Botany or Flowers? The Challenges of Writing the History of the Indigenization of in Gloria S. Tseng

he impressive growth of Christianity in a rapidly mod- his native Province in 1928 and first became known as a Ternizing China in the post-Mao decades has attracted national revivalist in 1931; and Nee began to attract a small circle much recent media attention.1 A look at the development of the of followers in Nanjing in 1927, which developed into the Little Chinese church in the past century of China’s tumultuous history Flock movement. This story is further complicated by the fact reveals an even more extraordinary record.2 Yet the remarkable that a theological fault line ran between the third development story of has been burdened by emotional and the first two. It became pronounced from the mid-1920s baggage stemming from deep historical roots. An element of this on and even shaped the responses of Chinese Christians to the baggage is the unfortunate association of Christianity with West- Communist regime’s policies after 1949. ern military power in the minds of many Chinese in the past one The ecclesiastical, intellectual, and independent-preacher and a half centuries because the door to activity was subplots of the indigenization story are told separately, often opened in the nineteenth century by various “unequal treaties” with conflicting assessments of the historical significance of following the War of 1839–42. Another is the current state the first two on the one hand, and the third on the other. This of the Chinese church, divided between government-sanctioned state of affairs brings to mind a sermon in 1931 by A. W. Tozer Three-Self churches and “house churches,” which are subject to entitled “The Love of God.”3 In this sermon Tozer gave a word government suppression. Both elements are important to the his- of caution to his hearers concerning the subject on which he was tory of Christianity in modern China, but this essay will address preaching: that in analyzing the various aspects of God’s love, one only the latter. More specifically, this essay will address the chal- risks becoming a botanist who takes apart the petals of a flower, lenges of writing an integrated history of the indigenization of with the outcome of this endeavor being botany and no longer a Christianity in twentieth-century China given the current state of flower! While the conflicting currents and historical assessments scholarship on the subject, and with a view to the divided state may seem to be of merely academic interest with regard to the of the contemporary Chinese church. pre-1949 period, they take on greater immediacy with regard to The history of the indigenization of Christianity in China the post-1949 period, for the painful divisions in the contempo- in the twentieth century has three currents: (1) the ecclesiastical rary Chinese church can be traced back to the pre-1949 period. development of the Church of Christ in China, which was the The history of the indigenization of the Chinese church is the culmination of the church-union movement in China in the first spiritual heritage of Chinese Christians; yet without a balanced decades of the twentieth century; (2) the emergence of Chinese assessment and honest acknowledgment of this history, Chinese Christian intellectuals associated with missionary colleges and Christians cannot fully lay hold of this heritage. This essay will universities, the best known of which was ; examine four representative studies as they pertain to one of the and (3) the emergence of independent preachers and their mass three currents of indigenization. The list is by no means exhaus- followings outside denominational missions. The first and the tive; rather, it is only an illustration of the dichotomy that exists second developments shared a similar set of historical actors: in historical assessments of these currents of indigenization. representative figures such as Cheng Jingyi, T. C. Chao (Zhao Zichen), Liu Tingfang, , and Y. T. Wu (Wu Yaozong). Edinburgh 1910 and Cheng Jingyi The third development involved historical actors such as (Song Shangjie), Wang Mingdao, and . The Of the three currents of indigenization, the ecclesiastical is the least rise of these preachers took place somewhat later than the first well studied in terms of depth, though not necessarily in terms two developments. Cheng Jingyi was one of the three Chinese of the number of volumes. Nonetheless, it is indisputable that delegates to attend the World Missionary Conference in Edinburgh within the missionary establishment and among Chinese Christian in 1910, and in 1919 Chinese intellectuals at Yenching University circles associated with it, the movement toward indigenization formed the Peking Apologetic Group, later renamed Life Fellow- received significant encouragement and impetus from the 1910 ship. Momentum for church union in China led to the formation World Missionary Conference, held in Edinburgh, Scotland. In of the National Christian Council of China in 1922. Hence, the his recent study on the conference, Brian Stanley mentions the individuals associated with the first two developments were contribution