The Catholic Church in Modern China
Perspectives
Edited by Edmond Tang and Jean-Paul Wiest
Imprint: Wipf and Stock
In spite of difficulties posed by a hostile socialist government, the Catholic Church in China has shown remarkable perseverance and growth since the end of the Cultural Revolution in 1979. The essays contained in The Catholic Church in Modern China inform readers of the major issues facing the Catholic Church in China today. Their insights should be welcomed by everyone from the Catholic layperson contemplating a trip to China to scholars and specialists in China and religious studies.
Part I explores the history of tensions between church and state. Part II presents the conflicting loyalties between Catholic believers associated with the Catholic Patriotic Association and those attending churches that are not officially recognized. Part III focuses on the future, exploring vital questions: What can be learned from the past? What will be the future of the Catholic church in a changing China?
Contributors include Aloysius Chang, Julia Ching, Jean Charbonnier, Jeroom Heyndrickx, Maria Goretti Lau, and John Tong.
Edmond Tang directs the Centre for East Asian Christian Studies at the University of Birmingham.
Jean-Paul Wiest holds a doctorate in Chinese history form the University of Washington and is author of Maryknoll in China, 1918-1952.
"An important volume that can go far to bridge the gap between North American Catholics and the Catholics in contemporary China. The Catholic Church in Modern China constitutes a significant contribution not only to current scholarship on the Catholic Church in China, but to solidarity in the Church."
--Margaret A. Farley, Stark Professor of Christian Ethics, Yale Divinity School
"These seventeen essays, some written by sinologists outside China, some by Chinese Catholics, fill a long-felt need for a single volume with basic information and a range of viewpoints on the Catholic Church in China today."
--Donald E. MacInnis, author Religion in China Today
"[This] is a remarkable review of where the Catholic Church has been and is today in China. It has been a history of extraordinary heroism and extraordinary suffering, and the authors do a splendid job of unraveling that very tangled history."
--Most Reverend John R. Roach, DD, Archbishop of Saint Paul and Minneapolis