Chinese Christianity: An Interplay between Global and Local Perspectives by Peter Tze Ming Ng

Abstract

Reviewed by: Chinese Christianity: An Interplay between Global and Local Perspectives by Peter Tze Ming Ng D. E. Mungello (bio) Peter Tze Ming Ng. Chinese Christianity: An Interplay between Global and Local Perspectives. Leiden: Brill, 2012. xiii, 258 pp. Hardcover €108.00 ($144.00). isbn 978-90-04-22574-9. The history of Christianity in China since 1949 has been marked by deep divisions in both the Protestant and Catholic churches over the question of state control. This governmental control was initially part of a campaign to eradicate Western imperialism, but it has evolved in more recent times into a reassertion of a Chinese tradition of highly centralized political control over religious expression. China is a large country with many divergent segments and a fear of national disintegration (most recently experienced in the years 1912–1949) drives this control. This struggle for political control has manifested itself in the government-initiated Three-Self Patriotic Movement (TSPM) to control Protestant churches and the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association (CCPA) to control Catholic churches. However, because of resistance to the state control of the TSPM, [End Page 349] many Protestant groups have refused to register with the government and have continued to meet as unregistered “house churches” (jiating jiaohui 家庭教會). Likewise, Catholics who have maintained an ultimate loyalty to Rome rather than Beijing in spiritual matters have formed an underground church. Writings on the subject of Christianity in China since 1949 tend to express a sympathy for one or the other of these divisions, although few authors are explicit about their sympathy. The subject of this book by Peter Tze Ming Ng 吳梓明 is the historical evolution of Protestant Christianity in China from a missionary-imposed Western Christianity, which was resisted by Chinese as alien and foreign, to the development of genuine regional/local forms of Chinese Christianity which have thrived as a more authentically Chinese experience. Ng uses the neologism “glocalization” to describe this blending of global and local forces. The term was promoted at a conference “Glocalization and Christianity” sponsored by the government think-tank the Centre for the Study of Christianity in the Research Institute of World Religions, Chinese Academy of Social Studies (CASS), Beijing, in December 2003 (p. 31-32). Although the term “glocalization” is new, the thesis is not, and it is well presented by Ng’s focus on several important figures in the idea’s evolution. The first was the evangelist Cheng Jingyi 誠靜怡 (C. Y. Cheng, 1881-1939). Ng presents Cheng as a pivotal figure in the development of an indigenous Protestant church. He was one of only three Chinese delegates to attend the 1910 Edinburgh Conference where at the youthful age of twenty-eight he gave two presentations in which he appealed for the development of indigenous Chinese churches (p. 79-80). Cheng helped to enunciate the idea that European Christianity, American Christianity and Chinese Christianity were all localized and indigenized parts of World Christianity. In 1922 the theologian Zhao Zichen 趙紫宸 (C. T. Chao, 1888-1979) echoed Cheng in calling for the removal of foreign, Western denominational divisions to create an indigenous Chinese Christianity (p. 87). Ng cites three “prophetic voices” (p. 111) to illustrate the relationship between global and local perspectives in the development of indigenous Christianity in China: Timothy Richard, David Paton, and K. H. Ting. Richard was a Baptist missionary who arrived in China in 1870 and would spend forty-five years there before retiring in 1914 (p. 114-116). He began by using the evangelistic methods of daily preaching and distribution of Bibles favored by the China Inland Mission, but over time modified these methods to a more accommodating approach. During the first decade of the twentieth century, Chinese officials charged Richard with the task of using Boxer indemnity funds returned by the United States government and several Protestant missionary boards to establish Shanxi University (p. 50-55). When he refused to use the university as a tool for evangelization, some missionaries complained. On the other hand, in the face of anti-Christian opposition from some Chinese officials and gentry, Richard insisted that teachers would [End Page 350] be free to offer Christian theology classes to students as elective rather than required courses. David...