Ambrose Mong's overview of Christian missions in China sets out to evaluate ‘to what extent the missionaries had become servants of imperialism rather than the Gospel’ (p.4), or, as the author puts it elsewhere, ‘did missionaries become lackeys to imperialism?’ Focusing, primarily, on British missionary activity during the nineteenth century, the book attempts to bring specificity to this very broad question by focusing on the lives of Karl Gutzlaff, Robert Morrison, James Hudson Taylor, Timothy Richard and Pearl Buck. The author concludes that missionaries seldom fully understood just how intricately their work was connected, directly or indirectly, to European economic and military imperialism, and that this lack of awareness often undermined the effectiveness of their work.
Honestly, though somewhat frustratingly, the author cannot answer his question simply. As he observes alliteratively in his introduction, ‘like most human undertakings, missionary motives were mixed’ (p.5) But the book benefits from a holistic approach to missionary work, rather than attempting to force an interpretation onto his subject. Guns and Gospel is a sophisticated overview of the work of Christian missionaries in China, and in its pages we see a range of human motivation ranging from rapaciousness to charity.
Mong, a Dominican priest based in Hong Kong, approaches his topic from a Christian viewpoint. Although he is even-handed in his evaluation of Christian mission work, it is clear that he believes that mission work, if properly motivated, is of benefit. Frequently, it appears that his goal is to assess how and why Christianity did not succeed more fully in China, and he takes to task missionaries who became too close to military or commercial interests and thus undermined their vocation. Sometimes, this is seen as a general problem, as when Mong attributes the collapse of government in China to Western influences, abetted or at least tolerated by Christian missionaries (‘Indirectly, missionaries encouraged Western military action that opened the doors for China for evangelization … As a result, they actually sowed the seeds of their own destruction when Western military action destroyed the foundation of the Chinese state’, p.60). But at other times it is a more personal failing, when missionaries, for instance, refused to minister to opium addicts, or rejected Chinese culture as inferior.
By telling his story through the careers of specific individuals. the author avoids overgeneralising. Often these men (they are all men except for author Pearl Buck) stand out as exceptions to typical missionary practice. Examples include James Hudson Taylor, whose ‘Christ-like attitude of humility and service was rare among the affluent Western missionaries in China during the nineteenth century’ (p.108), and Timothy Richard, who promoted social and charitable works. Mong describes and analyses these men well, demonstrating their admirable goals as well as their struggles to carry out their religious mission in the context of political realities in both Europe and China. The emphasis on these exceptional men – all of whom have previously received substantial scholarly attention – has the effect of begging the question. We have detailed and compelling portraits of these exceptional figures, but we see little of the more typical sort of missionary who, we are told, dominated the field. It would be helpful to see more of the rule, rather than the admittedly fascinating exceptions.
Although this is clearly a work of history, the book has an evangelical premise: to understand why it is that Christianity has not been more successful in China, and also how it can be more successful today and in the future. This is made explicit in the book's introduction: ‘The author believes it is critical for Chinese Christians to co-operate with the Communist government to … develop a church with Chinese characteristics responsive to the crying out of the people’ (p.9). With this as context, the book examines the history of Christianity in China, starting with the Jesuits who arrived in the sixteenth century, but focusing on the years following the Opium War when Protestant evangelism expanded greatly. Although little new information is introduced, the author provides a service for historians of China by clearly explaining the theological and theoretical underpinnings of the missionaries’ work. The author does not hold back on his criticism of the Church or its agents. Mong sees Christian mission work as a complex enterprise. Christianity could and did benefit individuals and communities across China, but, directly and indirectly, it enabled the destruction of many Chinese institutions, leading to suffering, sometimes on a great scale. The end of the book seems clearly a hope for redemption, as the author seeks to explore ‘the opportunities to live out the Gospel authentically in … China’ (p.171).
Curiously, the author minimises Christianity's influence in China. ‘The number of converts were negligible’ (p.157), he writes at one point, while explaining in another that ‘the sense of superiority and nationalism among Western missionaries made it almost impossible for Christianity to flourish on Chinese soil’ (p.43). Although China has never been, by any definition, a ‘Christian nation’, and no doubt most missionaries left disappointed, there were many conversions and many families became and remained Christian for centuries. The influence of Christianity, over many centuries, ought not be dismissed. The scholarship in the book is very sound, though here it could benefit from reference to Henrietta Harrison's The missionary's curse and other tales from a Chinese Catholic village (Berkeley, Ca 2013).
Guns and Gospel is a well-written and concise survey of Christian missionary work in China with a focus on the nineteenth century. Compared to other books on similar topics, it focuses more on the missionaries’ theological motivations and how those ideas interacted with – sometimes conflicting, sometimes supporting – imperialism. Readers will come away from it clearly understanding the tensions and opportunities facing the spread of Christianity in China, and with ideas about the challenges facing that religion in China today.
