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Consequential Transatlantic Networks Shaped the Polyglot Nature of the Protestant Missionary Enterprise in China
Tiedemann, R G
Tiedemann, R G
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Abstract
The missionary enterprise of Protestant denominations in China was shaped by transatlantic interaction and co-operation from the start. In the course of the nineteenth century, the missionaries from the various European and North American societies formed a community of shared religious interests in China. Research into the history of the Protestant missionary enterprise in China has, however, focused primarily on “mainline” societies and has usually been understood as an Anglo-American endeavor of English-speaking evangelists. In contrast, this essay focuses on various evangelical free church groups that emerged during the transatlantic revivals of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries among Scandinavian Christians in Europe and the United States. Particular attention is paid to the revivalist crusades of the Swedish-American mission enthusiast Fredrik Franson among Scandinavian Christians on both sides of the Atlantic. His evangelistic endeavors resulted in the formation of several sending agencies that maintained close transatlantic links and co-operation on the Chinese mission field. Similar interactions have been observed among the various Scandinavian and American Pentecostal missionaries in China. Of particular interest are the so-called “emigrant missionaries” who, having left their home countries for the United States, ended up as evangelists in China. Some attention is paid to the fact that these “American” missionaries continued to employ Norwegian or Swedish as their working languages. It is argued that a significant aspect of the history of Christianity in China has remained hidden as a result of the language issue and the essentially unobtrusive engagement of these missionaries.
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2017
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Christian Study Centre on Chinese Religion and Culture, Chung Chi College, Shatin, Hong Kong