BOOK REVIEWS DANIEL H. BAYS, A New History of Christianity in China. Malden (MA), Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2012. x, 241 pp. £24.99 (pbk). ISBN 978-1-4051-5955-5 This is a highly readable and up-to-date introduction to the history of Christianity in China by a long-term expert in the field, Daniel Bays (Calvin College). While the recent two volumes of the Handbook of Christianity in China have provided a useful reference tool and guide for specialized research,1 the book by Bays will serve usefully as a much shorter, but informative introductory work. Such a readable and up-to-date introduction has been in fact in want for many years, with only a few other similar works published (among them Father Jean-Pierre Charbonnier’s Christians in China A.D. 600 to 2000).2 While the latter work has a focus on Catholic missions, Bays positions his new work as one with a stronger emphasis on Protestant Christianity in China—though in fact his work seems quite balanced between these two main Christian confessions and even includes a short overview of the Orthodox church as an appendix. In his introduction Bays reveals the two central themes that are used throughout the book: first, the ‘‘basic tension between (foreign) mission and (Chinese) church,’’ especially from 1800 to 1950, and second, ‘‘the always-present instinct of the Chinese state, or political regime, to monitor and control religious movements’’ (p. 2). This double perspective from inside and outside the Church is well chosen to convey a broader picture of the changing conditions of the Christian Church history in Chinese context. It reflects present-day concerns in Christianity regarding ‘‘indigenization’’ (as it was called in Protestant missiology until the first half of the 20th century, or what alternatively has been called ‘‘inculturation’’ or ‘‘contextualization’’), but also the continuing problem of state control in Mainland China (the differing examples of Taiwan, Hong Kong, or overseas Chinese Christianity are accordingly not the main focus of the book). The theological concern of indigenization is briefly reflected by Bays in the introduction with reference to Andrew Walls’ preference of using the idea of ‘‘World Christianities’’ in contrast to the Eurocentric model of what Walls calls ‘‘Christendom’’3 (p. 2). It serves as an underlying guideline for the whole historical account, while further theological and methodological reflections on this approach or on indigenous theologies are not the focus of this book. 1 Vol. I: 635–1800, ed. Nicolas Standaert (Leiden: Brill, 2001); vol. II: 1800 to the Present, ed. Gary Tiedemann (Leiden: Brill, 2010). 2 Translated by M. N. L. Couve de Murville (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2007. Original French edition: Paris: Indes savantes, 2002). 3 ‘‘From Christendom to World Christianity,’’ in The Cross-Cultural Process in Christian History, ed. Andrew Walls (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 2001). Journal of Chinese Religions, 41. 1, 59–90, May 2013 # Society for the Study of Chinese Religions 2013 DOI: 10.1179/0737769X13Z.0000000003 The book basically follows a chronological pattern. It starts with a first shorter chapter on ‘‘Nestorians’’ in China in Tang and Mongol times as well as the shortlived Catholic mission of the Mongol period. The treatment appears up-to-date and reflects most recent research in this field. More space is given to the first enduring endeavor of Catholic mission beginning in the late 16th century, with an emphasis on the Jesuits and the rites controversy that also involved rival mendicant orders. Of special interest is the fact that though Bays treats here the obligatory topic of the Chinese rites controversy, he puts an equally strong emphasis on the consequences after Christianity was forbidden: the self-organization of rural Catholic communities, which helped Catholicism to survive proscription and partial persecution in the ‘‘long 18th century’’ until 1840. While for this Bays draws again on the most recent research, it also reflects his special interest in independent churches. Chapter 3 (‘‘Protestant Beginnings, Catholic Redux, and China’s First Indigenous Christians, 1800–1860’’) continues with the new missionary beginnings in the nineteenth century under the conditions of imperialism, especially since the progressive opening of China after the First Opium War. The chapter treats thoroughly major issues of...
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May 3, 2016
Kundai Chirindo 
Open Access
