Reassessing Chinese Christianity through John Sung
At the 75th annual meeting of the Association for Asian Studies, CGCM Associate Director, Daryl Ireland participated in a panel on “Chinese Christianity Revisited: The John Sung Papers and Chinese Evangelistic Materials.” The panel was organized by the Council on East Asian Libraries, and highlighted Yale Divinity School’s recent acquisition of the journals of John Sung, the preeminent Chinese evangelist of the 20th century. Three librarians spoke about what it means to have access to rare primary materials, particularly from a figure like John Sung. These are the necessary building blocks for scholars to piece together the dramatic story of Chinese Christianity over the last 100 years. Dr. Ireland was then featured as someone who has used the new materials, and he demonstrated how a close reading of one of Sung’s revivals can go a long way in reconstructing the class composition of the people who eagerly gathered to hear Sung preach.