SOAS Research Online

Abstract

Following the prohibition of missionary activity after 1724, China’s Christians were effectively cut off from all foreign theological guidance. The ensuing isolation forced China’s Christian communities to become self-reliant in perpetuating the basic principles of their faith. Left to their own devices, the missionary seed developed into a panoply of indigenous traditions, with Christian ancestry as the common denominator. Christianity thus underwent a thorough process of religious inculturation. As the guardian of orthodox morality, the prosecuting state sought to exercise all-pervading control over popular thoughts and social functions. Filling a gap within the discourse of Christianity in China and also as part of the analysis of late imperial religion, this book presents the state action against Christians during this period as part and parcel of the campaigns against ‘heresy’ and ‘heretical’movements in general.