1 Introduction James Hudson Taylor (1832-1905, hereafter referred to as Taylor) was the founder and leader of the China Inland Mission (CIM) which began in 1865. He was a ‘seminal’ and controversial figure in mission history who forged a path that inspired many to work in China.1 In 1905 the ‘large and influential’ CIM was described as an 'international octopus' with over eight hundred men and women working at sixty stations in fifteen out of the eighteen provinces of China.2 The work of the CIM continues today under the name OMF International.3 When Taylor died in 1905, one of his colleagues John Stevenson (1844-1918) wrote: No thoughtful person can seriously contemplate the history of the CIM in the homelands or in China without being impressed with the statesmanlike tact and wisdom displayed by Mr Taylor in all his arrangements, and with the striking variety of ways in which he harmonised and conserved such a variety of different elements and interests into one common cause and aim - the glory of God and the salvation of the Chinese. The spiritual influence of his life on the home churches was very great, and it is no exaggeration to say that missionary enterprise throughout the world owes more to him than we shall in this generation ever be able to gauge.4 It is this man, James Hudson Taylor, that is the central focus of this study. 1.1 Stating the problem It is often alleged that the historians of the Victorian church and of China have overlooked the contribution of the missionaries.5 For example, a reviewer of a book about the spread of Christianity, noted that the writers fail to mention the contributions to mission thinking of either Taylor or his contemporary, John L. Nevius in discussing the planting of nationally run churches in China.6 Professional historians have been cited for their neglect of the contribution of nineteenth-century missionaries from England,7 often missing major dimensions of understanding the missionary movement.8Andrew Walls highlights this omission showing the importance of the modern missionary movement as a product of Western church history.9 The work of the missionaries acted in a two-fold manner: taking the contribution of the western church to the non-western world as well as mediating 1 Michael Collins Reilly, Spirituality for Mission: Historical, Theological, and Cultural Factors for a Present-day Missionary Spirituality (New York: Orbis Books, 1978), p. 47. 2 Alvyn Austin, China's Millions: The China Inland Mission and Late Qing Society 1832-1905 (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2007), p. xxiv. 3 John Pollock, Hudson Taylor and Maria (Ross-shire: Christian Focus, 1996), p. 8. 4 John W. Stevenson, China’s Millions (September 1905), pp. 118-119. 5 Andrew F. Walls, ‘Structural Problems in Mission Studies’, The Missionary Movement in Christian History (Edinburgh: T & T Clark), pp. 143-144, see also Jan A. B. Jongeneel, The Philosophy & Science of Mission in the 19th and 20th Centuries Part 1, 2nd ed. (Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 2002), p. 252. Chadwick acknowledges in passing that two Evangelical institutions, the CMS and the Bible Society showed a rise in numbers but fails to mention other significant developments in missions. Owen Chadwick, The Victorian Church, Part 1 (London: Adam and Charles Black, 1971), p. 446. 6 John Marsh, reviewing Richard Harries and Henry Mayr-Harting, Christianity: Two Thousand Years (Oxford: OUP, 2001) in Evangelicals Now, March 2002. 7 Edward V. Gulick, Peter Parker and the Opening of China (Harvard: Harvard University Press, 1973), p.vii; Alvyn Austin, ‘Pilgrims and Strangers: the China Inland Mission in Britain, Canada, the United States and China 1865-1901’, Ph.D. thesis (Ontario: York, 1996), p. 25. 8 Judith Rowbotham, ‘This is no Romantic Story: Reporting the Work of British Female Missionaries, c. 1850-1910’, Currents in World Christianity, Position Paper 4 (Cambridge: 1996), p. 3. 9 Walls, ‘The Eighteenth Century Protestant Awakening in its European Context’, in Brian Stanley (ed), Christian Missions and the Enlightenment (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2001), p. 23. 2 back to the western church the religions and culture of these peoples. All this is a vital part of Western Christian history and yet Walls sees that ‘it is not a well worked field’10 often ignored by church historians. This reflects the perspective that even at its height, the missionary movement was always considered a ‘marginal activity’ pursued by a minority of Western Christians.11 Taylor and many other missionaries have been relegated to the sphere of popular biography which focuses on their ministerial exploits rather than on their missiological or theological significance. Although most missionaries were not theologians making a contribution to theology as a discipline, they nevertheless operated with theological assumptions and arguably were to have a more enduring influence on the developing church world-wide than the ‘professional’ theologians. The tide may be turning. Eleanor Jackson raises