Kathleen L Lodwick

The story of the foreign missionaries who served in China between 1309 and 1949 is one of fervent religious commitment and of the loss of faith, of determined perseverance and of angry frustration, of accepting people as they are and of cultural superiority ...of human kindness and of narrow prejudice, of those who loved China and of those who refused to acknowledge the society in which they lived, of those who spent their entire adult lives in China and of those who fled home as soon as possible, and of those who admired China and of those who were driven insane by living in China. In short, it is a story of ordinary people with all their good qualities and all their shortcomings. "ln all of its complexity, Kathleen L. Lodwick tells the story of Christianity in China. Its essential reading for anyone wanting to understand the contemporary phenomena that is Christianity in China, which some people predict soon will be the country with the largest Christian population in the world.

For Margaret Moninger -- a brilliant, fun-loving, and dedicated young woman from Iowa -- a career as a missionary in China promised adventure and the chance for responsibility and authority denied most American women of her time. In 1915 she went as a Presbyterian missionary to Hainan Island, China's southernmost territory, where she remained until repatriated in 1942. During her years in Hainan, Moninger played many roles: she headed a girls' mission school, wrote scholarly articles on the Miao aborigines, collected botanical specimens for scientists at home, and served as mission treasurer. She was responsible for communications with American diplomatic personnel and was one of only six women appointed to the Presbyterian China Council, which set mission policies for all of China. Kathleen Lodwick's biography, the first devoted to a single woman missionary, is based primarily on the long, newsy letters Moninger wrote her family every Sunday of her missionary years, and on those of a fellow missionary. It will be of interest to scholars in Asian studies, religious studies, and anthropology.

Rev. George D. Byers, Presbyterian missionary at Kachek, Hainan island, China, was murdered by bandits in front of his home on June 24, 1924, setting off an extraterritorality incident that involved American, British, and Chinese government officials ranging from the local Chinese military commander to the British consul at Hoihow, Hainan, the Chinese Foreign Minister Wellington Koo, U.S. Congressmen, Presbyterians in China and the U.S., and friends of the Byers family. Based on American and British consular archives and those of the Presbyterian Church (USA) and members of the Hainan mission, this is the story of how Mrs. Byers and her ally, Mrs. Mabel Roys, the sole woman on the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions (BFM), successfully got the government and their church to take action. Kathleen L. Lodwick is a Professor of History at the Pennsylvania State University, Lehigh Valley.