In this expanded publication of his 2013 doctoral thesis, Carl Kilcourse re-examines the Taiping phenomenon employing perspectives and insights from the burgeoning scholarly discourse related to world Christianity. The result is a fascinating exploration of Taiping theology that argues convincingly for revisions to current understandings of Taiping motivations and ideology.
Fluctuating between Marxist attributions of class motivation and missionary cries of “heresy,” scholarly views of Taiping motivations have generally avoided recognizing the Taiping as being primarily shaped and driven by religion. Thomas Reilly's The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (University of Washington Press, 2004) is perhaps the most prominent work to break this pattern, arguing convincingly that the Taiping's theological revulsion at the Chinese imperial usurpation of God's own title di preceded and grounded their political ambitions. Kilcourse shares Reilly's basic conviction, though his unravelling of the threads of Taiping leader Hong Xiuquan's understanding of the Christian God shangdi leads him in a different direction – into a nuanced exploration of how the complicated interplay between missionary Christianity, Chinese folk religion and Confucian morality shaped Taiping theology. Informed by studies in world Christianity such as Andrew Walls's The Translation Principle in Christian Mission (T. and T. Clark, 1996), Kilcourse identifies the Taiping phenomenon not as a departure from some essentialized notion of Christian orthodoxy but rather as one of the many localized expressions of Christianity that make up the global church. In this reading, local religious practice and Confucian morality provided familiar reference points for Hong and his followers as they sought to make sense of their newly embraced Christian faith within their local context. The vernacularized Christian literature of the missionaries – particularly translated scriptures – facilitated this process of glocalization, drawing the attention of Hong and the Taiping community to certain specific connections between Christianity and local culture.
In his search for Taiping theological identity, Kilcourse focuses on the personal writings of Hong Xiuquan and several other Taiping leaders, as well as a host of Taiping religious and political treatises and commentaries. Missionary publications such as Liang Fa's Good Words to Admonish the Age (Quan shi liang yan) and Gutzlaff's scripture translation are also integral to the study, with Kilcourse reading them alongside the Taiping documents to highlight instances of convergence or dissonance. Throughout, close attention is paid to the local religious world of south China as well as the Confucian morality that so profoundly shaped Hong's early years. Kilcourse then demonstrates how the mutual interaction of these various “sources” in Hong's life produced the unique localized expression of Christianity known as the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
After the methodological introduction and a brief historical overview, each of the remaining chapters in Taiping Theology examines a different key aspect of Taiping religious belief and practice. Kilcourse begins by outlining the Taiping notion of world salvation, with particular attention to the Chinese shangdi/huangdi traditions and how they shaped Hong's reading of vernacularized Christian literature. Next, Kilcourse delves into Hong's identity as Jesus's younger brother and his concept of the Christian Godhead, exploring the factors that pushed him towards a radical monotheism that rejected the missionary emphasis on the Trinity. Turning his attention towards theological praxis, Kilcourse next examines the interplay between the biblical Decalogue and Confucian morality, highlighting the ways in which local factors shaped the reception and application of translated Christian materials by Hong and his followers. The final two chapters deal with the role of charismatic gifting in Taiping leadership conflicts and Hong's hybrid view of gender relations within the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, effectively demonstrating both the active interpretive agency of local receptors of Christian literature and the often-unexpected ways the global becomes local. The result of all this is a revised picture of the Taiping: hierarchical and patriarchal rather than egalitarian, not primarily political and ethnic but rather explicitly Christian yet in a very Chinese way.
Readers may come away wondering if in a world of plural Christianities it is possible for the term Christian to mean anything at all. An adequate discussion of this central debate within the field of world Christianity, however, would have distracted unnecessarily from the focus of the current study. Kilcourse's contribution lies in both his careful reading of the primary source materials, and his application of world Christianity's insights to those readings. Taiping Theology is a welcome addition to scholarship on this mid-19th century phenomenon, and should be required reading for anyone seeking to understand the true motivations of Hong Xiuquan and his Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. The book would also be useful as a case study for graduate level courses dealing with issues related to glocalization, East–West cultural interaction or Chinese religion in general.
