Differences in perspectives on the Christian revolution of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in China

HTS Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies

 
 
Field Value
 
Title Differences in perspectives on the Christian revolution of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in China
 
Creator Wang, Shuihuan E.
 
Subject History; Religion studies Christian revolution; Taiping Heavenly Kingdom; Karl Marx; Max Weber; Kang Youwei
Description In terms of civilian casualties directly and indirectly caused by the war, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement was the largest war in world history in the second half of the nineteenth century and had a strong East Asian Christian background. This article adopts the ‘historical contextualism’ approach of the Cambridge School in the history of political thought, and through a comparison of the relevant views of Karl Marx, Max Weber and Kang Youwei, it reveals that this intentional omission comes from a specific combination of modernisation routes and modernisation political construction choices. In contemporary China, the study of Christian theory and the practice of church organisation still need to answer the question of the general public as to whether Christianity can bring about a better life, both materially and spiritually.Contribution: This article pointed out that three contemporaries, Marx, Weber and Kang, all evaluated the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement as a revolution of Christianity in China from the standpoint of ‘China’s need for modernisation’, but differed in their evaluation of the position and role of the religious reform factor in the process of modernisation in China. However, they differed in their assessment of the position and role of the Reformation factor in the process of modernisation in China. The article reveals that for Protestant Christianity in contemporary China, it is still necessary to carefully handle its relationship with the government and to satisfy the people’s real needs for a modernised material and spiritual life. Meanwhile, it sheds light on the issue of ‘heterocultural adaptability’ brought about by the expansion and spread of Protestant Christianity in East Asia, as well as on the question of whether Protestantism and Confucianism in the process of modern conversion can achieve peaceful coexistence.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor
Date 2024-10-14
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — Historical Inquiry
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/hts.v80i3.10122
 
Source HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies; Vol 80, No 3 (2024); 7 pages 2072-8050 0259-9422
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://hts.org.za/index.php/hts/article/view/10122/27663 https://hts.org.za/index.php/hts/article/view/10122/27664 https://hts.org.za/index.php/hts/article/view/10122/27665 https://hts.org.za/index.php/hts/article/view/10122/27666
 
Coverage Europe;China 19th century Ethnicity
Rights Copyright (c) 2024 Shuihuan E. Wang https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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