Christianity in China

In this article, I put the ‘supply-side model’ advocated by religious economists to an empirical test. The ‘supply-side’ model in some measure already constitutes a move ‘beyond the market’, as it seeks to expand and enlarge the economic interpretation of religion by linking it to a concept of networks and social tensions and integrating the concept of religious and cultural capital. In applying the model to the (dynamics of the) historical growth of Protestantism in 19th and early 20th-century China, I examine three distinct aspects of the conversion process: the supply-side (missionaries), the demand niches (Chinese converts), and the question of ‘strict’ churches. Arguing that the religious background of Protestant converts – their rootedness in Chinese popular religion – determined this process throughout, I seek to develop an understanding of religious competition, supply and demand that takes cultural interpretive frameworks into account.

During the 1950s, the universal ideology of Chinese Christian churches clashed with the universal ideology of the Maoist party-state. Since Christian churches were autonomous moral communities (ideologically self-contained, with members collectively claiming authority to define and cultivate moral norms), they hindered the party-state’s ambitions for control. Christians, especially Christian leaders, experienced intense pressure to adopt the new code of Maoist speech. Documents from archives in Shanghai, Nanjing, and Wuhan and oral history interviews with members of the True Jesus Church in south China show how, despite the True Jesus Church’s native inclinations to resist, between 1948 and 1958 Maoist rhetoric and discursive patterns replaced biblical rhetoric and discursive patterns in the public life of the church. The contest between religious communities and the state to control the terms of public moral discourse demonstrates the significance of such discourse in demarcating and legitimating community authority.

There has been a growing resurgence of Reformed Christianity in contemporary China, largely focused within China’s urban centers. Based on a case study of a Reformed congregation in Shanghai, and its development of a church membership system, this chapter draws on the “affective turn” to analyze Reformed churches in Shanghai as places where emotions circulate and  “create the very effect of the surfaces or boundaries of bodies and worlds” (Ahmed 2004: 117) in order to construct a distinct Reformed identity and spaces within urban China.

This article provides a microlevel perspective of the interacting dynamics between religion and the Chinese state, demonstrating how religious leaders and local officials negotiate with each other pragmatically, continually
withstanding pressure from hardline religious masses and state bureaucracy. This perspective, constructed using
qualitative data on the True Jesus Church, also helps to answer a critical empirical question left open in scholarly
discussions: When and how does the state regulative power on religion come to the fore in the economic reform
emphasizing pragmatic religion-state cooperation? The findings show how religious leaders and local officials
have become pragmatic, cooperating to form a dyadic nexus that tackles regular affairs in a practical way, though
it may run the risk of fracture when lay members and bureaucratic superiors pressure leaders and officials,
respectively, to take hardline positions. The leaders and officials have continually fought two-front battles while
shuttling between negotiations with their nexus partner and aligning with their hardline sources of pressure. This
study may shed light on future research of the Chinese religion-state relationship in general by illustrating a
microlevel, integrative, dynamic approach.

Ancestors, Virgins, and Friars: Christianity as a Local Religion in Late Imperial China. Harvard Yenching Institute Monograph Series, no. 69. Harvard University Asia Center and Harvard University Press, 2009

Recipient of the 2011 Joseph Levenson Book Prize for best scholarly work on pre-1900 China, awarded by the China and Inner Asia Council of the Association for Asian Studies.

