Abstract
A mere glance at the title of this book, Guns and Gospel: Imperialism and Evangelism in China, is bound to attract a wide readership with diverse interests in culture, diplomacy, economics, military, politics and mission. The purpose of the book, however, is to explain why, ‘in spite of so much toil and sacrifice undertaken by foreign missionaries in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Christianity is still a minority faith in China’ (p. xv). It focused ‘on the Protestant missionary enterprise and the expanding British incursion into China in the nineteenth century’ (p. 1).
Chapter one presents an overview of Catholic and protestant missions to China. The author observes that ‘common to all missions, these expeditions were not purely motivated by the Gospel values… there were commercial, political and humanitarian reasons behind missions’ (p. 8). This was perhaps inevitable but unsurprising. Chapter two explores the huge but fascinating relation between trade and mission, focusing on East India Company and Opium War (1839–1842). Chapter three briefly reviews the Taiping Rebellion and the Boxer Uprising, two post Opium War movements, closely linked to evangelism and mission in modern China. These provide a useful historical background for the next chapters.
The bulk of the book from chapter four to chapter seven presents the life, mission and reflection of five prominent missionaries: Robert Morrison, Hudson Taylor and Timothy Richard from Britain, Charles Gutzlaff from Prussia and Pearl B. Buck from America. In depicting their life and work, the author offers us some interesting observations on their personalities, various approaches to mission, and their relations to the commercial and imperial interests (pp. 60, 61, 65, 78, 96, 101, 126, 139, 143, 146–7, 153, 155). Being broad in coverage, the book falls short of what whole treatises can offer to the readership. Nevertheless, for readers versed in mission, there is much to be learnt from these lives. In the concluding chapter, the author is anxious to point out that ‘for Christianity to thrive in China today, the Church will need to avoid repeating mistakes of the past’ (p. 165).
This book is useful in stimulating interest in mission and cultural studies, even studies in contextual theology, particularly the popular topic of Asian theology.