Translation, Literature, and Publishing in Chinese Christianities — Call for Papers

The History Research Centre (Manchester Metropolitan University) and
the Centre for Sino-Christian Studies (Hong Kong Baptist University)

An international conference on translation, literature, and publishing in Chinese Christianities will be held at Manchester Metropolitan University on 18 and 19 June 2020. Scholars are invited to submit abstracts for papers exploring one or more of the conference themes.

Conference Themes

The history of Chinese Christianities is inseparable from the work of missionaries and Chinese Christians in producing and disseminating Chinese Christian texts. The religious ideas that inspired the Taiping Rebellion, for example, were rooted in Hong Xiuquan’s reading of a Chinese Bible and Liang Fa’s Good Words to Admonish the Age. While older historical works tended to stress the agency and work of foreign missionaries, more recent scholarship has brought to light the role played by Chinese individuals in the interrelated processes of translation and localisation.

Building on this foundation, the conference aims to explore the contributions of both foreign and Chinese Christians to the translation of Christian texts into the Chinese language and the creation of Chinese Christian literature. The conference also aims to explore the impact of printing technologies on the spread of Christianity among the Chinese and the ways in which Christian publishing stimulated technological innovation in Chinese printing. The conference will focus on the period from Robert Morrison’s arrival in China (1807) to the present. The organisers will, however, also consider papers that look at translation, literature, and publishing during earlier periods in the history of Chinese Christianities. 

Melissa Inouye’s China and the True Jesus—An Interview

I interviewed Dr Melissa Inouye (University of Auckland) about her latest book, China and the True Jesus: Charisma and Organization in a Chinese Christian Church (New York: Oxford University Press, 2019). Drawing on historical and oral sources, Inouye presents a fascinating analysis of the well-known yet understudied Chinese Christian group, the True Jesus Church.

Why did you want to produce this study on the True Jesus Church?

I first encountered the True Jesus Church in China when a woman struck up a conversation with my husband and my baby son on a bus in a city. She invited him to church that evening. At the time we were attending a local Three-Self congregation, so he asked, “Is it a Three-Self church meeting?” She said no. So he asked, “Is it a house church meeting?” She said no. I was intrigued to hear about this church that defied the categories I had in my mind for Chinese Christianity. I went to the meeting place in a sort of commercial building and found that it was in fact a True Jesus Church. I had previously encountered the True Jesus Church in Taiwan but was surprised to find them here, in the PRC. In addition to being intrigued by the True Jesus Church’s out-of-the-box identity, I also wanted to investigate the relationship between native religious culture and transplanted Christian culture within the church. It struck me as extremely Chinese, but also very like other global forms of restorationist Christianity such as Mormonism. 

AAR 2019: Chinese Christianities Seminar – Call for Papers

American Academy of Religion, 2019 Meeting
Chinese Christianities Seminar CfP
Deadline for proposals: 4 March 2019

This seminar provides a collaborative forum for scholars of different disciplines to engage in an academic discourse about the field of Chinese Christianities. Christianity is the fastest growing religion in mainland China today, and arguably the religion of choice for a growing number of diasporic Chinese. “Chinese” is an expansive term, including mainland China proper as well as a large, linguistically, and culturally diverse diaspora, and encompassing more than a fifth of the world’s population; the Han Chinese people are sometimes described as the world’s largest ethnic group. Hence, with the increasing critical mass of Chinese Christians, there has likewise been a growing academic interest in various instantiations of Chinese Christianities, as understood across geographies (e.g., mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Southeast Asia, North America, etc.) and groupings (e.g., house and state-sanctioned churches, Catholic, Pentecostal, etc.). Chinese Christianities both transcend and hinder a number of regional, social, religious, etc. boundaries. Over the course of these five years, this seminar will offer a unique opportunity for scholars to engage and to debate the implications of the multiplicity of Chinese Christianities with regards to the boundaries they engage.

In the first four years of this program unit, the sessions have explored how the multiplicity of Chinese Christianities both transcend and hinder a number of boundaries: (1) regional, (2) social, (3) religious, and (4) ecclesiological. In this fifth and final year, the program unit would like to explore the broader conceptualization of the field, itself. Namely, why is it important to speak about Chinese Christianities? Papers can engage micro- or macro-case studies, focus on theoretical concerns, or challenge methodological presuppositions. We welcome papers in the following or related areas:

AAR 2018: Chinese Christianities Seminar

At the 2018 meeting of the American Academy of Religion in Denver later this month, we will have our fourth year running of the Chinese Christianities Seminar. This year, we are glad to have TWO sessions around the theme of the church—on ‘Crossing Ecclesial Boundaries’ (Sat. 1-3pm; Convention Center-204) and ‘Asserting Ecclesial Boundaries’ (Sun. 3:30-5pm; Convention Center-107).

Orthodoxy and Chinese Public Theology

This was originally posted on the blog Orthodoxy in Dialogue on 14 May 2018.

Many have noted the recent “Orthodox Renaissance” in Western studies of Christianity. Helpfully, an increasing number of Orthodox writers have produced theological primers for Western Christians. Furthermore, Western luminaries—from Aquinas to Calvin, from Barth to Torrance—have been “rediscovered” for being closet Orthodox Christians (okay, that may be a stretch) who offer their own versions of theosis. My own work has followed this latter trajectory in many senses, although it has focused on another “Eastern” Christianity—that is, the East Asian Christianity of mainland China.