The Inscrutably Chinese Church

The first half of the twenty-first century promises to be a time of great change for the Christian church in the PeopleOs Republic of China. The situation is complex and fluid, and the information gap between those on the inside and those outside of China is still significant, though shrinking. The OInscrutably ChineseO Church moves readers nearer to the Chinese Christian experience, as Nathan Faries helps foreign readers to see with greater clarity just how Chinese Christians view their government and themselves in relation to those ruling powers. There still exists a measure of inscrutability about China and its complex relationship with religion that must be explained to the outsider. It is this gap in understanding_between insider points of view within China and those outsiders seeking knowledge about the Christian faith in China_that Faries seeks to close.

Amongst the Chinese exists great cultural variety and diversity. The Cantonese care more for profit than face and are good businessmen, whereas Fujian Rén are frank, blunt and outspoken but daring and generous. Beijing Rén are more aristocratic and well-mannered, having stayed in a city ruled by emperors of different dynasties. Shanghai Rén are more enterprising, adventurous and materialistic but less aristocratic, having been at the center of pre-war gangsterism. Hainan Rén are straightforward, blunt and stubborn. Hunan Rén are more warlike and have produced more marshals and generals than any other province.Pioneers of Modern China is a fascinating book that paints a vivid picture of the unique cultural characteristics and behavior of the Chinese in the various provinces. Using leaders in the modern history of China, such as Sun Yat Sen, Chiang Kai Shek, Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, Deng Xiaoping, Jiang Zemin, Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao as representatives, it offers an in-depth look into the psyche of the Chinese people. It also pays tribute to writers, painters and kungfu experts, who have helped to develop the country socially and artistically.

The "Inscrutably Chinese" Church will move readers nearer to the Chinese Christian experience, help foreign readers to see more clearly how Chinese Christians view their government and themselves in relation to those ruling powers. It is the division between insider points of view and those from the outside to which the subtitle of this book refers, and this is a gap in understanding which this book attempts to close.

The Chinese house church is one of the most misunderstood and controversial subjects in Christian world missions today. Questions about it abound, such as… How did it start? How does it work? How is it led? Why does it continue to experience revival? Is it necessary, now that China has extended religious freedoms? Much of the confusion is caused by the Chinese government, which deceives journalists and foreign missionaries with promises of religious freedom that are never kept. The truth is, the house churches of China are growing at a phenomenal rate. Never in the history of the world have so many people in such a short time left one belief system for another without a hostile revolution. Lives in China are being transformed daily by the gospel of Jesus Christ and the display of His miraculous power. The Underground Church demystifies the Chinese house church movement, with real-life examples and personal testimonies from Chinese Christians. The movement’s unique characteristics—both good and bad—are addressed, as well as how they have led to the church’s astonishing growth. Read and be amazed at what God is doing in China!

Conversion has played a central role in the history of Christianity. In this first in-depth and wide-ranging narrative history, David Kling examines the dynamic of turning to the Christian faith by individuals, families, and people groups. Global in reach, the narrative progresses from early Christian beginnings in the Roman world to Christianity's expansion into Europe, the Americas, China, India, and Africa. Conversion is often associated with a particular strand of modern Christianity (evangelical) and a particular type of experience (sudden, overwhelming). However, when examined over two millennia, it emerges as a phenomenon far more complex than any one-dimensional profile would suggest. No single, unitary paradigm defines conversion and no easily explicable process accounts for why people convert to Christianity. Rather, a multiplicity of factors-historical, personal, social, geographical, theological, psychological, and cultural-shape the converting process. A History of Christian Conversion not only narrates the conversions of select individuals and peoples, it also engages current theories and models to explain conversion, and examines recurring themes in the conversion process: divine presence, gender and the body, agency and motivation, testimony and memory, group- and self-identity, "authentic" and "nominal" conversion, and modes of communication. Accessible to scholars, students, and those with a general interest in conversion, Kling's book is the most satisfying and comprehensive account of conversion in Christian history to date; this major work will become a standard must-read in conversion studies.

In 1917, the Beijing silk merchant Wei Enbo's vision of Jesus sparked a religious revival, characterized by healings, exorcisms, tongues-speaking, and, most provocatively, a call for a return to authentic Christianity that challenged the Western missionary establishment in China. This revival gave rise to the True Jesus Church, China's first major native denomination. The church was one of the earliest Chinese expressions of the twentieth century charismatic and Pentecostal tradition which is now the dominant mode of twenty-first century Chinese Christianity. To understand the faith of millions of Chinese Christians today, we must understand how this particular form of Chinese community took root and flourished even throughout the wrenching changes and dislocations of the past century. The church's history links together key themes in modern Chinese social history, such as longstanding cultural exchange between China and the West, imperialism and globalization, game-changing advances in transport and communications technology, and the relationship between religious movements and the state in the late Qing (circa 1850-1911), Republican (1912-1949), and Communist (1950-present-day) eras. Vivid storytelling highlights shifts and tensions within Chinese society on a human scale. How did mounting foreign incursions and domestic crises pave the way for Wei Enbo, a rural farmhand, to become a wealthy merchant in the early 1900s? Why did women in the 1920s and 30s, such as an orphaned girl named Yang Zhendao, devote themselves so wholeheartedly to a patriarchal religious system? What kinds of pressures induced church leaders in a meeting in the 1950s to agree that "Comrade Stalin" had saved many more people than Jesus? This book tells the striking but also familiar tale of the promise and peril attending the collective pursuit of the extraordinary-how individuals within the True Jesus Church in China over the past century have sought to muster divine and human resources to transform their world.

Tracing the little-known history of the first underground Catholic church in China, noted scholar D. E. Mungello illuminates the period between the imperial expulsion of foreign Christian missionaries in 1724 and their return with European colonialism in the 1800s. Few realize that this was the first time in which Chinese, rather than Europeans, came to control their own church as Chinese clergy and lay leaders maintained communities of clandestine Catholics. Mungello follows the church in a time of persecution, focusing in particular on the role of Chinese clergy and lay leaders in maintaining communities of clandestine Catholics during the eighteenth century. He highlights the parallels between the 1724 and 1951 expulsions of missionaries from China, the first driven by a Chinese imperial system and the second by a revolutionary Communist government. The two periods also reflected foreign bias against the Chinese priests and laity and questions about their spiritual depth and constancy. However, Mungello shows that the historical record of incarcerated and interrogated Christians reveals a spiritually inspired resistance to government oppression and a willingness to suffer, often to the point of martyrdom.

Huaian born Zhou Enlai was contemporary Chinas greatest statesman, spymaster and negotiator - the one Henry Kissinger could not out-negotiate. The Peoples Republic of China would not exist today without Zhous skill as communicator and administrator. Yet Zhou had one fatal flaw which cost him his adopted children, his colleagues and the career of Xi Zhongxun - father of President Xi Jinping. While Zhou left Huaian, another group came to his birthplace to serve through medicine, education and evangelism. Chinas revolutionaries gained power; the missionaries - influence. Influence transcended power, and contrasted power politics vs. quiet service. This book can also be read backwards - through the index, which organizes over 100 footnotes and historical details. For example, President Xi Jinxings father, despite rescuing survivors of the Long March, was three decades later unfairly associated with the Gao Gang affair and denounced by the people he rescued. Another side story is the role of former missionary retreat, Kuling on Lu Shan. On Lu Shan George C. Marshall negotiated with Jiang Kaishek and Zhou Enlai. At a Lu Shan conference during the Great Leap Forward, Mao Zedong joked about being overweight and called his second son crazy.