Liang Fa: Pioneer Chinese Protestant Evangelist

Through a meticulous study of the life and times of Liang Fa, this article explores the ways in which the Anglo-Chinese College prepared him to become a pioneer Chinese Protestant evangelist. While not overlooking his struggle with deep-rooted Chinese cultural precepts, on the one hand, and his responses to changing circumstances in late Qing China while presenting the Christian message, on the other, this study examines both the questions of the relationship between Liang and his missionary mentors and of Liang's proselytisng strategies that involved both direct and indirect evangelism, including his major Chinese publication, Quanshi Liangyan (commonly known as Good Words to Admonish the Age). Special attention is paid to the question of how Hong Xiuquan misinterpreted Liang's book, thereby creating the Taiping heresy and its tragic consequences. The study concludes with an overall assessment of Liang's place in the history of Chinese Christianity.

Where the Research Interests of Graduate Students in China’s Christian Universities Lie

Focusing on the research landscape for graduate students of China’s Christian universities is of great significance for making sense of the path along which the theological and practical studies are conducted by contemporary China’s Christian universities and for promoting the dialogue and understanding between Chinese and foreign seminaries. In this research, thesis topics selected by graduate students majoring in theology are classified into four categories: universal theoretical research, universal practical research, theoretical research of Chinese Christianity, and practical research of Chinese Christianity. Results of coded categorical data analysis and case study show that graduate students mainly focus on universal theories without giving adequate attention to the topic of the “Sinification” of Christianity. In their universal theoretical research, graduate students examine classic Christian works and theological thoughts of important figures in a detailed and in-depth way. Universal practical studies are skewed to practices of religious reforms and teaching improvements from a multidisciplinary perspective. In the theoretical research of Sinified Christianity, researchers build upon the commensurability between traditional Chinese culture and Christian theology, including the theological thoughts of important Christian figures in China, to explore the fulfillment of cultural, national, and social identities. In the practical research of Christianity in China, empirical methodologies are widely applied, centering on the “localization” process and forms of practices taking place in churches of China. The coincidentia oppositorum between universality and particularity dictates that much tension exists with respect to the development of Christianity in China. Focusing on the accommodative process between universality and particularity is important to produce further implications for research to be conducted by China’s Christian universities.

Discipled by the West?—The Influence of the Theology of Protestant Missionaries in China on Chinese Christianity through the Translation of the Chinese Union Version of the Bible

Over the last one hundred years, the Chinese Union Version of the Bible (CUV)—translated by Western Protestant missionaries—has enjoyed an unparalleled status as the Chinese Bible or the “Authorized Version” of the Chinese Bible. However, despite such towering significance, no scholarly works to date have systematically examined the influences of Protestant missionary theology on the translation of the CUV and, in turn, on Chinese Christianity. As an introductory attempt to explore this question, this paper first highlights this gap in current scholarship and the importance of filling this gap. Then, it presents four factors and two limitations in examining the theology of the CUV and conducts a case study on the theological topic of dichotomy versus trichotomy in the translation of the CUV along with four other Chinese Bible translations. After examining how the translators’ theology might have influenced these translations, it suggests how such influence through the translation of the CUV might have shaped Chinese Christianity both past and present, thereby demonstrating how the understanding of Chinese Christianity can be deepened by examining the relationships between missionaries’ theology, their Bible translations, and the development of Chinese Christianity.

Localization of Bible Printing in China

This essay gives a historical survey of Bible printing in China not only to show the development of Chinese Christianity in its missions of printing and publishing but also to demonstrate that the works of printing and publishing are windows of dialogue between Chinese and foreign cultures. The essay traces Bible printing in China with different mission strategies, such as Catholics in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties and Protestants in the late Qing dynasty and the early Republic of China. Since the Republic of China, Bible printing has begun to develop in the direction of localization with numerous presses established. In New China, with its focus on streamlining and unity in printing and publishing, Amity Printing Company becomes the only Chinese modern enterprise authorized to print the Bible; it has served China and also more than 110 countries around the world.