Twenty-one reviews, 2010-2016 : reviewed by Nicolas Standaert, in Frontiers of History in China, 5.2, 2010, pp. 340-42; by Gianni Criveller, in Bibliographia Missionaria, 74, 2010, pp. 479-482; by Lars Laamann, in Journal of Chinese Religions, 38, 2010, pp. 120-122; by Luke Clossey, in The American Historical Review, 116.2, April 2011, pp. 426-27; by David Mungello, in Journal of Interdisciplinary History, 41.4, Spring 2011, pp. 676-77; by Don Baker, in Itinerario, 35.1, 2011, pp. 125-27; by Henrietta Harrison, in Sino-Western Cultural Relations Journal, 33, 2011, pp. 77-80; by Ryan Dunch, in The Journal of Asian Studies, 70, August 2011, pp. 818-820; by Robert Entenmann, in The Catholic Historical Review, 97.4, October 2011, pp. 875-877; by Isabelle Landry-Deron, in Annales. Histoire, Sciences sociales, 66.4, 2011, pp. 1118-1120; by Daniel Bays, in Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, 71.2, December 2011, pp. 364-369; by R. G. Tiedemann, in Studies in World Christianity, 17.3, December 2011, pp. 294-295; by Jeff Kyong-McClain, in Journal of World History, 22.4, December 2011, pp. 886-889; by Hubert Seiwert, in Monumenta Serica. Journal of Oriental Studies, 59, 2011, pp. 565-568; by Jean-Paul Wiest, in Missiology, 39, 2011, pp. 410-11; by Joseph Lee Tse-hei, in China Review International, 18.3, 2011, pp. 382-386; by Adam Yuet Chau, in Church History: Studies in Christianity and Culture, 81.2, June 2012, pp. 508-510; by Haruko Nawata Ward, in The Sixteenth Century Journal, 33.1, Spring 2012; by Gail King, in History of Religions, 52.1, August 2012, pp. 83-85; Xiao Ruiyin 蕭芮吟 (Jui-Yin Hsiao), Lishi renleixue xuekan 歷史人類學學刊, 13.1, 2015, pp. 140–44;  Keith Knapp, in Religious Studies Review, 42.1, March 2016, pp. 7-8].

Cai Renhou, a prominent New Confucian scholar, has challenged the notion that Christianity can affirm that ‘everyone can be Christ’. This article will, however, explore the doctrine of sanctification of Jia Yuming (1880–1964), a Chinese fundamentalist theologian who constructed a Chinese Christian teaching of the self-cultivation of heart and mind with the objective of encouraging people to become ‘Christ-human’, thus having a life which is Christ. It argues that Jia’s training and background, his natural theology and his belief in the possibility of a collaboration between Confucianism and Christianity on moral issues made him affirm a convergence between Christianity and Confucianism and to assert that Christianity and Confucianism could learn from each other – a surprising move in the light of the impression we commonly have of fundamentalist theology. The article examines Jia’s strategy of connecting Christianity with Chinese culture and points out that Jia’s fundamentalism seems to provide a protection against heretical teachings, a feature which might gain the acceptance of conservative Christians for incorporating ‘heathen’ thought into the Christian faith. Taken together, these points suggest a remarkably multifaceted confrontation, interaction, assimilation and mutual transformation between Christianity and Chinese culture.

For more than 100 years, China has seen waves of students and scholars heading overseas and studying in the West as well as the concomitant returning waves. This study draws on information obtained from secondhand documents and firsthand field studies to analyze and compare two returning waves involving the complex dynamics of globalization/indigenization of Christianity in China. The first returning wave began in the early 1900s and lasted until 1950, in which many went overseas because of their connections with Western missionaries. The second returning wave is currently occurring following the study-abroad fever after 1978, in which many were exposed to the proselytizing endeavor of overseas Chinese Christian communities and eventually converted to Christianity before returning to China. The article compares the following themes in relation to these two groups of Christian returnees: their negotiation with their religious identities upon the
return, perceptions on the meaning of Christianity to themselves and to China, their transnational religious networks, and potential implications to the glocalization of Christianity in China. Consequently, it involves the following topics that are important throughout the modern Chinese history: modernity/religion paradox, East–West interaction in relation to
Christianity, contributions of Western-educated professionals to China, glocalization of Christianity in China, and complex internationalist/nationalist interaction.