of Cheng Jingyi, one of only three Chinese delegates already in positions of leadership and considered the spokesmen out of 1,215 official delegates to the conference.4 At the time of the of the emerging indigenous Chinese church by the time Wang, conference, Cheng was a twenty-eight-year-old assistant pastor Sung, and Nee entered the national scene. Wang began a con- of a newly established church of the London Missionary Society gregation of his own in in 1925; Sung began preaching in (LMS) in Beijing. He was also a fairly new Christian, having been converted at the age of seventeen at a revival meeting in Tianjin. Gloria S. Tseng is Associate Professor in the History He had already been to Great Britain, having been invited there Department of Hope College, Holland, Michigan. She in 1903 to assist an LMS missionary in revising the Union version teaches courses on modern Europe, modern China, and of the Mandarin New Testament; he had also studied at the Bible Christianity in China. —[email protected] Training Institute in Glasgow from 1906 to 1908. This current of indigenization was located within the Protes- tant missionary enterprise in China, even though its initiative did not originate solely from . In fact, Stanley observes that Cheng “made a profound and even disturbing impact” at

10 International Bulletin of Missionary Research, Vol. 36, No. 1 the conference through the two speeches he gave: one on the Protestant church in China is unequivocally positive: “Finally, a morning of Thursday, June 16, in the debate of the report of word of tribute should be voiced for all those servants of the Commission II; the other on the morning of Tuesday, June 21, in Church, Chinese and missionary, who had a share in the move- the debate of the report of Commission VIII. Both commission ment for unity which culminated in the Church of Christ in reports—“The Church in the Mission Field” (II) and “Cooperation China, and the many who quietly and devotedly participated, and the Promotion of Unity” (VIII)—addressed issues that were often under great difficulty, in danger and deprivation, in the pertinent to the Chinese church. In his speeches, Cheng urged work and witness of that Church. Many of them are already gone that the Chinese church be allowed to support itself and direct its from our midst; most of their names have already disappeared own life, and that a united Protestant church be formed in China.5 from man’s notice. But they are known to God, and their labors Cheng’s participation in the 1910 World Missionary Confer- have surely borne good fruit.”8 ence propelled him into a position of leadership in the Protestant missionary enterprise in China and gave him a place in subsequent Samuel Ling on Chinese Christian Intellectuals international missionary conferences. The respect to him given by the conference leaders can be seen in the fact that he was among This sanguine assessment of the Church of Christ in China and those recommended by the business committee for membership in the indigenization movement it represented is called in ques- the Continuation Committee to carry on the spirit of cooperation tion by at least two studies, each a representative work on one in missions; he was chosen as the one representative from China of the other two currents of indigenization, namely, the Chinese among the thirty-five members.6 Subsequently, the Continuation Christian intellectuals and the independent preachers; they are Committee evolved into the International Missionary Council in Samuel Ling’s “The Other May Fourth Movement” and Lian 1921, in which Cheng remained involved until the end of his life. Xi’s Redeemed by Fire. Both studies have an indirect bearing on Upon his return to China, he was ordained to be the pastor of assessing the historical significance of the Church of Christ in Mi-shi Hutong church, where he had served as an assistant pastor. China, and they illustrate the bifurcated state of historical studies In addition, following steps to establish a national branch of the on the indigenization of Christianity in China, which is in turn Continuation Committee in 1912–13, Cheng was appointed the mirrored in the divided state of the contemporary Chinese church. first joint secretary of the China Continuation Committee. The “The Other May Fourth Movement” is a study of Chinese six conferences of the China Continuation Committee held in Christian intellectuals of the May Fourth generation,9 men who China in early 1913 stressed three-self principles as the goal and had been converted to the Christian faith as a result of having promoted the idea of federation as a first step toward full union. In Shanghai in 1922 he presided over the inaugural conference of the National Christian Council of China, which was the suc- The painful divisions in cessor to the China Continuation Committee. And from 1924 to 1933 he served as the general secretary of the National Christian the contemporary Chinese Council of China. In 1927 he presided over the formation of the church can be traced back Church of Christ in China, which united sixteen Presbyterian, Congregational, and Baptist church bodies; Cheng was appointed