The fundamentalist movement among Protestant missionaries in China, 1920--1937

Throughout the 1920s and 30s, one of the most important features of the Protestant missionary enterprise in China was a powerful fundamentalist movement that battled against modernism in the mission field. Yet fundamentalism among China missionaries has never been the subject of serious scholarly investigation. This dissertation examines the major historical events, issues, individuals, and organizations involved in the fundamentalist missionaries' antimodernist campaign. The major topics covered by this study are the Bible Union of China, the North Jiangsu Mission and the Nanjing Theological Seminary, The North China Theological Seminary, the Fundamentalists and church union movement, and the controversies primarily centered on the Laymen's Foreign Missions Inquiry and Pearl Buck's criticism of missions in the 1930s. The time-frame of the study is from the founding of the Bible Union in 1920 to 1937 when the Sino-Japanese War erupted. Among all the missionary groups working in China, American Presbyterian missions will receive special attention and treatment because of their prominent and crucial role in the fundamentalist cause.; This dissertation explores in depth the fundamentalist missionaries' views and engagement in various aspects of the mission enterprise, such as evangelism and social services, theological education, religious publication, interdenominational cooperation and union, and the missions' relationship with nonChristian religions. The goal of the study is to uncover and clarify the roots of the fundamentalist movement among Protestant China missionaries, the nature and character of the movement, the fundamentalists' interaction with the modernists and moderates, the similarities and differences between the fundamentalists in China and North America, and their impact on the course of the Protestant missionary movement in China and the emerging indigenous Chinese Christian groups.; This study employs a historical methodology that focuses primarily on the fundamentalist movement's internal theological, personal, and organizational dynamics. Its sources include archives, journals, monographs and other missionaries' writings.