China has experienced remarkable religious revivals since the Cultural Revolution. I argue that the revivals rely on religious elites summoning collective memory to restore religion, among other factors. In addition, a micro-level perspective is taken, to see how collective memory, more than a group's collective representation, is the product and resources of religious elites in pursuit of their own interest; the remembrance of the sacred past is a contested, unfolding process of key actors engaging in varied mnemonic practices. Through data collected from long-term fieldwork, I demonstrate how Chinese Pentecostals, after lengthy political suppression, use religious collective memory to rebuild the national community, strengthen the leadership by proving their orthodox character, and fight against mystical separatists. In conclusion, I explain why religious collective memory matters in the case of China in particular, where the state tends to repress religious institutionalization, and Chinese people emphasize the importance of orthodoxy lineage.

God's Little Daughters examines a set of letters written by Chinese Catholic women from a small village in Manchuria to their French missionary, "Father Lin," or Dominique Maurice Pourquié, who in 1870 had returned to France in poor health after spending twenty-three years at the local mission of the Société des Missions Etrangères de Paris (MEP).

The letters were from three sisters of the Du family, who had taken religious vows and committed themselves to a life of contemplation and worship that allowed them rare privacy and the opportunity to learn to read and write. Inspired by a close reading of the letters, Ji Li explores how French Catholic missionaries of the MEP translated and disseminated their Christian message in northeast China from the mid-19th to the early 20th centuries, and how these converts interpreted and transformed their Catholic faith to articulate an awareness of self. The interplay of religious experience, rhetorical skill, and gender relations revealed in the letters allow us to reconstruct the neglected voices of Catholic women in rural China.
JI LI is research assistant professor of history at the University of Hong Kong.

"God's Little Daughters is an interesting historical study based on an examination of the documents of the MEP in Manchuria. These documents may arouse the curiosity and passion of the researcher."
-R. Po-chia Hsia, author of A Jesuit in the Forbidden City

"This work contributes to the study of women and gender in modern China, the expansion of literacy and educational access for women, and the role of the Catholic Church as it relates to these themes. It furthers our understanding of public and private spheres in China and the development of a new sense of privacy."
-Robert Entenmann, professor of history and Asian studies, St. Olaf College

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......In this chapter, the tjc is not just used to illustrate how Pentecostalism has been adapted to local culture. More importantly, this case study also responds to a more general theoretical concern: How can the problem of the maintenance of religious order be tackled in a religion like Pentecostalism, which emphasizes the free agency of individual believers? I will argue that local culture, a factor usually considered by Pentecostal scholars to be fuel for liberating the
Spirit and loosening up traditional forms of social regulation, can be utilized to tame the otherwise freewheeling Spirit among the laity and consolidate leadership. Despite the prevalence and prominence of various Spirit-led practices among Chinese Pentecostal laypersons, performance of these practices has been strictly regulated and their importance has been downplayed in three ways: (1) worship services have been shaped as a Confucian-style educational venue with an emphasis on silence and order; (2) the base of religious legitimacy
has shifted from God-given spiritual capability to the literati-style ability
to memorize canons; and (3) spiritual practices are deliberately assigned to female partners along with moral teachings. By bringing to light the aspects of the tjc faith that are imbued with Confucianism, I will challenge the understanding of the relationship between Pentecostalism and indigenous culture that is usually presumed in the existing literature.

In the sixteenth century, Franciscan spiritual literature started to disseminate widely all over the world. There has been much research on how Franciscan literature was transplanted in Latin America, but there is presently little research on its diffusion in East Asia. This paper shows how a sixteenth-century Franciscan treatise on meditation came to be translated into Chinese and published at Canton in 1694.

This article explores familial conversion as an accumulative role in the mass conversion of Wenzhou Christians after 1949. The recognized revival of Christianity in Wenzhou by no means precludes recognition of the hidden upsurge of conversion events before 1978. Through a case study on the congregation of Qingpu Church in Hewan area of Wenzhou, I hope to suggest the familial aspect of conversion in the form of a household unit, rather than the individual conversion, is the key to understand the possibility of mass conversion of Wenzhou Christians. The article argues that the oneness of a family derived from the emotional and responsible relationships among families, and the process of the conversion ritual, constitute the ethical-religious role of the household and contribute to the emergence of familial conversion. This preliminary study attempts to draw more attention to family, an essentially ethical and even existential cultural factor in Chinese society; It is through the family, by which we may come to better understand the indigenous development of Christianity in China.

