ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the role of the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan's retrocession and ongoing post-war history. The Presbyterian Church on Taiwan spent the five decades of Kuomintang (KMT) control of Taiwan fighting difficult battles to win respect for the island's majority populations and helping to transform the island's social and political systems. The linkage of social action and political activism to mainline Christian Liberation Theology propelled the Presbyterian Church of Taiwan (PCT) into a position of leadership in the still-evolving struggle for Taiwanese selfhood. Presbyterian missionaries from Great Britain and Canada arrived in Taiwan in the 1860s and 1870s and in the decades, they established churches, school systems, hospitals, presses, and seminaries. Each group of missionaries evangelized and developed robust institutions that advanced both Christianization and Westernization. The Presbyterians were able to continue their work after Japan took control of the island in 1895. They were permitted to provide medical and educational services.
