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This chapter examines the complicated notions of modernity propagated through the flourishing Christian print culture in late Qing and early Republican China. Western missionaries had introduced modern print technology to China in the first half of the nineteenth century. This technology was not only a symbol of the scientific ethos of rationalistic modernity, but also a convenient and widely utilized tool for propagating charismatic Christian practices, as seen in the Church News, the Chinese Christian Intelligencer, and other nationally distributed Christian publications. The coexistence of technological advancements and supernatural experiences gave rise to a paradoxical in-between situation, where multiple expressions of modernity could be attached to both old and new ideas frequently crossing the borders of cultural, religious, and material entities.

This chapter explores how relations between the state and local elites were played out in the National Anti-Opium Association, set up by activists within and beyond the Chinese Christian community to press the state to rid China of opium. It explains that although the movement gained the sympathy of some sectors of the emerging urban elite, the Guomindang state was not keen to have a competitor regime in spheres crucial for state building and revenue. Hence, the Guomindang state employed both co-optation and coercion to force the association to disband in 1937, just nine days before Japan's invasion. It felt pressured not just to take up the cause of opium control, but to take it over. Thus arose the second “successful” opium campaign in China, which Jiang Jieshi (Chiang Kai-shek) mounted in 1935.

This chapter examines the intersection between nationalism, religion, and politics by documenting the revival of Protestant Christianity in post-Mao China. In particular, it looks at the House Church Protestant movement, which stands in contrast to the government-sponsored Protestant Church. The chapter begins with a discussion of Western-language studies of Protestant revival in China and how the revival was perceived in China before turning to Chinese Protestant voices in the Chinese diaspora, particularly in North America. Some of these Chinese Christians had already converted in China and came to North America to avoid persecution, but most converted after their arrival—some having gone into exile for political reasons. The chapter also considers the role of Chinese missionary groups in the diaspora such as the China Soul for Christ Foundation and their high-quality docudramas produced in the United States that “educate” Chinese Protestants on their own history and contemporary situation, suggesting that these dramas may serve as a unifying force for Protestantism in China.

This chapter introduces the reader to the Chinese Christian documents produced during the Tang dynasty: (1) the inscription engraved on the 781 Christian eulogistic stele found in Xi’an in 1623, with particular attention to the different “stories” about its discovery and interpretation; (2) the text inscribed on the 815 Christian funerary pillar recently found in Luoyang; (3) the so-called “Dunhuang” manuscripts and the history of research on them, summarizing what published studies say about the origin, transmission, and authenticity of these documents. This chapter analyzes the composition of the texts (dating, authorship, and literary form) and particularly highlights the most original elements of their content and the terminology they borrowed from other religious languages.

This chapter narrates how visual materials became symbols of loss, nostalgia, and imagined futures for American missions and Chinese Christian communities as mission institutions collapsed in the early years of the People's Republic of China (PRC). It traces the nostalgic deployment of missionary images and the final forms of missionary visual practices in late Republican China. To understand the full trajectory of the missionary enterprise's decline in China, however, the chapter starts by looking at the beginning of the end. It then analyzes the contrasting perspectives of two California Province Jesuit filmmakers (one a visitor from the United States, the other a local member of the Yangzhou mission) shooting two feature-length color films with sound narration as their order's centuries-long missions in mainland China crumbled.

This chapter examines the integration of Christianity into rural China during the latter half of the nineteenth century and into the twentieth century in Guangdong Province in southern China. Drawing on Western archival materials, local congregational histories, and fieldwork data, it considers how Christianity spread through social networks and relationships (guanxi) that adapted and indigenized teachings and rituals to their unique cultural contexts. It explores how the Yanzao Presbyterians combined the denominational structure with Chinese kinship practices to build churches and used a dynamic and flexible web of Christian networks to engage in disaster relief efforts after the destructive typhoon on August 2, 1922. The chapter shows that Chinese Christians were able to form a regional hub of religious activity outside the English Presbyterian Mission headquarters in the treaty port of Shantou. It highlights the instrumental, moral, and cosmological dimensions of Christian guanxi and explains why Protestantism made significant inroads into Chinese society.

This chapter discusses John MacGowan's story of a Chinese Christian called Goon to show how missionaries imagined the possible redemption of the damned in China. It describes the inner workings of Goon's theology and his personal transformation. It suggests that MacGowan's story of Goon alluded to many of the active concerns and problems of missionary culture, which included doubts about the sincerity of converts and doubts about the spiritual and cultural depth of native Christianity.

In the late nineteenth century after schooling in England, three sisters returned to their birthplace, Fuzhou, China to become CMS missionaries. They were the daughters of the “Fukien Moses,” Archdeacon J. R. Wolfe and his wife Mary, and cousins of the author’s maternal grandfather. Letters written by Minnie, Annie and Amy Wolfe to CMS Headquarters in London, for the first time, tell the story of the scope and nature of their interaction with Chinese women and girls in a significant cultural exchange. This particularly occurred through CMS schools, which, using Fujian dialects, provided grounding in Christianity, reading and writing. In addition, the sisters acknowledge their personal dependence upon, and valuing of Chinese Christian women with whom they worked. Born to evangelise, Annie once wrote “In spite of anxieties and disappointments this is the happiest work anyone could wish for.”

