Missionaries and indigenous culture in nineteenth century China

Abstract

19th century Protestant Christians, mostly British, American and Northern European evangelicals, saw the ‘opening’ of China to Protestant Christian missions as, ‘an inevitable issue not of the will of man altogether, but ... of the Providence of God’. The Church Missionary Society observed, ‘The herald of the Gospel of Peace would never use, or wish to use, the arm of carnal force… but He…employs the unconscious powers of this world to advance His purposes.3 A Chinese diplomat told a European audience that China was brought into the community of nations ‘through cannons and warships’.