Dear Praying Friends:
In this month’s letter, let me introduce the academic outreach of Global China Center.
The Team
First, we serve a superb team of serious students of Sinology and Sino-Christianity:
Senior Associates Drs. Yading Li and Cui’an Peng oversee the Chinese page of the Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Christianity (BDCC) (bdcconline.net), producing most of the stories and editing contributions from others. Together, they have written more than 200 entries for what has become one of the largest and most widely-read resources on Chinese Christianity.
Senior Associate Dr. Carol Lee Hamrin, with Research Associate Stacey Bieler, has just completed Volume Three of the well-received series, Salt & Light: Lives of Faith that Shaped Modern China. These short biographies of Chinese Christians who made an impact on their society have encouraged many to emulate their dedication to God and neighbor. The first volume has been published in Chinese and has received a warm welcome.
John Barwick has just finished his dissertation on a small number of elite Protestants who played a major role in the modernization of China in the early 20th century. We expect this excellent study to make a major impact.
Jason Truell is about to graduate from China Evangelical Seminary in Taiwan. Serving as our webmaster, he has designed, built, and maintained both globalchinacenter.org and the BDCC. Jason plans to pursue advanced studies in Christianity and Chinese culture in 2012. His wife Kristie has just given birth to their third child.
Cole Carnesecca has been studying the sociology of religion at Notre Dame, with a focus on Chinese Christian congregations. After completion of the M.A. this year, he hopes to work on a Ph.D.
Senior Research Associate Dr. Gloria Tseng teaches history at Hope College in Michigan and is writing a book on Chinese Christianity.
Our other Senior Research Associate, Dr. Drew Trotter, is doing research on Chinese films, what they tell us about Chinese society and their role within that culture.
Our Part
Dori and I try to keep the home base operating well, so that our colleagues can function to their capacity. Additionally, I also engage in some research, writing, and speaking:
With Dr. Hamrin, I am co-editor of the rapidly-expanding series, Studies in Chinese Christianity, of which the Salt & Light volumes were the first to be published, by Wipf & Stock under their Pickwick imprint. We expect Volume Three of Salt & Light to come out this year, as well as a conference volume on Chinese Christianity.
An early biography of China’s first Protestant evangelist has been submitted, and I am working on a book which will contain translations of two apologetic works by the great Chinese theologian Lit-sen Chang (Zhang Lisheng), for which I am translating his Critic of Contextual Theology and contributing an introduction.
As General Editor of the Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Christianity, I solicit articles, prepare them for posting, and occasionally either translate or write entries for the English page.
Editing and writing essays and reviews for our Global China Center web site forms a major aspect of my work. We hear from many sides that this site has become a trusted source of information and analysis about Chinese culture and society, including religion, and especially Christianity among the Chinese.
Like most other members of our team, I also give lectures, write articles for journals, and present papers at academic meetings. In 2010, I lectured at four universities in mainland China and one in Taiwan, and gave papers at four academic gatherings, one or two of which will be published. I just sent off an article for a theological journal in Taiwan, and plan to deliver two lectures at National University of Tainan, Taiwan, in June.
Why?
Generally, we aim to glorify God by telling the world of his great work among the Chinese over the past two hundred years and more.
Specifically, we want to encourage Chinese scholars who are studying Christianity as an academic discipline, as well as “ordinary” Chinese. We know that they are reading both our English-language materials and those in Chinese. Our publications open doors for participation in academic conferences and for building relationships with individuals; the reverse is true also.
We believe that Chinese society needs a well-though-out, intellectually-respectable Gospel if the church is to take deep root and the nation substantially healed.
Let us know if you would like to support any of this through tax-deductible gifts.
Wright