Examining the stories of diverse Christians in Shanghai, this book uses the city as a model to highlight how a minority religion in a city has interacted with other religions as well as social, cultural, political, and economic changes. Susangeline Y. Patrick illustrates how the history of Shanghai Christians sheds light on why and how Christians have accommodated social and political changes, and gives valuable insights into multiculturalism, globalization, sinicization, and ecclesiology. The interreligious dialogues between Shanghai Christians and other traditions such as Buddhism, Daoism, Confucianism, Islam, and Judaism throughout history provide worthy reflections on the roles of Christians in a multi-religious space.

Within the next decade, China could be home to more Christians than any country in the world. Through the 150-year saga of a single family, this book vividly dramatizes the remarkable religious evolution of the world’s most populous nation. Shanghai Faithful is both a touching family memoir and a chronicle of the astonishing spread of Christianity in China. Five generations of the Lin family—buffeted by history’s crosscurrents and personal strife—bring to life an epoch that is still unfolding. A compelling cast—a poor fisherman, a doctor who treated opium addicts, an Ivy League–educated priest, and the charismatic preacher Watchman Nee—sets the bookin motion. Veteran journalist Jennifer Lin takes readers from remote nineteenth-century mission outposts to the thriving house churches and cathedrals of today’s China. The Lin family—and the book’s central figure, the Reverend Lin Pu-chi—offer witness to China’s tumultuous past, up to and beyond the betrayals and madness of the Cultural Revolution, when the family’s resolute faith led to years of suffering. Forgiveness and redemption bring the story full circle. With its sweep of history and the intimacy of long-hidden family stories, Shanghai Faithful offers a fresh look at Christianity in China—past, present, and future.

This book is an astonishing reminiscence of a young Christian at the Shanghai Local Church under the Communist regime half century ago. At the church, the author went through raging storms of conflict. She was stunned by church failings and withdrew from God. Finally, by God's grace, she committed herself to Him once again. With great courage, personal experience, and an assiduous exploration of SCA history, she discloses the major historical facts. Watchman Nee and his Local Church Movement have profoundly influenced the modern Chinese churches. Many Christians adore Nee's preaching without knowing him as a person. A dense fog within the Local Church hinders historical transparency.

From the PREFACE: THE subject treated in the following pages resolves itself into five distinct heads. Under the first, notice is taken of the legends of the introduction of Christianity into China by the Apostle Thomas and his disciples. Under the second head, some space is devoted to the history of the Nestorian Christians in China, in the seventh century, with their leader, Olo-puen, the first apostle. The third head comprises the missions of the Dominicans and Franciscans in the fourteenth century; the chief actor being John of Monte Corvin, the second Chinese Apostle. This mission was speedily extinguished, and no farther attempts were made to introduce a knowledge of Christianity into China until the sixteenth century, when the Jesuit mission was founded by the celebrated Matteo Ricci. The labours of the Jesuits form the subject of the fourth head; and the fifth is devoted to a notice of the Protestant missions of the present century. Under these various heads, the writer has endeavoured to bring together a series of interesting facts, scattered about in different histories; and his book has this merit, if it has no other, the construction of a whole from the several parts. In common with the general public, he read of an insurrection in China with some surprise, especially when to this it was added that the movement was a religious one, having Christianity for its basis, and not only Christianity, but Protestant Christianity! His inquiries have led him to the conclusion, that here there must be a mistake, and that the rebellion is but feebly charged with the spiritual element. He has, indeed, great doubts whether there exists in China much that is deserving of the name of Christianity at all. It may appear presumptuous to doubt, in the face of so much general belief, and so many sanguine expectations of the future; but the doubt cannot be avoided. It must be recollected that Protestant missions in China do not yet number an existence of fifty years; and that, until within the last ten years, Canton was the only spot in all the vast empire where the missionary could teach, or circulate the religious tract. With the sole exception of Gutzlaff, no Protestant missionary has yet penetrated into the centre of the empire. In saying this much, the writer is far from wishing to depreciate the value of Christian missions in China, or to discourage their supporters. It will be found that he has done full justice to the valiant and honourable men, both Catholic and Protestant, who have gone forth as labourers in this vineyard. But too much immediate gain must not be expected from their labours. Ripe clusters must not be expected where the buds have scarcely made their appearance. The works of Deity are of slow growth. Our accounts of the origin and progress of the rebellion in China are still very imperfect; but such as they are, they lead the writer to believe that its motives are entirely political, and that it is fomented by the secret societies which abound throughout the empire, especially in the southern provinces. In this opinion he is confirmed by the latest accounts, which inform us that the city of Shanghai was taken by rebels belonging to the Short Sword Society. This is no doubt a ramification of the grand triad society, called the Brotherhood of Heaven and Earth. Of this society, and of its constitution and objects, some account will be found at the close of the book. The Chinese are still a mysterious people to Europeans. We barely know them externally, and have yet to gain knowledge of their inner life. Let us hope that the time is approaching when, either through a successful rebellion, or through the sure and silent strength of commerce, a door will be opened to Europeans, admitting them to observe the kingdom throughout its length and breadth; when we shall get rid of many historical fables and travellers' tales, and when there will be increased facilities for missionary labour...

Overseas Chinese Christians in Contemporary China offers a study into how overseas Chinese in Shanghai are changing the way they understand themselves in relation to China through their Christian faith.

An Incredible God: China and Her Encounter with God balances the immense scope of any treatment of a country as varied in geography and as diverse in its ethnicities as is China with the intimate portraits that emerge from profiling individuals who face and surmount obstacles to living by faith. The Reverend Dr. Werner Brklin, born in China to German Christian missionary parents, who has served as a missionary, draws upon personal insights and his years of study to accomplish this balancing act. An Incredible God introduces the reader to China, pulling back the veil on its culture and character and illuminating both the history of the Christian church and its work to spread the good news of Jesus Christ. Along the way, An Incredible God covers topics like the interactions of Christianity and Communism, the role of theological education, the importance of the Scriptures, and the prevalence of misconceptions about China. On the intimate and personal side, An Incredible God presents people like Wang Mingdao, who survived imprisonment for his faith during the Cultural Revolution. The presentations place the individuals in their historical context and show how their faith sustained them. An Incredible God: China and Her Encounter with God speaks to all who desire to know more about the history of the Christian church in China, to understand more about the faith of individual Christians, and to gain a deeper appreciation for the amazing changes God causes when he encounters people with the good news of Jesus Christ.