to the pre-1949 period. its first moderator (later general secretary), serving till his death in 1939. The impetus given by the Edinburgh conference to the indigenization of the Chinese church is reiterated by Stanley: “The been exposed to the liberal wing of the Protestant missionary vision of a single three-self nondenominational church, which enterprise in China and who went on to take their place as the Communists forcibly imposed on the Chinese Protestant leaders of the liberal wing of the Chinese Protestant church and churches after 1951, thus saw a partial realization over twenty in the movement leading up to the formation of the Church of years earlier, a fact which is often forgotten. The Edinburgh con- Christ in China.10 In this work Ling argues that Christianity has ference had played an important part by giving Cheng Jingyi and an important place in the intellectual history of the May Fourth other Chinese spokesmen the platform for the initial articulation movement, even though the impact of Christianity has been of that vision.”7 obscured by the Communist victory of 1949. Ling focuses on Chinese Christian intellectuals of the liberal persuasion, because Wallace Merwin on Chinese Church Union Chinese Christian fundamentalists such as Wang Mingdao and Watchman Nee were not active in the May Fourth circles. The ecclesiastical development of the Church of Christ in China Ling points out that liberal Protestant Christianity, in con- probably deserves more scholarly attention than it has received trast with conservative, fundamentalist Protestantism, had certain to date. The developments of the church union movement in distinctive theological presuppositions: the educability of man, China in the early decades of the twentieth century are chronicled the immanence of God, emphasis on the humanity of Christ, in the yearly Zhonghua Jidu jiaohui nianjian (China Church Year- and the hope of the coming kingdom through social reform. book), published by the China Continuation Committee and It also found expression in China through institutions such as the National Christian Council of China from 1914 to 1936. As the Christian colleges and schools, as well as the Y.M.C.A. and of yet there is no study based on this valuable primary source. Y.W.C.A. These missionary organizations constituted the theo- Even Wallace Merwin’s Adventure in Unity: The Church of Christ logical and institutional contexts in which the members of the in China (1974), the only English-language work on the Church Life Fellowship operated. Ling names two central concerns of of Christ in China, uses only English-language sources. In Mer- the project of these Chinese Christian intellectuals, who sought win’s estimation, the church union movement represented by to find a viable alternative for China’s social problems: “These the Church of Christ in China was “of considerable significance two concerns can be summarized by the terms ‘indigenization’ and a worthy chapter in the history of the Christian church.” and ‘social reconstruction.’ The former is a concern specific to His assessment of this current in the indigenization of the Christians; the latter is shared by almost all Chinese intellectu-

January 2012 11 als at the time. ‘Indigenization,’ understood as the as “ostensibly Christian in theology but no less traditionally of both the organization and the theology of the church, can be Chinese in temperament,” because “popular millenarianism seen as the Christian parallel of nationalism in China. ‘Social came to define the indigenous, largely sectarian, Christianity in reconstruction’ represents the desire to solve China’s social the twentieth century.” Lian sees the growth of popular Christi- problems; it is here especially that the ‘contest of ideas’ took anity as the latest development in the line of popular millennial place. The important point, however, is that Chinese Christians movements in Chinese history: shared the concerns of their contemporary nationals. Their fate was the fate of the Chinese people; they identified themselves In fact, the emergence of homegrown churches since the Repub- first with the Chinese people, and second with their religion.” lican era points to an evolution of popular religion in modern In other words, the Chinese Christian intellectuals’ engagement China, when Christianity joined indigenous beliefs in supplying with the political concerns of their age significantly shaped the the core ideology in sectarian movements. Like most messianic indigenization they represented. In the end, Ling offers the fol- convulsions in Chinese history, the drive toward a fiery, apoca- lyptic Christianity in modern China was largely induced by lowing less-than-sanguine assessment of these Christian intel- political, national, and environmental crises, and by momentous lectuals’ project: “After 1927, their appeals for Christian social social change along with overwhelming personal distress; it has reconstruction became increasingly hollow and obsolete. Some also brought forth a religious response on a matching chiliastic turned disillusioned, and became radical. In both their intellectual scale. . . . It has, in