'Beating the rock' with the hammer of God's word: William Dean and denominational identity in cross-cultural context

This dissertation explores how the mission of William Dean (1807--1895), a Baptist missionary from the United States to the Chinese people in Siam and China, incarnates the transference of a particular maturing North American denominational identity into a predominantly non-Christian and cross-cultural context through his work of bible translation. This study begins with an introduction to the nineteenth century political context in China, a survey of early Chinese bible versions, and the legacy of Baptist missions and bible translation. The second chapter investigates factors that contribute to the making of William Dean as a Baptist missionary, bible translator and expositor, with particular attention to the hermeneutical principle and the dissenting characters of his religious convictions---the authority of Scripture, believer's baptism, soul competency, freedom of conscience, anti-establishmentarianism, and a voluntaristic understanding of the church---perpetuated through the theological education he received at Hamilton Literary and Theological Institution. The next two chapters deal with the two focal issues of this study: the manifestations of those dissenting characters as evident in his diversion from the bible societies's operating principles by publishing biblical texts with notes and comments as well as the "baptizo" and the "name of God" controversies. The analysis involves Dean's approach to establishing the bible as an authoritative text in the Chinese intellectual tradition, his effort in contextualizing the Christian message culturally and socio-politically, the disagreement between Baptist missionaries with the bible societies regarding translation principles, and the reason behind his choice for the "name of God" in light of the Taiping Rebellion (1851--1864). The final section of this essay assesses whether Dean's attempt to transfer his particular denominational identity into the Chinese context was a success or a failure. The conclusion seeks to identify factors that mitigated against Dean's mission and to recover the legacy he left in the making of a Chinese Christian intellectual tradition. Sources of this research include early Chinese bibles, missionary correspondence, and manuscripts housed at the Bible Society Library's of the University of Cambridge, Samuel Colgate Library of the American Baptist Historical Society, Brown University Library, Colgate University Archives, and the Chicago Historical Society.