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Jianhong Guo Thesis.pdf (2.61 MB)

ETD Abstract Container

Abstract Header

Contesting “Self-Support” in Kit-Yang, 1880s-1960s: American Baptist Missionaries and The Ironic Origins of China's “Three-Self” Church

Guo, Jianhong
http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6915-9245
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1586797053484993

Abstract Details

2020, Master of Arts, Case Western Reserve University, History.
For over 150 years, the “Three-Self” principles, including “Self-Support,” have been central to Chinese Christianity. During the late nineteenth century, William Ashmore, the leading American Baptist missionary in South China, aggressively adopted these principles as an extension of his denomination’s congregational approach to church governance—insisting that Chinese churches be self-governing and financially self-sufficient. During the 1920s and thereafter, Three-Self was widely embraced by Chinese Christians as an expression of resurgent nationalism. When the Chinese Communists came to power in 1949, they transformed Self-Support to establish official Chinese Christianity on a non-denominational, hyper-nationalist, and anti-imperialist basis. This thesis focuses on several conflicts over Self-Support in Kit-Yang between 1889 and 1949, showing how power struggles among different groups reshaped the Three-Self principles amid the larger revolutionary transformations of Chinese society. Ironically, the Communist government’s reconceptualization of the Three-Self concept effectively reversed its original meaning, replacing local autonomy with centralized control.
Daniel Cohen (Advisor)
Kenneth Ledford (Committee Member)
Miriam Levin (Committee Member)
James Bonk (Committee Member)
60 p.
American History; Asian Studies; Bible; Divinity; History; Political Science; Religious History; World History
Self-Support; Self-Governing; Self-Propagation; Three-Self; American; Baptist; Missionary; Church; Christianity; Christian; China; Swatow; Shantou; Ashmore; Speicher; nationalism; communist; Cultural Revolution; indigenous; Protestant; independence; clan

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Guo, J. (2020). Contesting “Self-Support” in Kit-Yang, 1880s-1960s: American Baptist Missionaries and The Ironic Origins of China's “Three-Self” Church [Master's thesis, Case Western Reserve University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1586797053484993

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Guo, Jianhong. Contesting “Self-Support” in Kit-Yang, 1880s-1960s: American Baptist Missionaries and The Ironic Origins of China's “Three-Self” Church. 2020. Case Western Reserve University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1586797053484993.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Guo, Jianhong. "Contesting “Self-Support” in Kit-Yang, 1880s-1960s: American Baptist Missionaries and The Ironic Origins of China's “Three-Self” Church." Master's thesis, Case Western Reserve University, 2020. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1586797053484993

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

case1586797053484993
465
© 2020, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Case Western Reserve University School of Graduate Studies and OhioLINK.