sum, fostered a new form of messianism in a outlook in 1919, and the onslaught of their critics in 1922, the country where millenarian movements have been one of the few Christian Renaissance typified the failure of liberal Protestantism possible ways to channel the aspirations and the discontent of to infiltrate the Chinese society and to capture leadership in the the masses.13 intellectual arena.”11 Whereas Ling presents the subject of his study in opposi- Lian Xi on Chinese Independent Preachers tion to the conservative wing of Protestantism, Lian presents the subject of his study in opposition to the liberal wing of Pro- In contrast, Lian’s Redeemed by Fire: The Rise of Popular Christian- testantism—more specifically to the version of indigenization ity in Modern China examines various indigenous, or populist, represented by the Church of Christ in China and its leaders. manifestations of the faith, as opposed to developments within Both, however, come to a very similar historical assessment. Lian denominational or missionary churches or among Western- sees the student-led anti-Christian movement that broke out educated Chinese Christians associated with denominational across China in 1922 as evidence that early twentieth-century or missionary churches. Regarding contemporary indigenous missionary efforts at indigenizing Christianity had failed, for Chinese Christianity, Lian observes, “With a predominantly rural Chinese students had rejected the message of the YMCA and the and lower-class membership, the homegrown Christianity has Mott-Eddy campaigns, which equated national salvation with been characterized by a potent mix of evangelistic fervor, bibli- the development of Christian character. Concerning these efforts cal literalism, charismatic ecstasies, and a fiery eschatology not to indigenize Christianity in China, Lian notes, “At best, Cheng infrequently tinged with nationalistic exuberance.” He traces Jingyi and his generation of Protestant leaders cultivated by the these characteristics through his study of the various indigenous missionaries succeeded only in fulfilling the missionary vision Christian groups examined in the book. He also notes the dramatic of a native church safely within the limits of mainline Western change of Christianity’s relationship with the rural masses: “It is Protestantism.” In short, Chinese Christian leaders who rose not an insignificant change in the fortunes of Chinese Christian- through the Protestant missionary enterprise preached “a mis- sionary Christianity.”14 This is essentially the same conclusion mas Ling’s assessment that Chinese Christian intellectuals asso- The history of the ciated with the Protestant missionary establishment failed to persuade their countrymen of the relevance of the social indigenization of for China. Christianity in China is not only fragmented The Need for an Integrated History but also contentious. As the studies discussed above show, the history of the indi- genization of Christianity in China is not only fragmented but also contentious. Which one of the three currents represented ity over the past century that, in many areas of the country, the the genuine emerging indigenous Chinese church? Implicitly rural masses have completed a journey from church demolishers or explicitly, this question runs through the works of Merwin, to church builders and defenders.” Lian defines “popular Chris- Ling, Lian, and, to a lesser extent, Stanley, even as each work tianity” as follows: “For the Republican period, I find it mostly demonstrates the unique contributions of each of the three outside denominational missions, even though its influence also currents of indigenization. All three agree on the importance spread among them. After 1949, it retained its antiestablishment of developments in the pre-1949 period, and two of the three predilection and throve in opposition to the Three-Self churches, studies specifically point to a theological fault line that divided although the latter were not impervious to its irrepressible energy. the ecclesiastical and intellectual currents on the one hand from During both periods, it captured the religious fervor and creativ- the independent preachers on the other: that is, the modernist- ity of the masses that were excluded, for the most part, from the fundamentalist controversy. pursuits of the elite in Chinese society.”12 The roots of the divided state of both historical scholarship on Lian argues that the two main elements of popular Chinese the indigenization of Christianity in China and the contemporary Christianity and their historical roots are nationalism and mes- Chinese church are theological and historical. The modernist- sianic convictions. He describes popular Chinese Christianity fundamentalist controversy had a far-reaching impact on the

