Book Reviews
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Book Reviews China, American Catholicism, and the Missionary. By Thomas A. Breslin. University Park, Pa.: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1980. Pp. 144. $15.95. Most recent published research on the work of Christian missions every Religion in China. history of American Christian missions where. There is no adequate discussion in China has focused on Protestant of the phenomenon here, simply a sin By Robert G. Orr. New York: Friendship mission work. In 1980 two books on gle quotation from one missionary that Press, 1980. Pp. 144. Paperback $4.95. Catholic mission history in China were "many Catholics entered the Church published: Eric Hanson's Catholic Politics simply for the sake of protection, tem Like Breslin's book (above), Robert in China and Korea (Orbis Books), and poral goods or financial assistance." Orr's Religion in China is short, only 144 Thomas Breslin's China, American Ca How many, and at what time and pages; yet his is more a standard over tholicism, and the Missionary-which re place, under what historical duress? view of religion in China, with over sembles Paul Varg's Missionaries, Chinese Did the pattern vary over time? How half the book devoted to the history of andDiplomats (1958) in its critical, icon many "real" Christians were there? Christianity in China, primarily that oclastic approach. Again, "The basic strategy of the history which followed the founding Reduced from a much longer Roman Catholic Church in China was of the People's Republic of China in Ph.D. dissertation, Breslin's book suf to attract socially marginal Chinese 1949. Having made that choice, he pre fers from the space limitation imposed ..." Where is that strategy enunciated sents scholarly, compact chapters on by the publisher: with only 116 pages by church leadership? There was a the history of Christian missions in of narrative, the author was forced to "failure to draw persons from the Chi China, the theory and practice of reli cut short any number of fascinating nese mainstream." What is meant by gion under the Communist govern sections which deserve detailed and "mainstream"? Catholic missions ment, and two chapters on anecdotal treatment. One wishes for worked primarily with rural villagers Protestantism and Catholicism in Chi more background information, more who composed nearly 90 percent of the na since 1949. While there is consider details of the life and work of Ameri population. Would they not, therefore, able overlap with books previously can rrussioners and their Chinese constitute the true mainstream? published (Francis Jones, Richard Bush, colleagues and parishioners, more ver The author writes of the "destruc M . Searle Bates, Michael Chu, Donald batim selections taken from oral histo tion of a battered Church" by 1950 and MacInnis and others) these chapters ry interviews, diaries and letters. As the "failure of American Catholic mis update information on the church in with other published works on China sions." He does not define success or China since those books were pub missions, there is a shortage of infor failure by either his own or the lished. mation about the Chinese who formed church's standards, or what he means In six short chapters Part Two the church: Who were the church by destruction. If he means the non deals with Chinese religions, Islam and members, from what classes were they survival of Chinese Catholics as a body Judaism in China past and present. drawn, how were they recruited, of believers, then recent reports from While numerous scholarly volumes on trained and nourished in the faith? The many visitors who have returned to each of these religions are available in author's western sources are extensive, their home towns and villages disprove English, the author provides a service but no Chinese language sources are the charges, for it is clear that Catholics for the neophyte reader: these clearly cited. at the local level have sustained the written summaries provide accurate in A second problem, perhaps linked faith and the community with great troductions to these religions, together to the first, is the tendency for gener vigor. with overviews of their present status. alization supported by inadequate doc The main problem in writing mis One sub-chapter, for example, is titled umentation---often single quotations sion history is to avoid celebrative ha "Whatever Happened to Confucius?" taken from a missioner's correspon giography on the one hand, and Part Three, in less than eight dence or diary. One of these is the au adopting an excessively "critical" pages, raises some unanswered ques thor's charge, used twice in this stance on the other. While this volume tions, all of them apposite. Perhaps the volume, that China was a "dumping does provide a brief but comprehensive most poignant