Encountering China

“Encountering China takes the forty-five year missionary career of Timothy Richard in the late nineteenth century as the focus for this book. It is a fascinating and readable study of a crucial period in Protestant, Evangelical China mission. . . This book is must reading for anyone contemplating work in China or elsewhere today. The roots of contemporary balanced ministry are clearly found in the work and life of Timothy Richard.”


—Michael Pocock, Dallas Theological Seminary





“Kaiser’s work is a major contribution to the study of Timothy Richard, a towering figure in modern mission history of China. It gives us a much more nuanced narrative and interpretation of Richard’s famous missiological adjustment, and points to the complex dynamics of Protestant missionary movement in the nineteenth-century China. The future scholarship of China mission history would benefit from this outstanding work.”


—Kevin Xiyi Yao, Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary





“Andrew Kaiser’s Encountering China contributes to mission reflection today by walking the reader carefully through the development of Timothy Richard’s thought.”


—Thomas Harvey, Oxford Center for Mission Studies, St. Philips and St. James Church





“Kaiser’s well-researched study of China missionary Timothy Richard challenges the conservative/liberal dichotomy frequently used to categorize missionaries, and deftly places Richard’s evolution as a missionary within late-Qing Chinese as well as Victorian Protestant contexts. His exploration of the nature of missionary adaptation in response to cross-cultural encounters results in fascinating discoveries, among them Richard’s willingness to borrow practices from Chinese religious sectarians to spread the gospel, and his use of Fulfillment Theology to support his call for more accommodating methods of evangelism in China.”


—Kathryn Edgerton-Tarpley, Professor of History, San Diego State University