The proportion of Chinese members in St John’s congregation gradually increased. Congregations grew in the post-war years and so did the Cathedral’s funds. St John’s continued to support the Chinese churches and to reach out to welfare organizations, some of them with no religious connections. Bishops and chaplains had visions of uniting the Chinese churches with English-speaking churches, but progress was slow. Yet, in 1975, a vote held during a special meeting of the Synod of the Chinese Churches admitted St John’s, St Andrew’s and Christ Church into its fold. In 1971, Reverend Jane Hwang and Reverend Joyce Bennett were ordained as priests. St John’s acceptance of women as clergy was well advance of elsewhere.

Annotated translation of the Tang Chinese Christian Texts: TEXT A. “Stele of the Diffusion of the Luminous Teaching of Da Qin in China” (Da Qin jingjiao liuxing Zhongguo bei大秦景教流行中國碑‎) TEXT B. (1) “Hymn in Praise of the Salvation Achieved through the Three Majesties of the Luminous Teaching” (Jingjiao sanwei mengdu zan景教三威蒙度讚‎); (2) “Book of the Honored” (Zunjing尊經‎) TEXT C. “Discourse on the One God” (Yishen lun一神論‎): I. “Discourse on the One Godhead” (Yitian lun diyi一天論第一‎) II. “Metaphorical Teaching” (Yu di’er喻第二‎) III. “Discourse of the Honored One of the Universe on Almsgiving” (Shizun bushi lun disan世尊布施論第三‎) TEXT D. “Book of the Lord Messiah” (Xuting mishisuo jing序聽迷詩所經‎) TEXT E. “Book on Profound and Mysterious Blessedness” (Zhixuan anle jing志玄安樂經‎) TEXT F. “Book of the Luminous Teaching of Da Qin on Unveiling the Origin and Attaining the Foundation” (Da Qin jingjiao xuanyuan zhiben jing大秦景教宣元至本經‎)

Johnston returned to his office in Weihai at that time opium smoking and derived problems flooded. He left service later due to unpleasant cooperation with Robert Walter, then he started another book titled A Chinese Appeal Concerning Christian Missions (“The Blast”), unlike his previous travel books, this was strongly anti-missionary biased. Later in Japan, he finished writing Buddhist China. All these three works of him showed Johnston's belief and interest in religion. By the time the Wuchang uprising took place, Johnston witnessed the fall of Qing dynasty. Living in Port Edward for much of a year, Johnston fell in love with Alice Walter (no relations to Robert Walter), but they knew their romance had no real future.

Annotated translation of the Tang Chinese Christian Texts: TEXT A. “Stele of the Diffusion of the Luminous Teaching of Da Qin in China” (Da Qin jingjiao liuxing Zhongguo bei大秦景教流行中國碑‎) TEXT B. (1) “Hymn in Praise of the Salvation Achieved through the Three Majesties of the Luminous Teaching” (Jingjiao sanwei mengdu zan景教三威蒙度讚‎); (2) “Book of the Honored” (Zunjing尊經‎) TEXT C. “Discourse on the One God” (Yishen lun一神論‎): I. “Discourse on the One Godhead” (Yitian lun diyi一天論第一‎) II. “Metaphorical Teaching” (Yu di’er喻第二‎) III. “Discourse of the Honored One of the Universe on Almsgiving” (Shizun bushi lun disan世尊布施論第三‎) TEXT D. “Book of the Lord Messiah” (Xuting mishisuo jing序聽迷詩所經‎) TEXT E. “Book on Profound and Mysterious Blessedness” (Zhixuan anle jing志玄安樂經‎) TEXT F. “Book of the Luminous Teaching of Da Qin on Unveiling the Origin and Attaining the Foundation” (Da Qin jingjiao xuanyuan zhiben jing大秦景教宣元至本經‎)

Annotated translation of the Tang Chinese Christian Texts: TEXT A. “Stele of the Diffusion of the Luminous Teaching of Da Qin in China” (Da Qin jingjiao liuxing Zhongguo bei大秦景教流行中國碑‎) TEXT B. (1) “Hymn in Praise of the Salvation Achieved through the Three Majesties of the Luminous Teaching” (Jingjiao sanwei mengdu zan景教三威蒙度讚‎); (2) “Book of the Honored” (Zunjing尊經‎) TEXT C. “Discourse on the One God” (Yishen lun一神論‎): I. “Discourse on the One Godhead” (Yitian lun diyi一天論第一‎) II. “Metaphorical Teaching” (Yu di’er喻第二‎) III. “Discourse of the Honored One of the Universe on Almsgiving” (Shizun bushi lun disan世尊布施論第三‎) TEXT D. “Book of the Lord Messiah” (Xuting mishisuo jing序聽迷詩所經‎) TEXT E. “Book on Profound and Mysterious Blessedness” (Zhixuan anle jing志玄安樂經‎) TEXT F. “Book of the Luminous Teaching of Da Qin on Unveiling the Origin and Attaining the Foundation” (Da Qin jingjiao xuanyuan zhiben jing大秦景教宣元至本經‎)

