Western Missionaries in Modern China: From Ministers of Foreign Teachings to Agents of Imperialism?
Western missionaries working for the proselytization of Christianity during the early twentieth century were predominantly representatives of a new worldview that put scientific objectives on a par with the aim of converting the Chinese to their faith. Conventional wisdom stipulates that the 1920s b...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
University of Chicago Press
2021
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| In: |
History of religions
Year: 2021, Volume: 61, Issue: 1, Pages: 105-125 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
China
/ Scientific thinking
/ Critique of religion
/ Missionary
/ Respect
/ Rejection of
/ History 1919-1930
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| IxTheo Classification: | AX Inter-religious relations KBM Asia RJ Mission; missiology ZC Politics in general |
| Online Access: |
Presumably Free Access Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | Western missionaries working for the proselytization of Christianity during the early twentieth century were predominantly representatives of a new worldview that put scientific objectives on a par with the aim of converting the Chinese to their faith. Conventional wisdom stipulates that the 1920s brought about a sea change in public attitudes, transforming the missionaries' perceived role in China, as well as in the colonized world, into "agents of imperialism." This article posits that this may well have been the case within the ranks of a radicalizing and ideologically reorienting intellectual elite. However, the majority of the population within the Republic of China held a variety of views, from deep-rooted suspicion ("Western clerics as alien magicians") to high esteem ("clerics as medical experts"). The May Fourth Movement's axiom of a monolithic, "patriotic," and "scientific" opposition to the Western missionaries thus needs to be replaced by a more nuanced interpretation. |
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| ISSN: | 1545-6935 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: History of religions
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1086/714964 |