Fundamentalism and modern culture in Republican China: The popular language of Wang Mingdao, 1900--1991

This thesis will endeavor to understand the Protestant fundamentalists in Republican China, focusing primarily on Wang Mingdao (1900–1991). Through an examination of the current literature on Republican China, Protestant fundamentalism, and missions history in China the thesis will examine these three distinct, but often overlapping, contexts that profoundly shaped the fundamentalist movement in China. Wang's interaction with this complex context will be seen primarily through an analysis of his autobiography and the seven volume collection of his sermons and articles.; The three contexts will be developed in the first three chapters. First, Wang and the fundamentalists lived in a dynamic period of Chinese history. By the start of Wang's ministry, numerous Chinese urban intellectuals, including many Christians, were influenced by Western-inspired modernism. Second, Wang adopted a specific form of Christianity, Protestant fundamentalism. As a fundamentalist, Wang internalized an assortment of predispositions in relationship to the modern world and ideas. While he served as a critic of modernism, he also, in some ways, shared with the intellectuals a modern worldview. Thirdly, fundamentalism emerged in the immediate context of Chinese opposition to Western imperialism and missions. The anti-Christian movement of the 1920s propelled the development of independent Chinese churches and, as will be examined in Chapter 4, shaped Wang's interaction with nationalism and imperialism.; The thesis, in the final two chapters, will look specifically at the writing of Wang Mingdao. As a fundamentalist in urban China during the 1920s, Wang internalized a distinctive theology and worldview. With that worldview, Wang's thinking corresponded with some of the new popular and modern ideas and language of his age, such as equality and democracy. At the same time, Wang also latched on to several notions that many Chinese might consider traditional. He found in fundamentalism a form of Christianity that echoed traditional Chinese emphasis on orthodoxy and personal piety. Fundamentalism provided Wang Mingdao with a language that allowed him to introduce some of the new and fashionable notions from the West as well as champion some cherished traditional Chinese.