question is, "Can all hu ground" for surplus American religious overview of the history of American man problems really be solved by the aspirants, enthusiasts, mavericks, mis Catholic missions in China, its pre reordering of human society? Or is fits and disturbed personnel. If there dominant stress on faults rather than there a fundamental human nature ... was truth for this allegation it is not virtues of the missioners mars its ob in need of help from beyond human demonstrated in the text or footnotes. jectivity. resources?" (p. 134). To substantiate this serious charge one -Donald MacInnis -Donald MacInnis needs more than footnote reference to unquoted correspondence between two Donald Macinnis is Director 0/ the Maryknoll in or three missioner priests. China History Project, and Coordinator lor China The term "rice Christian" is wide Research at the Maryknoll M issionSociely, Mary ly known and often used to abuse the knoll. New York. April,1981 79 Catholic Politics in China and Coming Home-to China. Korea. By Creighton Lacy. Philadelphia: West By Eric 0. Hanson . Maryknoll, N. Y: Orbis minster Press, 1978. Pp. 156. Paperback $4.95, Books, 1980. Pp. xiii, 140. Paperback $9.95. This book fills a gap of long standing that the older China possessed a contiCreighton Lacy believes "that the by providing a framework of political nental outlook which held to its own Maoist version of socialism has been analysis for understanding the work of economic, political, and cultural suffi good for the Chinese people, and will the Catholic Church in China, Taiwan, ciency, while in the 19th and 20th cen continue to be." But he is convinced and Korea . As the second in the Ameri turies there has been a maritime milieu "that Chinese civilization is the more can Society of Missiology Series, this in which transnational institutions like enduring reality" (p. 152). These some work will be of help to church histori business firms and churches estab what general and not entirely surpris ans, political scientists, and mission ad lished bases in maritime port areas ing conclusions are drawn as the result ministrators in understanding the role from which to launch movements for of a three weeks' visit to China in the of the churches in the Chinese milieu, change in the Chinese hinterland. spring of 1977. Lacy's report has one which has been for both Catholics and The author has two fundamental great advantage over those of a hun Protestants a major testing ground for theses which underlie his analyses. The dred other accounts that have appeared the theory and practice of mission in first is that the policies of governments recently: he grew up in Shanghai and the modern world. in China and Korea toward religions spent some three years (1947-50) as a Eric O . Hanson is well qualified to throughout the centuries have had young missionary elsewhere in China. write such a study, for he has a .doctor similar elements, whether the govern He writes therefore from a perspective ate in political science from Stanford ments have been those of Imperial Chi that most others lack, and one purpose University, has studied at Fu [en Uni na, or of the Kuomintang, or of the of his book is clearly to add some grays versity and the National Taiwan Uni People's Republic of China, or of anti to the blacks and whites that character versity, and,is now Assistant Professor Communist regimes in South Korea . ize most reports from China. of Political Science in the University of All such governments have sought to One chapter, for example, is de California at Santa Clara. deal with religions (including Catholi voted to the correction of some popular Hanson ' begins with a brief his cism) by seeking to penetrate, to regu misconceptions that have developed torical surveyor the coming of Ca late, and to control them. Such because of the tendency to think that tholicism to Ch ina and Korea from the governments could never ,tolerate het social evils in China were corrected 16th century to 'the present. He s.tresses erodox religions of peasant sectarian only with liberation. Extraterritoriality ism, and when such religions have (the Unequal Treaties) was terminated arisen--even among Catholics-gov not in 1949 but in 1943. Footbinding ernments have tried to destroy them by was gone by the 1930s. There still is persecution. A second thesis is that purely decorative art, without a politi governments in China and Korea have cally didactic purpose, produced in objected to the Catholic Church pri China-but handcrafts are generally marily because of its transnational na not as good as in Old China. The find ture, which makes it difficult to be ing of dead bodies was not an everyday co-opted for nationalist ends. affair on old Shanghai's streets; the au The writer carefully analyzes the thor had grown up there and had never confrontations of the Catholic Church seen one.