China and the True Jesus: Charisma and Organization in a Chinese Christian Church

by Melissa Wei-Tsing Inouye

In 1917, the Beijing silk merchant Wei Enbo's vision of Jesus sparked a religious revival, characterized by healings, exorcisms, tongues-speaking, and, most provocatively, a call for a return to authentic Christianity that challenged the Western missionary establishment in China. This revival gave rise to the True Jesus Church, China's first major native denomination. The church was one of the earliest Chinese expressions of the twentieth century charismatic and Pentecostal tradition which is now the dominant mode of twenty-first century Chinese Christianity. To understand the faith of millions of Chinese Christians today, we must understand how this particular form of Chinese community took root and flourished even throughout the wrenching changes and dislocations of the past century.

The church's history links together key themes in modern Chinese social history, such as longstanding cultural exchange between China and the West, imperialism and globalization, game-changing advances in transport and communications technology, and the relationship between religious movements and the state in the late Qing (circa 1850-1911), Republican (1912-1949), and Communist (1950-present-day) eras.

Vivid storytelling highlights shifts and tensions within Chinese society on a human scale. How did mounting foreign incursions and domestic crises pave the way for Wei Enbo, a rural farmhand, to become a wealthy merchant in the early 1900s? Why did women in the 1920s and 30s, such as an orphaned girl named Yang Zhendao, devote themselves so wholeheartedly to a patriarchal religious system? What kinds of pressures induced church leaders in a meeting in the 1950s to agree that "Comrade Stalin" had saved many more people than Jesus?

This book tells the striking but also familiar tale of the promise and peril attending the collective pursuit of the extraordinary-how individuals within the True Jesus Church in China over the past century have sought to muster divine and human resources to transform their world.

Genres: China, History

408 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2018

About the author

Melissa Wei-Tsing Inouye is a senior lecturer in Asian studies at the University of Auckland. She received her PhD in Chinese history from Harvard University. Dr. Inouye's research includes the history of Chinese Christianity, moral ideology in modern China, global charismatic religious movements, and women and religion. Her book China and the True Jesus: Charisma and Organization in a Chinese Christian Church was published by Oxford University Press in January 2019.

A member of the advisory board of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship at Brigham Young University, Dr. Inouye is committed to the mutually reinforcing relationship between faith and learning. Her writings on Latter-day Saint life and faith have been published online and in print in Patheos, the Washington Post, Meridian Magazine, Square Two, and the Ensign. She and her husband, Joseph, have four noisy and joyful children, botanically nicknamed Bean, Sprout, Leaf, and Shoot.

Reviews

[Blair Hodges · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well-researched, empathetic, and engaging.

[Ryan Ward · Rating 5 out of 5]

An unusually sympathetic study of the birth and evolution of the True Jesus Church, a Christian church formed in Beijing, China in 1917. Inouye is a consummate guide to the fascinating world of this community of believers. Her approach is different than the usual, detached scholarly approach of looking at religious communities as oddities, often with more than a hint of disdain, and searching for social or economic reasons why people would buy into such fantasy. Inouye details the social, political, and economic aspects of the society in which the True Jesus Church evolved and developed during the Republican rule, the civil war, and the Communist era. But rather than focus on these as explanatory, she treats the charismatic and spiritual experiences she describes as valid inasmuch as they helped the believers construct, reinforce, and circumscribe a community in which a shared belief in an ultimate reality dictated by their truth claims led to a real community and a unique and powerful way of viewing their own lives and the world. An unusual and extraordinary examination of religion on its own terms.

[Exponent II · Rating 5 out of 5]

By Dani Addante

For those who love learning about religion and history, this book is for you. It’s about the history of Christianity in China. It begins with missionaries traveling to China in the 1800s and continues to present-day Christianity. This scholarly work explores the Christian movements that spread throughout China and the key people involved.

I didn’t know much about Chinese history, so many of the things I read in this book were new to me. One thing I found especially interesting, (because it’s similar to Joseph Smith’s first vision) was that there were others who had visions of God and Jesus. One was a king named Hong Xiuquan who had a vision in 1837. “In this vision, he had been given a sword and was told to destroy devils…” (18). Not only did he see God and Jesus, but Heavenly Mother appeared in his vision as well. Page 22 has a description of the vision and reminds me a lot of the War in Heaven. In the next century, in 1917, Wei Enbo had a similar experience and started the True Jesus Church (19). I liked this because it reminds us that God speaks to people of all cultures and religions.

To continue reading: https://www.the-exponent.com/book-rev...

[Christopher Angulo · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book was thoroughly researched, provides a great background for the political/religious climate at the time, and is written at a nice pace. It is definitely a great addition to religious studies.

[Jo Eva · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully and thoughtfully written.