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While Protestant Christians made up only a small percentage of China's overall population during the Republican period, they were heavily represented among the urban elite. Chinese Protestant elites adapted both the social message and practice of Christianity so that they were better able to contribute to the building of a New China.
Saving the Nation recounts the history of the Protestant elite and their struggle to strengthen and renew their nation.
List of contents
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- A Note on Romanization
- Introduction
- Chapter One: The Mission to China
- Chapter Two: Social Reform and the Campaign to Christianize the Economy
- Chapter Three: The YMCA and the Gospel for the Urban Elite
- Chapter Four: Protestant Youth Save the Nation
- Chapter Five: Resisting Japan, Fighting Imperialism
- Chapter Six: The YMCA and the Protestant Elite Welcome the Revolution
- Epilogue
- Bibliography
- Index
About the author
Thomas H. Reilly is Professor of Chinese History at Pepperdine University.
Summary
While Protestant Christians made up only a small percentage of China's overall population during the Republican period, they were heavily represented among the urban elite. Protestant influence was exercised through churches, hospitals, and schools, and reached beyond these institutions into organizations such as the YMCA (Young Men's Christian Association) and YWCA (Young Women's Christian Association). The YMCA's city associations drew their membership from the urban elite and were especially influential within the modern sectors of urban society.
Chinese Protestant leaders adapted the social message and practice of Christianity to the conditions of the republican era. Key to this effort was their belief that Christianity could save China — that is, that Christianity could be more than a religion focused on saving individuals, but could also save a people, a society, and a nation. Saving the Nation recounts the history of the Protestant elite beginning with their participation in social reform campaigns in the early twentieth century, continuing through their contribution to the resistance against Japanese imperialism, and ending with Protestant support for a social revolution.
The story Thomas Reilly tells is one about the Chinese Protestant elite and the faith they adopted and adapted, Social Christianity. But it is also a broader story about the Chinese people and their struggle to strengthen and renew their nation — to build a New China.
Additional text
By giving voice to a diversity of actors embedded in the industrialized social context of Shanghai, this book shows how Christianity was adopted and made local by the Chinese agents and contributed to the emergence of a Republican Chinese civil society, thus shattering the image of Christianity in China as culturally alien.