This article aims to critically evaluate the current state of research into the Protestant and
Catholic Churches in the Chinese context. It introduces two main academic discourses on
Christianity in China; it also mentions some challenges connected to the use of the triple-
-market approach proposed by Yang Fenggang, and extensively used by many scholars of
Chinese religions today. Instead of employing the market approach, I believe in the need to
confront the main discourses with empirical data. In the article, I use the example of the
official Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association, which is categorised as a “red” religious
market supporting communist rule. As such, the churches united under this body are often
neglected by researchers, as they are perceived as “unproblematic” – and, therefore, do not
support the narrative of Christian groups victimized by the Chinese government.
Nonetheless, the Christian churches (or any religious groups within the “red” market) need
our scholarly attention, as choosing cooperation instead of opposition is not unproblematic
– and various processes of negotiation between a religious group and the government should
be included in the research.

https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9783030434601
This book introduces a simple idea: when we tell a story, we tell a story and at the same time create the world where this story takes place. Narration creates environments, spaces and, in a certain sense, gives symbolic meanings and values to the identities by which people interact in their daily experiences. Set in the multicultural and multireligious Taiwanese environment, this book describes the interactions, and above all the narrations, linked to a Catholic village located in the Taiwanese countryside. Catholicism in Taiwan is a minor religion (around the 2% of the population), and considered a foreign and heterodox religion, something different and "other" from the Taiwanese mainstream religious environment. It is this sense of alterity that creates the stories about this place and, as a consequence, creates this place and its special identity.

This paper discusses Aurora College for Women, which was under the management of the Sisters of the Sacred Heart in Shanghai from 1937 to 1951. It was an American-style university-college like other Sacred Heart colleges in the United States.This paper is crucial to understanding the Chinese Catholic Church in the first half of the twentieth century. It examines the only Catholic university for Chinese women, which has barely been studied. By focusing on Chinese women students, it contributes tremendously to the neglected area of Chinese women (particularly lay women) in the history of the Catholic Church in China before the 1950s. While historians have identified Chinese male elites in the Church, highly educated Chinese women have been ignored in scholarly studies. Thus, this paper is the first of its kind in the study of the Chinese Catholic Church, and attempts to offset the gender bias in the traditional approach to its history.

W artykule zostaje poruszona kwestia religii tajpingów w oparciu o pracę Johna Scartha z 1860 roku, czyli jeszcze przed klęską odniesioną przez Hong Xiuquana. Jest to specyficzne ujęcie tematu, z tego względu, że autor nie ukrywa się z sympatią w stosunku do przedstawicieli tego ruchu. Stoi on w kontrze do dominującej wówczas narracji rzedstawiającej tajpingów jako rewolucjonistów i bandytów. Do teraz ten obraz jest często obecny, marginalizując przy tym rolę religii w ich ruchu lub przedstawiając ją w przerysowany sposób jako dziwaczną synkretyczną religię. Scarth łagodzi ten przekaz, skupiając się przede wszystkim na chrześcijańskich korzeniach tej doktryny, obalając przesądy oraz wyjaśniając nieporozumienia. Nie ma jednak wątpliwości, że jego życzliwa postawa często ma związek z niewiedzą na temat szczegółów teologii tajpingów. Obraz, który przedstawia, łączy się z jego specyficzną wizją soteriologii i działania Boga w ludzkiej historii. W tym kontekście rewolucja Hong Xiuquana miała rangę nie tylko polityczną i niepodległościową w stosunku do Mandżurów, ale była to rewolucja religijna, obalająca władzę legitymizującą bałwochwalstwo.

