The Economies of Temple Chanting and Conversion in China Eric Reinders
The Economies of Temple Chanting and Conversion in China Eric Reinders e have always found the most earnest idolaters Instructor, and Awake! This large quantity of publications included “Wmake the best Christians; indifference is the hardest numerous stories of these “reading prayers women.” thing to combat,” said a Miss Harrison of the Church Missionary When they observed this practice, many Protestant missionar- Society in 1910.1 Active but low-ranking Buddhists and Taoists ies naturally objected to it, seeing these rituals as praising an idol, were special targets of missionaries in China because they were not the true God. When contemplating this specific practice, they perceived as easier to convert than those who were simply indif- were reminded of the sale of indulgences in Catholicism, which ferent to any religion. So-called heathenism was widely thought they regarded as the worst example of mechanistic salvation. to be a expression of an inherent human impulse toward God, Thomas M’Clatchie, a Church of England missionary, however misguided. reported about his visit to a Buddhist temple in 1845: “In front British missionaries in China thus spent a lot of time in and of the altar was placed a table, on which lay their books used in around Buddhist and Taoist temples. The public spaces in front of temples were logical places to preach. The sight of icons was a common starting point for conversations, which inevitably turned to Jesus. Also, when itinerating, sometimes the only places to stay were Buddhist temples, which effectively functioned as inns. And missionaries knew well the various populations as- sociated with temples—monks, nuns, novices, and lay activists, such as the old women in Buddhist temples who earned religious merit by chanting.
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