities to construct a sacred order for empowerment in modern China. Once Christianity enrooted itself in Chinese society as an indigenous religion, local congregations acquired much autonomy which enabled new religious institutions to take charge of community governance. Our contributors draw on newly-released archival sources, as well as on fieldwork observations investigating what Christianity meant to Chinese believers, how native actors built their churches and faith-based associations within the pre-existing social networks, and how they appropriated Christian resources in response to the fast-changing world. This book reconstructs the narratives of ordinary Christians, and places everyday faith experience at the center. Contributors are: Christie Chui-Shan Chow, Lydia Gerber, Melissa Inouye, Diana Junio, David Jong Hyuk Kang, Lars Peter Laamann, Joseph Tse-Hei Lee, George Kam Wah Mak, John R. Stanley, R. G. Tiedemann, Man-Shun Yeung.