ENGLISH: “Christian crusade” in China. Taipings according to the account of John Scarth
This article deals with the question of Taiping religion in the work of John Scarth coming from 1860, which was published before the fall of Hong Xiuquan. This is an original approach to the topic due to the fact that the author is openly sympathetic toward the movement. It is in contrast to the dominant narrative from the period, that depicted Taipings as revolutionaries and bandits. This picture is still present, as it is marginalizing the role of religion in their movement, or distorting it to the form of a bizarre syncretic religion. Scarth mitigates this message, focusing primarily on Christian roots of this doctrine, refuting superstitions and explaining misunderstandings. There is no doubt, however, that his gentle approach is related to his ignorance about the subtleties of Taiping theology. The image of Taiping religion given by him is connected with Scarth’s specific soteriology and God’s work in human history. In this context, the revolution of Hong Xiuquan was not only a political struggle for independence against Manchurians, but it was a religious revolution against authorities’ legitimizing idolatry.

El objetivo principal de este estudio es examinar el trabajo de los misioneros en la
Edad Moderna en el rescate y bautismo de niños chinos. Para ello Manila se convirtió en
un puente clave no sólo para los misioneros a seguir su camino a China sino por ser un
punto crucial ya que los fondos para sostener esta causa vinieron de la piadosa obra de La
Misericordia y muchos de esos niños fueron enviados a las instituciones cristianas filipinas
para ser criados y educados. A la luz de esta tendencia podemos observar historias conectadas
que reflejan realidades pluralistas y complejas en las que la piedad filial descrita
y admirada por los misioneros fue cuestionada a la vez por una realidad apremiante en el
Imperio Dragón. Por otro lado, el trabajo piadoso religioso también estaba marcado por
intereses más profundos. Este trabajo intenta explorar la información proporcionada por
el estudio de fuentes inéditas del Archivo Franciscano Ibero-Oriental para analizar la
naturaleza de estos fenómenos, su costo, el número de hijos, la edad, el género y el destino
de quienes terminaron viviendo no sólo entre océanos sino entre culturas.

The Presbyterian Church in Taiwan (PCT) is not just a religious organization, but also a movement for social change and political rights. The church is very active in many different social events, such as charity, education, health care... The church has proclaimed to become a prophet for the Taiwanese nation and a critic of social and political iniquity. If inculturation is the intentional transmission of a system of ideas and values from one culture to another, then the PCT’s Christian ideas (which are specific, but I realize are not Western anymore) represent the system of cultural values that are trying to be passed to Taiwanese culture. This system includes not only religious beliefs, but also other cultural or political ideas. During the process of inculturation, which can be observed in statements and documents of the PCT, it is easy to see how important legitimization is, because it provides the church with recognition – and the church´s ideas can be transferred only if they are widespread and identified. The questions that this paper aims to answer are how exactly has the PCT established legitimacy for its social involvement, which strategies has the PCT used, and if the problem of legitimacy is connected to the process
of inculturation.

As a particular case study of “world Christianity,” this article seeks to
develop a Chinese Catholic epistemological foundation for the Church’s theological
quest to know God. It is a comparative study of the thought of Neo-Confucian philosopher Wang Yangming (1472–1529) and the Belgian Jesuit Joseph Maréchal. I demonstrate how both thinkers affirm the subjective contribution of the human mind in any act of knowing while still maintaining that any accurate or moral knowledge participates in a higher order of ontological being. The agreements between Wang’s Neo-Confucian and Maréchal’s Transcendental Thomist theories of mind make for a fruitful convergence of the Chinese and Catholic intellectual traditions, from which Chinese theology can contribute to the worldwide Church’s understanding of God.

Brill's Encyclopedia of Global Pentecostalism (BEGP) will provide a comprehensive overview of worldwide Pentecostalism from a range of disciplinary perspectives. It will offer analysis at the level of specific countries and regions, historical figures, movements and organizations, and particular topics and themes. Pentecostal Studies draws upon areas of research such as anthropology, biblical studies, economics, gender studies, global studies, history, political science, sociology, theological studies, and other areas of related interest. The BEGP will emphasize this multidisciplinary approach and include scholarship from a range of disciplines, methods, and theoretical perspectives. Moreover, the BEGP will be cross-cultural and transnational, including contributors from around the world to represent key insights to Pentecostal Studies from a range of countries and regions. Providing summaries of the key literature, the BEGP will be the standard reference for Pentecostal Studies. All articles will be organized alphabetically with bibliographic information on scholarly work and directions for further reading.

