“Schism: Seventh-day Adventism in Post-Denominational China” Book Launch

The Liu Institute Series in Chinese Christianities with Notre Dame Press launches with the release of “Schism: Seventh-day Adventism in Post-Denominational China” by Christie Chui-Shan Chow.

“Schism” is the first ethnographic and historical study of Seventh-day Adventism in China. Scholars have been slow to consider Chinese Protestantism from a denominational standpoint. In “Schism,” the first monograph that documents the life of the Chinese Adventist denomination from the mid-1970s to the 2010s, Chow explores how Chinese Seventh-day Adventists have used schism as a tool to retain, revive, and recast their unique ecclesial identity in a religious habitat that resists diversity.

Based on unpublished archival materials, fieldwork, oral history, and social media research, “Schism” demonstrates how Chinese Adventists adhere to their denominational character both by recasting the theologies and faith practices that they inherited from American missionaries in the early twentieth century and by engaging with local politics and culture. This book locates the Adventist movement in broader Chinese sociopolitical and religious contexts and explores the multiple agents at work in the movement, including intrachurch divisions among Adventist believers, growing encounters between local and overseas Adventists, and the denomination’s ongoing interactions with local Chinese authorities and other Protestants. The Adventist schisms show that global Adventist theology and practices continue to inform their engagement with sociopolitical transformations and changes in China today.

“Schism” will compel scholars to reassess the existing interpretations of the history of Protestant Christianity in China during the Maoist years and the more recent developments during the Reform era. It will interest scholars and students of Chinese history and religion, global Christianity, American religion, and Seventh-day Adventism. This video was recorded on Friday, October 15, 2021.

Speakers:
Christie Chui-Shan Chow, Alexander Chow, Christopher White, Alexander Hsu

For more information visit the event website.

The Liu Institute for Asia and Asian Studies

October 15, 2021

Global AffairsReligion and PhilosophyAlexander ChowAlexander HsuChristie Chui-Shan ChowChristopher WhiteDigest174Liu Institute