Annotated translation of the Tang Chinese Christian Texts: TEXT A. “Stele of the Diffusion of the Luminous Teaching of Da Qin in China” (Da Qin jingjiao liuxing Zhongguo bei大秦景教流行中國碑‎) TEXT B. (1) “Hymn in Praise of the Salvation Achieved through the Three Majesties of the Luminous Teaching” (Jingjiao sanwei mengdu zan景教三威蒙度讚‎); (2) “Book of the Honored” (Zunjing尊經‎) TEXT C. “Discourse on the One God” (Yishen lun一神論‎): I. “Discourse on the One Godhead” (Yitian lun diyi一天論第一‎) II. “Metaphorical Teaching” (Yu di’er喻第二‎) III. “Discourse of the Honored One of the Universe on Almsgiving” (Shizun bushi lun disan世尊布施論第三‎) TEXT D. “Book of the Lord Messiah” (Xuting mishisuo jing序聽迷詩所經‎) TEXT E. “Book on Profound and Mysterious Blessedness” (Zhixuan anle jing志玄安樂經‎) TEXT F. “Book of the Luminous Teaching of Da Qin on Unveiling the Origin and Attaining the Foundation” (Da Qin jingjiao xuanyuan zhiben jing大秦景教宣元至本經‎)

Annotated translation of the Tang Chinese Christian Texts: TEXT A. “Stele of the Diffusion of the Luminous Teaching of Da Qin in China” (Da Qin jingjiao liuxing Zhongguo bei大秦景教流行中國碑‎) TEXT B. (1) “Hymn in Praise of the Salvation Achieved through the Three Majesties of the Luminous Teaching” (Jingjiao sanwei mengdu zan景教三威蒙度讚‎); (2) “Book of the Honored” (Zunjing尊經‎) TEXT C. “Discourse on the One God” (Yishen lun一神論‎): I. “Discourse on the One Godhead” (Yitian lun diyi一天論第一‎) II. “Metaphorical Teaching” (Yu di’er喻第二‎) III. “Discourse of the Honored One of the Universe on Almsgiving” (Shizun bushi lun disan世尊布施論第三‎) TEXT D. “Book of the Lord Messiah” (Xuting mishisuo jing序聽迷詩所經‎) TEXT E. “Book on Profound and Mysterious Blessedness” (Zhixuan anle jing志玄安樂經‎) TEXT F. “Book of the Luminous Teaching of Da Qin on Unveiling the Origin and Attaining the Foundation” (Da Qin jingjiao xuanyuan zhiben jing大秦景教宣元至本經‎)

Annotated translation of the Tang Chinese Christian Texts: TEXT A. “Stele of the Diffusion of the Luminous Teaching of Da Qin in China” (Da Qin jingjiao liuxing Zhongguo bei大秦景教流行中國碑‎) TEXT B. (1) “Hymn in Praise of the Salvation Achieved through the Three Majesties of the Luminous Teaching” (Jingjiao sanwei mengdu zan景教三威蒙度讚‎); (2) “Book of the Honored” (Zunjing尊經‎) TEXT C. “Discourse on the One God” (Yishen lun一神論‎): I. “Discourse on the One Godhead” (Yitian lun diyi一天論第一‎) II. “Metaphorical Teaching” (Yu di’er喻第二‎) III. “Discourse of the Honored One of the Universe on Almsgiving” (Shizun bushi lun disan世尊布施論第三‎) TEXT D. “Book of the Lord Messiah” (Xuting mishisuo jing序聽迷詩所經‎) TEXT E. “Book on Profound and Mysterious Blessedness” (Zhixuan anle jing志玄安樂經‎) TEXT F. “Book of the Luminous Teaching of Da Qin on Unveiling the Origin and Attaining the Foundation” (Da Qin jingjiao xuanyuan zhiben jing大秦景教宣元至本經‎)

Annotated translation of the Tang Chinese Christian Texts: TEXT A. “Stele of the Diffusion of the Luminous Teaching of Da Qin in China” (Da Qin jingjiao liuxing Zhongguo bei大秦景教流行中國碑‎) TEXT B. (1) “Hymn in Praise of the Salvation Achieved through the Three Majesties of the Luminous Teaching” (Jingjiao sanwei mengdu zan景教三威蒙度讚‎); (2) “Book of the Honored” (Zunjing尊經‎) TEXT C. “Discourse on the One God” (Yishen lun一神論‎): I. “Discourse on the One Godhead” (Yitian lun diyi一天論第一‎) II. “Metaphorical Teaching” (Yu di’er喻第二‎) III. “Discourse of the Honored One of the Universe on Almsgiving” (Shizun bushi lun disan世尊布施論第三‎) TEXT D. “Book of the Lord Messiah” (Xuting mishisuo jing序聽迷詩所經‎) TEXT E. “Book on Profound and Mysterious Blessedness” (Zhixuan anle jing志玄安樂經‎) TEXT F. “Book of the Luminous Teaching of Da Qin on Unveiling the Origin and Attaining the Foundation” (Da Qin jingjiao xuanyuan zhiben jing大秦景教宣元至本經‎)