A Passion for China: Norwegian Mission to China Until 1949 ed. by Tormod Engelsviken, Notto R. Thelle, and Knut Edvard Larsen

Abstract

Reviewed by: A Passion for China: Norwegian Mission to China Until 1949 ed. by Tormod Engelsviken, Notto R. Thelle, and Knut Edvard Larsen Richard Carter A Passion for China: Norwegian Mission to China Until 1949. Edited by Tormod Engelsviken, Notto R. Thelle, and Knut Edvard Larsen. Oxford: Regnum Books International, 2015. 202 pp. An introduction, an overview, and nine chapters, like facets of a jewel, each enriched with documented detail and bibliography, offer a substantial view of Norwegian-grounded missionary activity in China through the mid-twentieth century. The style of writing ranges from pious to precise. Alongside the Norwegian passion one catches the passions of particular authors, for example, for feminism and equal rights. The commitment to documentation and the deep Norwegian roots of this text—translations of Norwegian terms are given—can mean that a reader is slowed down in understanding the content. [End Page 108] "Saving of Souls and the Return of the Lord …" describes an almost distracting array of mission agencies, including the Mission Covenant Church of Norway (MCCN), the China Inland Mission, the Free Mission Association, the Scandinavian Alliance Mission, the Christian Missionary Alliance, the Norwegian Missionary Alliance, and the Norwegian China Mission. At the same time, in particular following the biography and work of Swedish-American Fredrik Franson, this chapter narrates the impact of pre-millennialism in some Norwegian mission work. This includes the choice of MCCN to work as a faith-mission, so as "to avoid criticism from the older mission boards … [and] not compete for funds" (29). "Relationships—The Heart of Mission: The Evangelical Lutheran Free Church of Norway's Mission to China 1916–1949" first provides a brief history of the work of the ELFCN, including the numbers of missionaries, of schools and churches, and of Chinese workers. The chapter then works through a range of relevant relationships: with God, the Chinese community, Chinese Christians (in general and with co-workers), with other missions, between missionaries of the ELFCN, within the missionary family, and with the sending church and its members. The last portion moves beyond the title of the book: "Relationships after 1949." "Marie Monsen's Achievement" acknowledges the policy of the China Inland Mission to accept both men and women, and then details the significant work of Marie Monsen (1878–1962). The writer proposes "that God must be a supporter of women's liberation as well as modern Western civilization, since he directs his obedient female followers to become professional teachers and nurses …" (92). She adds "Marie Monsen's feminist commitment seems to have been largely overlooked when she lived as an elderly woman in Bergen" (108). One paragraph of "Diakonia" describes the turbulent era in China covered by all the chapters. During the fifty years within which the Norwegian Missionary Society (NMS) "was engaged in its work in China the country went through great political changes. The empire lasted until the revolution in 1911 "[with] both the internal conflicts [three are listed] and externally between the Chinese and the Japanese [and then] the communist takeover [which] resulted in [End Page 109] the establishment of the PRC on October 1, 1949 [sic]" (135). The chapter documents many facets of NMS diakonia: medical missions and the prevention of foot-binding of Chinese girls, discussions on women's work, promoting "human rights … by widely promoting the art of reading and writing" (137), overcoming and preventing social diseases, hospital work, sustainable development and respect for the patients' human worth, a school for the blind and an orphanage for abandoned children. Having served six years in Hong Kong, there catching glimpses of the major work of Karl Ludvig Reichelt (1877–1952), I much appreciated the closing chapter: "The Beginnings of Buddhist-Christian Dialogue in China." It documents clearly the long, deep "second fiddle" work of Notto Normann Thelle (1901–1990) that supported Reichelt. The chapter makes it possible first to honor the famous missionary and then to honor all who contribute to and support the great workers, including all those Norwegians whose passion for the Good News moved them to serve in mission in China, to 1949 and beyond. Richard Carter Concordia University Saint Paul, Minnesota Copyright © 2023 Johns Hopkins University Press and...