12 International Bulletin of Missionary Research, Vol. 36, No. 1 indigenizing Chinese church. It was highly divisive within both continue to cause a painful rift between Three-Self and house missionary and Chinese Christian circles, as Kevin Xiyi Yao’s churches after the reopening of churches in 1979, especially for 2003 study on the fundamentalist movement among China long-time Chinese Christians who have suffered through the years missionaries in the 1920s and 1930s carefully documents and as of Communist repression and are now elderly. Ironically, a visitor the discourse of fundamentalist Chinese Christian leaders of who walks into a Three-Self church and a today the time illustrates.15 It shaped the initial responses of Chinese will likely find that the two are not very different theologically. Christians to the Chinese government’s religious policy in the In fact, modernist theology has all but disappeared, except at the first decade of the Communist regime’s existence, evidenced highest level of national leadership.17 This in itself is an interesting most notably in the fact that the leader of the Three-Self Patri- historical development worthy of a separate study, but more otic Movement in the 1950s was the modernist Y. T. Wu, and important, the fragmented state of current scholarship on the the most vociferous opponent to this movement on theological history of the indigenization of Christianity in China mirrors grounds was the fundamentalist Wang Mingdao.16 Moreover, the divided state of the contemporary Chinese Church. Just as it has shaped to some extent the ways in which historians deal an integrated history that brings together the three currents of with this history and the three currents that are found in it, as indigenization is essential to an accurate understanding of this the studies discussed above show. significant historical development, so acknowledging the theo- In addition to the theological fault line, the historical circum- logical and political roots of the Three-Self Patriotic Movement stances of the post-1949 Three-Self Patriotic Movement added as it developed after 1949 is key to a mature Chinese church, in political oil to the theological fire. Today, even though most Chi- which Chinese Christians fully lay hold of their unique spiritual nese Christians have a very limited knowledge of the historical heritage. roots of the current state of the Chinese church, historical wounds Notes 1. “New Believers: A Religious Revolution in China,” NPR, July Chinese nationalism, in addition to laying the foundation for the 19–23, 2010. Two of the five reports in the series were devoted to later rise of the Chinese Communist Party, came to be synonymous Christianity: “In the Land of Mao, a Rising Tide of Christianity,” with the intellectual effervescence of the 1910s and 1920s. July 19; and “China’s Divided Catholics Seek Reconciliation,” July 10. Samuel D. Ling, “The Other May Fourth Movement: The Chinese 20. Also Heart and Soul, “Christianity in China,” two episodes, BBC ‘Christian Renaissance,’ 1919–1937” (Ph.D. diss., Temple Univ., 1980). World Service, first aired on August 25 and September 1, 2010. 11. Ibid., pp. 5–6, 10, 81. 2. Todd M. Johnson and Kenneth R. Ross, eds., Atlas of Global Christianity, 12. Lian Xi, Redeemed by Fire: The Rise of Popular Christianity in Modern 1910–2010 (Edinburgh: Edinburgh Univ. Press, 2009), p. 140, report China (New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 2010), pp. 2, 3, 12. that between 1910 and 2010, the number of Christians in China grew 13. Ibid., pp. 14, 16. from 0.4 percent to 8.6 percent, or from approximately 1.7 million to 14. Ibid., pp. 40–41.­ 115 million. 15. Kevin Xiyi Yao, The Fundamentalist Movement Among Protestant 3. Tozer was a longtime pastor of the Christian and Missionary Alliance Missionaries in China, 1920–1937 (Lanham, Md.: Univ. Press of America, and editor of Alliance Life. The Web site of the C&MA contains audio 2003). Wang Mingdao and John Sung were both well known for their files of Tozer’s sermons, at www.cmalliance.org/resources/tozer denunciations of modernist theology. -audio-sermons. 16. For Wu, see Gao Wangzhi, “Y. T. Wu: A Christian Leader Under 4. Brian Stanley, The World Missionary Conference, Edinburgh 1910 (Grand Communism,” in Christianity in China: From the Eighteenth Century Rapids: Eerdmans, 2009), pp. 91–92. to the Present, ed. Daniel H. Bays (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford Univ. 5. Ibid., pp. 108–9. Press, 1996). For Wang, see Thomas Alan Harvey, Acquainted with 6. Ibid., pp. 109–10. Grief: Wang Mingdao’s Stand for the Persecuted Church in China (Grand 7. Ibid., p. 311. Rapids: Brazos Press, 2002). 8. Wallace C. Merwin, Adventure in Unity: The Church of Christ in China 17. Its foremost spokesman is K. H. Ting, former Anglican bishop, (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1974), p. 11. currently principal of Nanjing Union Theological Seminary. He was 9. The May Fourth alluded to in Ling’s title is May 4, 1919, when several the president of the and the leader of the thousand students in Beijing protested against the decision taken Three-Self Patriotic Movement from 1980 to 1997. Modernist theology by the Allied powers at the Versailles Peace Conference to transfer can also be found among “cultural Christians” in academia, but they German rights in Shandong province to Japan. This outburst of are not pertinent to the issues raised in this essay.

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