Unfinished History: Christianity and the Cold War in East Asia, ContactZone: Explorations in Intercultural Theology, edited by Philip L. Wickeri

Abstract

Numerous studies on religion during the Cold War have been published over the last two decades. Some focus on how Christianity influenced US foreign policy, others examine North American Christianity itself during the Cold War, and a few look at religion in Southeast Asia—even if US actors still feature prominently.1 Yet Unfinished History stands out among Cold War and religion scholarship in three ways: (1) it marks the first published volume in English on the interplay between Christianity and the Cold War in China, Korea, Taiwan, and Japan; (2) it follows East Asian actors more closely than US or European actors; and (3) since Asia is typically understudied among Cold War historians, its focus on East Asia is noteworthy in itself (e.g., as volume editor Philip Wickeri points out, of nineteen volumes in Palgrave Macmillan’s Cold War History Series, none focus on Asia). These historiographic innovations make this volume a welcome contribution.Yet its aim is not solely academic. Wickeri’s four-page introduction explains that Unfinished History features papers from a 2014 conference in Hong Kong titled “Christianity and the Cold War in East Asia, 1945–1990,” which was informed by “the belief that such a gathering would be relevant for the churches and seminaries, as well as scholars and academic institutions” (11). Hence Archbishop Paul Kwong’s prefatory hopes that these essays will help readers “better understand both ourselves and our churches,” “reenvision the Church’s mission,” and “build mutual understanding and trust with our brothers and sisters in Asia from whom we have been divided” (8). Given these ecclesial aspirations, it is fitting that this volume, although academic, is largely accessible to lay audiences. While its contents are mostly historical, authors occasionally take on a normative theological bent—perhaps most conspicuously by Jin Kwan Kwon, who “use[s] the term distortion when it comes to the theological ideas communicated from and within the churches during the Cold War” (224; emphasis added).Unfinished History’s main strength is the insight it offers into East Asian Christianity during a politically charged period, and with five chapters foregrounding (and three others backgrounding) it, Christianity in China is this volume’s star. For example, intriguingly, in 1965 a miracle reportedly transpired in China’s Shanxi province, and Wang Meixiu draws from government documents and oral histories to capture varying responses from Chinese Catholics and government officials, who labeled it a “disturbance.” Weiqing Hu documents struggles of Shantou area churches to survive before the Cultural Revolution, highlighting, for instance, concrete problems caused by churches transferring properties to the state while severing institutional and financial ties to foreign denominations.Three chapters feature Korea prominently. Volker Küster, for instance, examines Minjung theology’s Cold War provenance. Yen-zen Tsai’s contribution centers on Christianity in Taiwan, presenting a case study on the True Jesus Church, and Yosuke Matsutani details the first Japanese delegation of Christians to visit Chinese churches after World War II. Wickeri’s chapter theorizes “Cold War religion,” which, he proposes, has three characteristics: “intensified . . . politicization of religion and religious studies” (59), Cold War binarism in religious beliefs, and limits placed on religious expression. He also delineates six subject areas for studying Cold War religion in East Asia (see 60–64: Christian missionaries leaving China; Vatican ties to churches in Asia; the Korean War’s far-reaching impact; nonaligned churches/the Christian Third Way; Christian-Marxist discourse in Asia; debates in the World Council of Churches), supporting his theory with a brief case study involving Hong Kong and Macau.One shortcoming is that this volume does not consider gender in any depth, and all contributors but one are men. Some chapters connect case studies to broader scholarly conversations on religion and the Cold War (Qiang Zhai’s chapter on Christianity’s impact on the United States’s China policies under Truman and Eisenhower, for instance, does this well), but not all do. Yet given the dearth of literature on Christianity behind the Bamboo Curtain, these case studies are valuable in themselves. Although this book certainly attains its modest goal of examining Christianity and the Cold War in East Asia, more studies on this topic are needed—not only rendering Unfinished History’s title appropriate, but also warranting the hopes for a future conference conveyed in the introduction (11).