BA History and French / Course details

This module will examine the introduction and adaptation of Christianity to China, from the arrival of the Jesuits in the seventeenth century to the formation of Chinese government-controlled Christian organisations in the People’s Republic of China. The module will cover Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox missions to China, constantly comparing them to each other. It will engage with the complex notions of modernity, imperialism, and nationalism, touching on topics such as science communication, trade, education, diplomacy, and translations. It will move beyond the missionary-centred narratives of Christianity in China, focusing on Chinese Christians and Chinese Christian religious professionals, how they reconciled their religious beliefs with the roles that they were ascribed in the Chinese society and whether the forms of Christian religiosity they developed were different from Christianity elsewhere.

Restricted to History programmes, History joint honours programmes (please check your programme structure for further details).

• Critical engagement with primary material and core historiographical debates surrounding the introduction and localisation of Christianity to China;
• Develop understanding of complex notions of cultural imperialism, scientific modernity, and acculturation;
• Confront competing ideas and beliefs on religion, education, modernity, and nationalism and encouraged to form their own nuanced and evidence-based points of view.

• Jesuits in Ming/Qing China: A Scientific Mission?
• The Rites Controversy: A Failure of Christian Diplomacy?
• Missionary Diplomats: Orthodox Clergy and Sino-Russian Relations
• Missionary Competition: Catholics, Orthodox, and Protestants in Nineteenth-Century China
• The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom: A Chinese Christianity?
• Christian Missionaries and the Rise of Chinese Print Culture
• A Christian ‘Modernity’: The Rise of Missionary Education and Chinese Christian Middle Class
• ‘Sinicising’ Christianity: A Fight for Chinese Representation in the Christian Churches
• Patriotism and Persecution: Chinese Christianities in the Mao Era
• Chinese Christianity after Reform and Opening Up

• 1 x 3-hour Seminar per week
• Seminar reading lists and sourcebooks will be made available on Blackboard
• Lecture slides will be uploaded onto Blackboard
• Oral feedback on a source analysis plan will be given  in preparation for the first assessment
• All Coursework will be submitted and returned via Turnitin

1) Familiarity with the key milestones in introduction and adaptation of Christianity to China, as well as the processes that surrounded it;

2) Comparing and contrasting the way Christianity was adapted to China’s conditions across periods and various missions;

3) Examining how Chinese Christian identities and forms of religiosity were shaped, as well as how these processes fit into the broader context of modern Chinese history;

4) Evaluate the contested contemporary and modern perceptions of Chinese Christianities.

1) Understanding the key historiographical approaches to the history of Christianity in China;

2) Critically evaluating primary materials and identifying perspectives that they represent;

3) Identifying the major historiographical debates surrounding the topic and positioning own point of view within them;

4) Assessing the shifts in methodology and focus of historical research into Chinese Christianities.

1) Participating in debates and discussions on complex ideas and topics;

2) Independent research into these topic using library materials, online databases, and appropriate internet resources;

3) Critically analysing secondary literature and primary evidence to establish an independent point of view;

4) Effective written communication and presentational skills.

1) Developing nuanced interpretations by performing independent research and analysis;

2) Critically thinking and analysing relevant information;

3) Communicating complex concepts and nuanced perspectives orally and in writing;

4) Working both independently and as part of a team;

5) Producing high-quality written work within deadlines.

Feedback method	Formative or Summative
Verbal feedback on group discussions/in-class tasks	Formative
Written feedback on coursework submissions via turnitin	Summative
Additional one-to-one feedback (during office hour or by making an appointment)	Formative

1. Gregory Afinogenov, Spies and Scholars: Chinese Secrets and Imperial Russia’s Quest for World Power (Cambridge, Mass.: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2020).
2. Daniel Bays, A New History of Christianity in China (Honoken: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011).
3. Liam Matthew Brockey, Journey to the East: The Jesuit Mission to China, 1579-1724 (Cambridge, Mass.: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2008).
4. Ryan Dunch, Fuzhou Protestants and the Making of a Modern China, 1857-1927 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001).
5. Carl Kilcourse, Taiping Theology: The Localization of Christianity in China, 1834-64 (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016).
6. David Woodbridge, Missionary Primitivism and Chinese Modernity: the Brethren in Twentieth-Century China (Leiden: Brill, 2019).
7. Albert Monshan Wu, From Christ to Confucius: German missionaries, Chinese Christians, and the Globalization of Christianity, 1860-1950 (Cumberland: Yale University Press, 2016).

Zheng Yangwen (ed.), Sinicizing Christianity (Leiden, Boston: Brill, 2017).