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- Title
Distinguishing Spiritual Revolution from Military Revolution: Meditations on the Impact of Chinese Literature by Protestant Missionary-Scholars in Late Traditional China.
- Authors
PFISTER, LAUREN F.
- Abstract
We start our exploration of this theme by quoting from a notable article produced by the Scottish Congregationalist and missionary-scholar, James Legge (1815-1897). Legge states, “[M]issionaries have not merely to reform, . . . they have to revolutionize.” Though he employs this military term to describe missionary work in China, it is also obvious by his later elaborations that it is employed metaphorically. This is seen not only in his pro-Ruist (“Confucian”) stance, but also in the further elaboration of the methods of missionaries that should be pursued “in the spirit of Christ, without striving or crying, with meekness and lowliness of heart” [my emphasis]. He continues that each missionary should “make himself familiar with the Confucian books,” and so there is here a manifest difference between military and spiritual forms of revolution. Yet we should ask, what exactly are their similarities and differences? In this article, consequently, I move through six meditations to seek to reveal the nature of the metaphorical use of “revolution” in Legge’s statement, and subsequently apply it to some specific Chinese Christian texts produced by notable missionary-scholars in China. The characterization of modern military revolutions is based upon relevant works produced by Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy (1888-1973). Subsequently, the eight dimensions of military revolution he expounds are compared in great detail with the nature of the “spiritual revolution” that Legge supported. Following this analysis, the eight features of spiritual revolution are then applied to various Chinese Christian works produced by three notable missionary-scholars in China: the Scottish Congregationalist James Legge 理雅各, the German Lutheran Ernst Faber 花之安 (1839-1899) and the one time American Presbyterian and subsequently a Qing dynasty translation official, W. A. P. Martin 丁韙良 (1827-1916). By this means we are able to confirm that the spiritual revolution Legge described as necessary for missionaries was manifest within the pieces of literature chosen for this analysis.
- Subjects
CHINA; LEGGE, James, 1815-1897; CHINESE literature; MISSIONARIES; CHRISTIANITY; CHINESE religion
- Publication
Ching Feng: A Journal on Christianity & Chinese Religion & Culture, 2014, Vol 13, Issue 1/2, p3
- ISSN
0009-4668
- Publication type
Article