Anticipated Publication Date: 2020

Contact Michael Wilkinson with any questions

The paper introduces the major developments of the Chinese Rites Controversy (XVII-XVIII centuries), which had a devastating impact on China missionary endeavor. Special attention is given to religious and ideological background of the various missionary groups and personalities involved in the controversy. Particular attention is also given to the participation of Chinese converts and officials in the debate and the progress of the controversy.
The Rites controversy initiated in Fujian province in mid 1635, when newly arrived Dominican and Franciscan missionaries objected to the method of the Jesuits, introduced in China by Matteo Ricci S.J., and in Fujian by Giulio Aleni S.J. The Holy See was called in to declare whether the participation in the ancestral Rites was permissible for the Christians. Rome was unable to make a clear cut decision, and the controversy dragged on for several decades.
After the prohibition to the Rites issued by the Apostolic Vicar of Fujian Charles Maigrot MEP (1693) the Controversy regained momentum, with the personal involvement of China’s Emperor Kangxi and pope Clement XI. The Controversy reached an incredible level of complication and animosity. A vast amount of writings by clergy and intellectuals alike, were produces in China and in Europe. The two Papal Legations to China (XVII century) could not defuse the tension between Beijing and Rome, and among the various missionary groups. Actually the Legations, and the Roman decisions, added to the ambiguity, exasperation and bitterness.
From 1704, when pope Clement XI condemned the Rites, it was clear that Holy See was determined to disapprove the Rites, but also to save the China Mission from destruction. But the two objectives were not compatible. In 1742 Benedict XV condemned in the most solemn way the Rites, putting to a definitive end not only to the century-long controversy, but also to the China Mission initiated by Matteo Ricci, and indeed, creating the premises to the same suppression of the Society of Jesus (1773).
In 1939, due to the influence of Holy See Delegate to China Celso Costantini, the prohibition on the Rites is dramatically reversed.

In this chapter I explore how four African-initiated Pentecostal churches stage a campaign of spiritual warfare in Hong Kong. I foreground the spatial politics of this project at different scales. First, I look closely at how the four pastors of the churches rhetorically frame Hong Kong in a wider geopolitical imaginary which is indebted to the ‘global city’ paradigm of urbanisation. Second, I focus in detail on one particular technique of spiritual warfare, the prayer walk, which I suggest resembles a form of ‘psychogeography’ by which the churches seek to redeem urban space. The chapter draws on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Hong Kong at the time of the Occupy and Umbrella Revolution protests in 2014. I conclude by reflecting on how this campaign of spiritual warfare, when taken as a mode of inhabiting the city, can itself be understood as a form of ‘occupation’ in demonstration against precarity.

This is a study of the Latin translation of the Chinese text of the Xi’an Stele (781) by the Franciscan friar Carlo da Castorano (1673-1755). His “Versio Monumenti seu Lapidis Sinici”, made in Rome in 1741, is a document of greatest interest, not on account of the quality of the translation, which the French sinologist Paul Pelliot has
called “without value”, but because – coming from a non-Jesuit milieu, indeed, in opposition to the Jesuit milieu – it is unique in terms of reconstructing the process of reception, interpretation, and use of the Xi’an Stele text in the Christian mission in China.

During the early twentieth century in China, a number of key economic leaders converted to Christianity.  Some of these included sojourners from Australia who returned to establish lucrative business ventures in China.  Inherent Chinese value systems, personality traits, powerful modernizing forces and the tumultuous circumstances of this period were propelling Chinese entrepreneurs forward.  Christian identity provided added incentive, motivation and opportunity for Chinese business Christians to adjust their business practices, improve their social environment, and extend the influence of Christianity in their communities.  This chapter forms part of a major research which explores the relationship between the Christian identity of Chinese business Christians and their motivations to contribute to their immediate environment.