Overview

"Dubbed the """"Billy Sunday of China"""" for the staggering number of people he led to Christ, John Song has captured the imagination of generations of readers. His story, as it became popular in the West, possessed memorable, if not necessarily true, elements: Song was converted while he studied in New York at Union Theological Seminary in 1927, but his modernist professors placed him in an insane asylum because of his fundamentalism. Upon his release, he returned to China and drew enormous crowds as he introduced hundreds of thousands of people to the Old-Time Religion. In John Song: Modern Chinese Christianity and the Making of a New Man, Daryl Ireland upends conventional images of John Song and theologically conservative Chinese Christianity. Working with never before used sources, this groundbreaking book paints the picture of a man who struggled alongside his Chinese contemporaries to find a way to save their nation. Unlike reformers who attempted to update ancient traditions, and revolutionaries who tried to escape the past altogether, Song hammered out the contours of a modern Chinese life in the furnace of his revivals. With sharp storytelling and careful analysis, Ireland reveals how Song ingeniously reformulated the Christian faith so that it was transformative and transferrable throughout China and Southeast Asia. It created new men and women who thrived in the region's newly globalized cities. Song's style of Christianity continues to prove resilient and still animates the extraordinary growth of the Chinese church today."

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9781481312707

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Reviews

Ireland succeeds in situating Song within the world of Republican China and foregrounds his voice as a central participant in debates over the shape of Chinese modernity in the early twentieth-century. For Ireland, Song's transformation into a new man is a central trope that connects various stages in his life. Ireland's argument is persuasive on this account, and his engagement with multiple bodies of literature in individual chapters--on gender, religion, science, and medicine--is impressive. --Joshua Tan Reading Religion ...Ireland's book is a must-read for any serious student of Chinese Christianity. As Ireland provides rich social and historical context in each chapter, the book is accessible not only to academics but also to interested laypeople. The book is also well written, accessible, and enjoyable to read. Ireland's extensive use of archival materials and primary sources to correct the story of John Song is a triumphal achievement. --Eric Beach Themelios Ireland's book is full of documentary, archival evidence to support his findings, evidence that has not been published before. This is the strength of this publication; but for anyone interested in Chinese Christianity, it has wider relevance and is essential reading. As Ireland reminds us again in the very last sentence of this book: 'To know the story of John Song and how he became a New Man is to understand the formation of modern Chinese Christianity' (p. 207). --Allan H. Anderson PentecoStudies Overall, Daryl Ireland provides a vivid story of John Song, one of the most famous Chinese Christian revivalists of the period, that presents many important insights into this period of China's history. Scholars will gain insight into the way the mind and methods of this famous evangelist were linked with the political and social struggles of the period. --John R. Stanley Church History ...Daryl Ireland's John Song should be on the shelves of anyone interested in the transformation of Chinese Christianity. His clear, engaging, and lively style makes it a joyful read, and instructors can adopt this outstanding book in courses on Chinese church history, world Christianity, Asian theology, and religious sociology. --Joseph Tse-Hei Lee Review of Religion and Chinese Society Overall, the author makes pioneering and thought-provoking contributions to our understanding of Song Shangjie by both drawing on previously little or never used source materials and offering an illuminating analytical framework of becoming new in China's modernization. John Song's findings will appeal to scholars in the studies of Chinese Christianity, Chinese modernity, and global fundamentalist and revivalist movements. --ZHIXI WANG Journal of Religious History Ireland advances a theory about Song's reinvention as part of a larger story of Chinese Christianity's 20th-century development. Even more, he teases out how Song and Chinese Christianity offered an alternative to the path of exchanging a feudal past for a modern future. This new man and this new religion profoundly influenced the making of a new China. --Alexander Chow Christianity Today

Ireland advances a theory about Song's reinvention as part of a larger story of Chinese Christianity's 20th-century development. Even more, he teases out how Song and Chinese Christianity offered an alternative to the path of exchanging a feudal past for a modern future. This new man and this new religion profoundly influenced the making of a new China. --Alexander Chow Christianity Today

...Daryl Ireland's John Song should be on the shelves of anyone interested in the transformation of Chinese Christianity. His clear, engaging, and lively style makes it a joyful read, and instructors can adopt this outstanding book in courses on Chinese church history, world Christianity, Asian theology, and religious sociology. --Joseph Tse-Hei Lee Review of Religion and Chinese Society Overall, the author makes pioneering and thought-provoking contributions to our understanding of Song Shangjie by both drawing on previously little or never used source materials and offering an illuminating analytical framework of becoming new in China's modernization. John Song's findings will appeal to scholars in the studies of Chinese Christianity, Chinese modernity, and global fundamentalist and revivalist movements. --ZHIXI WANG Journal of Religious History Ireland advances a theory about Song's reinvention as part of a larger story of Chinese Christianity's 20th-century development. Even more, he teases out how Song and Chinese Christianity offered an alternative to the path of exchanging a feudal past for a modern future. This new man and this new religion profoundly influenced the making of a new China. --Alexander Chow Christianity Today

...Ireland's book is a must-read for any serious student of Chinese Christianity. As Ireland provides rich social and historical context in each chapter, the book is accessible not only to academics but also to interested laypeople. The book is also well written, accessible, and enjoyable to read. Ireland's extensive use of archival materials and primary sources to correct the story of John Song is a triumphal achievement. --Eric Beach Themelios Ireland's book is full of documentary, archival evidence to support his findings, evidence that has not been published before. This is the strength of this publication; but for anyone interested in Chinese Christianity, it has wider relevance and is essential reading. As Ireland reminds us again in the very last sentence of this book: 'To know the story of John Song and how he became a New Man is to understand the formation of modern Chinese Christianity' (p. 207). --Allan H. Anderson PentecoStudies Ireland succeeds in situating Song within the world of Republican China and foregrounds his voice as a central participant in debates over the shape of Chinese modernity in the early twentieth-century. For Ireland, Song's transformation into a new man is a central trope that connects various stages in his life. Ireland's argument is persuasive on this account, and his engagement with multiple bodies of literature in individual chapters--on gender, religion, science, and medicine--is impressive. --Joshua Tan Reading Religion Overall, Daryl Ireland provides a vivid story of John Song, one of the most famous Chinese Christian revivalists of the period, that presents many important insights into this period of China's history. Scholars will gain insight into the way the mind and methods of this famous evangelist were linked with the political and social struggles of the period. --John R. Stanley Church History ...Daryl Ireland's John Song should be on the shelves of anyone interested in the transformation of Chinese Christianity. His clear, engaging, and lively style makes it a joyful read, and instructors can adopt this outstanding book in courses on Chinese church history, world Christianity, Asian theology, and religious sociology. --Joseph Tse-Hei Lee Review of Religion and Chinese Society Overall, the author makes pioneering and thought-provoking contributions to our understanding of Song Shangjie by both drawing on previously little or never used source materials and offering an illuminating analytical framework of becoming new in China's modernization. John Song's findings will appeal to scholars in the studies of Chinese Christianity, Chinese modernity, and global fundamentalist and revivalist movements. --ZHIXI WANG Journal of Religious History Ireland advances a theory about Song's reinvention as part of a larger story of Chinese Christianity's 20th-century development. Even more, he teases out how Song and Chinese Christianity offered an alternative to the path of exchanging a feudal past for a modern future. This new man and this new religion profoundly influenced the making of a new China. --Alexander Chow Christianity Today

Author Information

Daryl R. Ireland is Research Assistant Professor of Mission in the School of Theology at Boston University.

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