ABSTRACT
The earliest missionaries in China represented no Christian sect but were Buddhists from India, said to have come through central Asia. This chapter focuses on the long-term failure of Christianity to adapt to local beliefs and contexts and suggests that the future of Christianity in China is no more secure than its past. It considers the history of Christianity, more especially of its missionaries in China. Following the Taiping troubles, Christian missionaries hastened the pace of conversion while attempting in various ways to ensure that the converts were serious. Many missionaries saw the coming of the new technology as a Christian boon and their attitudes exacerbated the Chinese hostility toward them. Consciously anti-Christian movements arose such as Ti chu chiao, the "Family Lord Religion", which took its name as a deliberate counter to the Catholics, T'ien chu chiao. Although missionary activity is still carried on by foreigners, a good deal of the Christian work involves only native Chinese.
