Timothy Richard is acknowledged as one of the most influential Westerners ever to live in China. His long career, spanning forty-five years, his intellectual brilliance, hard work, organizational ability, and capacity for making friends in high places all combined to produce a lasting impact on Chinese society.
You may find more on Richard's life and ministry both at the Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Christianity and the Global China Center.
Here let us just summarize a few lessons which I think we can learn from Richard.
A. Positive
Lifelong learning
Timothy Richard spared no effort to learn the Chinese language, eventually becoming fluent as a writer. At the same time, he devoted himself to the study of Chinese religion and culture, poring over Chinese religious writings, visiting temples, and conversing with leaders of Chinese religious sects of all sorts.
He did not neglect China's long history, current social customs, and the intricacies of China's politics and economics, either.
In other words, he showed his love for the Chinese by taking the time to earn their respect as a student of their culture.
Hard work and suffering
Especially in his early years, but also later, Richard showed himself willing to endure hardship as he traveled into the rural areas in all seasons, lived among the Chinese, and devoted himself to evangelism, teaching, and writing. His literary output would fill several shelves, and is marked by wide scholarship.
Emphasis upon Bible memory
Timothy Richard frequently required both seekers and believers to memorize large portions of the Bible, as well as hymns. He reports that many conversions and new congregations seemed to spring from this emphasis upon making the words of Scripture a part of one's inner thought life, and most would agree with him.
Building friendships
Very early in his career as a missionary, Richard discovered the necessity of nurturing close and long-lasting relationships with Chinese colleagues and inquirers, as well as government officials and other members of the educated elite. He rightly believed that friendship was the key to effective ministry over the long term, and invested a great deal of time over many years in forging strong personal ties with men who exercised great influence in Chinese society.
Literary work
Timothy Richard very quickly discerned that the Chinese reverence the printed word. Almost from the beginning, he was composing or translating Christian books and tracts into Chinese, with the help of Chinese Christians. Later, he translated or wrote books about all sorts of subjects, including history, politics, science, and religion. As editor of a newspaper and then head of a large Christian publishing agency, he oversaw the publication of hundreds of titles, which had a profound impact upon the leaders of China.
Famine relief
When the great famine of 1976-79 hit Shandong and then Shanxi, Richard not only worked to raise funds for relief and then distribute them like other missionaries, but also to mobilize Chinese officials to assume leadership in this enormous task. His later efforts in education and reform were largely motivated by a desire to lessen the effects of such disasters, and perhaps even to prevent them altogether.
Collaboration
Though he found it difficult to work under authority, Richard possessed the ability to mobilize others and build collaborative relationships that multiplied his individual efforts many times over. He constantly worked for greater cooperation among the different Christian missions in China, convinced the competition neither glorified God nor achieved the greatest results.
Focus on leaders
Though he longed for the masses of China to benefit from both the gospel and from the advances in science, engineering, and political organization, he believed that he must concentrate his energies upon present and potential leaders, both Christian and non-Christian. He expended countless hours training men who could then go out and influence others.
Critique of Western "Christian" nations
Like many missionaries, Richard became increasingly distressed by the aggressiveness of Western countries, their moral decay, and the lamentably low standards among professing Christians in the West. Like others, he also spoke out more and more against the hypocrisy and shallowness of Western "Christendom."
B. Problematic
Not all that he did found ready acceptance among fellow missionaries, however, and Richard remains a controversial figure even today.
View of human sin
Timothy Richard did not evince much of an awareness of the depth of human sin. He seemed to attribute most resistance to the gospel to ignorance and superstition, and thought that education would dispel these and remove barriers to the acceptance to Christianity.
For that reason, he directed the last decades of his life to the creation of a better educational system for China, introduction of Western technology, science, and organizational methods, and political reform.
Neglect of the Cross
Timothy Richard did not make the Cross of Christ the focus of his writing and teaching, at least in the last decades of his life, and perhaps also not earlier. The Atonement is never mentioned in his long autobiography; neither is any sense of personal forgiveness by God through Christ. Salvation from God's wrath and eternal death through the sacrifice of Christ does not seem to have been a major aspect of his own faith or the message he wanted to communicate.
Apparent disparagement of evangelistic preaching
Though Richard began as a traditional missionary, even as an admirer of the China Inland Mission, he soon began to believe that evangelistic preaching was not the most effective way to reach non-Christians. More than that, he began to give others the impression that he considered his focus on "seeking the worthy" and spending time in dialog with them about religion, then in teaching them about Western science and technology, was the only proper way to reach China's millions.
As a result, under his influence some members of the CIM left their work and joined Richard, causing a great deal of confusion among missionaries both in his Baptist Missionary Society and in the China Inland Mission.
Questionable theology
Richard was so eager to see, and affirm, the good in others, and in other religions, that he often made comments that seemed to ignore fundamental differences between Christianity and other faiths, as well as to downgrade Christianity to the same level as other religions.
Unlike most missionaries, and even more that W. A. P. Martin, Richard saw no problem with ancestor worship, and showed little patience towards missionaries and Chinese Christians who were sensitive to the idolatrous nature of some of the rites.
A forerunner of those who would promote what came to be called the Social Gospel, Richard spoke of a kingdom of God which could be built on earth through the influence of Christian ideas and through reforms of various kinds. Today most evangelicals would prefer to say that the kingdom of God has come already, but only partially, in the work of Christ, the gift of the Spirit, the transformed lives of believers, and their impact as “salt and light” in the world, but that we must wait for the return of Christ to establish the final kingdom of God on earth. The impact of two world wars and the greater awareness of human depravity and demonic activity have dispelled the optimism of Richard and many of his contemporaries.
Concentration upon politics
Towards the end of his life, Richard became almost totally involved in seeking political reform and even the creation of a world government to prevent war and create lasting peace on earth. To some, he seemed to have forgotten the root cause of war, which is human sin, and to hold unrealistic notions of the "saving" power of knowledge and political reform.
Those who would serve God among the Chinese would do well to ponder both the positive and the problematic aspects of Timothy Richard and his missionary career.
-G. Wright Doyle