the issue of the theological impetus behind many missionaries when she writes: Just as there is little awareness of the sociology of Evangelical Missions, there is no appreciation of the level to which missionaries and their supporters were saturated in the Bible, not just the letter to the Romans …… it is hard to grasp the degree to which missions were driven by a sense of transcendental reality.12 Brian Stanley also cues into this crucial background for an understanding of mission among Evangelicals: It was because they were unambiguously people of the Book, men and women whose consciousness was soaked in the Bible and whose experience confirmed the scriptural testimony to the natural depravity of humanity and the sovereignty of divine grace.13 This direction is confirmed by Daniel Hardy, who argues that theological orthodoxy is ‘central to the nature and practice of mission’.14 He notes the tendency within the study of missions to focus on chronological factors, more easily researched, than on the theological propulsion for mission. Without this, the study of mission is often one-dimensional, for it pays little attention to the fundamental orientation that guides and sustains missionaries. Hardy argues for the study of the theological notions underlying the motivations and assurances of mission, ‘so that the events can be seen within a theological context’.15 He is unable to develop this theme but he lists a number of areas within which theological orthodoxy operates and through them he shows that the how and why of mission are driven dynamically by theological convictions.16 Although these signs may be encouraging, there is little agreement about where this restoration of a theology of mission might begin. Klaus Fiedler issues a challenge for the development of a contemporary missiology but neglects to include the important issue of the use of the Bible in mission. His list, although obviously not exhaustive, illustrates the tendency of evangelical research in the area of missions to shy away from specifically theological agendas in favour of the anthropological, the historical and the sociological perspective.17 10 Walls, Eighteenth Century Protestant Awakening, p. 23. 11 Ibid., p 24 12 Eleanor Jackson, review of Stanley, Christian Missions, in Bi-ennial newsletter of BIAMS (March 2002), No 18. 13 Stanley, Christian Missions, p. 9. 14 Daniel W. Hardy, ‘Upholding Orthodoxy in Missionary Encounters: A Theological Perspective’, in Christian Missions, p. 198. 15 Ibid., p. 199. 16 Ibid. 17 Klaus Fiedler, The Story of Faith Missions (Oxford: Regnum, 1994), p. 401. 3 It is in the light of this lack that Jan Jongeneel noted the need for a missionary theology, separate from systematic and practical theology.18 It is an urgent issue because placing a theology of mission under other theological disciplines has emasculated the missionary emphasis of the church.19 He concludes that there is little consensus about the right place for a missionary theology, so he suggests a way forward by linking a missionary theology in the first place with spirituality, devotion, meditation, contemplation, prayer and lifestyle.20 These are all vital elements in the life of many missionary pioneers, including Taylor. They provide an opportunity to put praxis and reflection together. Fiedler agrees, noting that it is more productive to analyse what faith missions actually do in working out their theology than relying on their theological statements.21 Here is a more useful starting point for any analysis of missionary theology which, by nature, is activist and practical, no matter what forms of reflection and meditation on issues are later required. Any understanding of Taylor’s motives in the formation of the CIM cannot avoid these issues for his own spiritual formation stamped his Bible reading, his missionary outlook and his subsequent activities in mission. The contribution of a particular spirituality, moulded by a specific approach to the Bible, to the practice of mission has to be taken seriously.22 This will increase comprehension of the milieu in which the modern missionary movement arose, and the spiritual dynamic that formed the character, person and theology of Taylor.23 Unfortunately, the link between the Bible and spiritual formation is another neglected area in the study of mission. David Bebbington notes this lack of exploration. He sees that the study of devotional attitudes can be profitable both in an understanding of spirituality and Christian history.24 Wolffe goes further, suggesting that the investigation of the history of spirituality and individual religious experience has the potential to contribute to a better understanding of the pattern of mission history and its relationship to more general historical development. The description of personal spiritual experience usually found in other sources such as a diary, letter or memoir might shed light on areas that could combine with the work of the historian.25 These experiences certainly gave the subject that which was needed to cope with the work given to him.