Book Reviews
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Book Reviews Handbook of Christianity in China. Vol. 2: 1800–Present. Edited by R. G. Tiedemann. Leiden: Brill, 2010. (Handbook of Oriental Studies. Section 4, China, 15.) Pp. xxxviii, 1,050. €249 / $369. It is difficult to know whether the the hundreds of different prefectures of a biographical essay by Fredrik Fällman magnificent second volume of the and vicariates apostolic. Even here, on the Swedish Protestant mission is Handbook of Christianity in China will be though, it is useful to have the pinyin presented as a foil to understandings of of greater value to scholars or to students. names of districts alongside the earlier mission driven by imperial goals. Other This grand tome of a reference volume, Romanization and the characters, as it is to essays are useful because they distill a weighing in at over four pounds, has have a reference list of the Chinese names well-known period or topic into a concen- been long awaited in the ever-growing of all the Protestant mission societies. trated few pages of value to the general world of Chinese Christian studies. Given Snapshot data sets—such as statistics on reader: P. Richard Bohr’s article on Taiping its size and cost, the volume is clearly the numbers of priests, brothers, sisters, religion is an excellent example of this. aimed at libraries, but it will be a truly catechumens, and churchgoers by district In such a full historical survey, there impoverished library that cannot afford in 1940, or the number of Protestant places are inevitable imbalances. Whereas the to stock such a comprehensive work of of worship or communicant members late Qing period enjoys some 400 pages scholarship. Following on from volume 1 in 1950—give a basis for understanding of essay text, and the Republican era 300, (2001), edited by Nicolas Standaert, Gary growth and for teaching about the reach the period from 1949 to the present is Tiedemann’s volume, which will surely of the Chinese church. And someday allotted a rather scant 100 pages. This may remain the reference work on late Qing someone may need to know that, while be a function of the quantity of material and twentieth-century Christianity for the first mission society operating in available, but it betrays one of the volume’s some time to come, picks up the story just China was the Order of Friars Minor in inherent biases: toward missiological and before the first Protestant missionary steps the thirteenth century, the latecomers in historical studies. There is almost nothing foot in China in 1807. Catholic, Protestant, the Society of St. Sulpice (1934) and the on worship or liturgy in the church, for and Orthodox histories are all covered in Order of Discalced Carmelites (1947) had example, and very little on the theology both the reference material and a series of barely arrived before they were expelled. of the emerging independent Chinese analytic essays. Tiedemann generously thanks his advisory church. I would have liked to see a more It is worth taking some time to grasp board and assistants, but he should take detailed treatment of the thought of some the structure of this volume of a thousand- the credit for this immense task of data- early twentieth-century theologians, such plus pages, since much searching among gathering. Students at undergraduate and as Wu Leichuan or T. C. Chao, and more the indexes, appendixes, and sections might graduate levels now have a first port of coverage of the establishment of the be saved by doing so. The book follows call to help them with source queries for Three-Self Patriotic Movement church in a three-part overall structure, separating almost any question related to Chinese the 1950s. Only one mainland Chinese out the late Qing China, Republican Christianity. Since no researcher in the historian appears among the essay writ- China, and the People’s Republic (PRC). field can be aware of all of the sources ers, although several are from Hong A coda presents a concluding essay on the available in each language, including the Kong. The acronyms of the Western mis- Bible in China across the two centuries, a various European languages included, sion societies are allotted several pages of welcome theological survey to complete whose resources have been underutilized, space, but there is no attempt at a list of an overwhelmingly historical volume. the volume also serves as a reference tool contemporary Chinese churches. Given The three-part political/chronological for experts. the expertise of the editor and the diffi- division is mainly functional, and each part For the general reader and for most culty of providing accurate contempo- comprises four parallel sections: Sources, students, the essays and articles will be rary data, this is understandable, but a Actors, Scene (i.e., background situation in the focus of interest. Fifty essays, by thirty shortcoming nevertheless. China), and Themes. The “Sources” section leading scholars in the field, cover topics The foreign-centeredness of the dis- for each era lists Chinese primary sources from conversion methods, to opium, to course is at times a question of ordering. (histories, plus provincial, municipal, communities of Chinese women religious. The first article in the section “Actors” in the and local archives) and Western primary The geographic scope is widened in post-1950 part, by Beatrice Kit Fun Leung, sources, both printed and manuscript, the PRC section to include Hong Kong, is devoted to missionaries, although they listed by denomination and country, Macao, and Taiwan. The concentration were definitely not the key players in the alongside translations, periodicals, and of such scholarship in one volume is its church in this period. Leung’s article is, special collections. As Tiedemann notes, forte; in short but authoritative essays, moreover, old-style mission history, a play the proliferation of mission societies (to the reader can trace key historical events of religious orders and numbers. History more than 400) in the early twentieth from the Taipings, to the Boxers, to the is ever interpretation, but noting at the century means that some players are listed effects of the Korean War, and can learn outset that “the exile of Chinese clergy with only bare details in the appendixes. of the key figures and actors and follow and religious was not due to expulsion The achievement in producing this wealth the ideological debates that accompanied but flight from the hardship imposed on of up-to-date reference material in the such events. Some of the essays are helpful them in political purges” (p. 795) obscures Handbook should not be underestimated; because of their rare perspective; a short the greater story of those Chinese clergy it is a major strength of the volume. chapter by Alexander Lomanov on the who did not take flight, and Leung’s Some data are fairly specialized, such rebuilding of the Russian Orthodox story immediately shifts to Hong Kong as the table in the appendix of Roman mission, 1900–1917, covered a gap in my and relief programs rather than staying Catholic Jurisdictions, 1924–46, listing knowledge, for example, and the inclusion with those who remained. In contrast, in July 2010 179 Alan Hunter and Chan Kim Kwong’s as that of Alan Miller, which discusses the adherents, where even state churches article on the growth of the Chinese church main Christian studies centers in China, may run Bible studies, house groups, since 1949, they acknowledge that many is already dated. and English-language worship services details of their subject “will probably There is one debate on which readers led by lay preachers, in a context (in the remain forever a mystery” because much might expect to distill enlightenment but Protestant church, at least) where many of it was of necessity undocumented and that is covered cautiously in the Handbook: churchgoers now attend both TSPM and underground. Hunter and Chan’s essay that of tension between the official and house-church services. A reference volume is helpful in reminding us that Chinese unofficial churches in the PRC era. It is still cannot really allow itself the luxury of intellectuals and Christians (as well as perhaps too soon to adequately assess the polemic discourse, a further reason why many foreigners) did not need prodding record of division and bitterness between the late Qing and the Republican eras are to support the Communist aims and ideals those who acceded to Communist Party covered more strongly and in more detail. early in PRC rule. demands and those who did not. Articles I began with the difficulty of gauging Although the title of the Handbook by Dunch, Tiedemann, and Miller, among which audience this second volume proclaims its scope as 1800–present, others, touch on these debates, without of the Handbook of Christianity in China there is very little on recent church a strong party line emerging. The status would appeal to more. Another difficulty movements and politics, in part because of the underground Roman Catholic has arisen: that of doing justice to this much of the growth since the 1990s is still Church and the official church vis-à-vis splendid volume in a short review. I can filtering through academic minds and Rome is likewise treated with kid gloves. only recommend that anyone interested in publications. The lag time means that The closest the volume gets to a view on the recent history of Christianity in China the proliferation of academic works in the divided church appears in Chan’s take a trip to the nearest academic library Chinese, for example, on topics such as article: “We feel it mistaken to regard the and dip into the Handbook—it will prove Christian philosophy or the sociology of TSPM and all connected with it simply a long and absorbing visit.