Samuel Ling
The West Reconsidered—Evangelical Turns and Self-Reflection
China and Christian Faith (Part 6)
The church does not need dominance to love neighbors—it needs faithfulness.
Since 1949—Policy Swings and the “Christianity Fever”
China and Christian Faith (Part 5)
What matters most is not only the dates, but the habits Christians learned for living between lines.
Two Tracks—Liberal and Fundamentalist Currents in China
China and Christian Faith (Part 4)
Two tracks took root: social modernizers built schools and bridges; evangelists planted chapels and courage. China’s church still needs the gifts of both.
Crisis and Critique, 1862–1927
China and Christian Faith (Part 3)
From 1862 to 1927, China’s crises produced both scapegoats and gifts: Christianity was resisted as foreign and embraced in service—while new ideologies recast the debate.
Traditional China Meets Christianity
China and Christian Faith (Part 2)
Traditional China’s worldview—Confucianism, Daoism/folk religion, Buddhism, and the management of “heterodoxy”—shaped how Christianity was first seen: foreign, sometimes tolerated, and often misunderstood.
Four Questions for the 2040s
A new series adapted from Sam Ling’s 2025 HLS lecture asks four guiding questions across four axes—China, the West, the church, and ideas—to help us think and serve faithfully as we look toward the 2040s.
Peoples of China
Church Structure in China
Proposed Questions for Exploration
When interacting with church leaders in China, questions about the church inevitably emerge. At some point, issues concerning church structure will be brought up. How they respond will deeply affect the long term growth of the church. It is both exciting and agonizing to observe.
Peoples of China
Cultural Continuity and Discontinuity in Chinese Church Leadership
The shaping of Christian leaders in modern China.
Supporting Article
The Coming Third Anti-Christian Movement?
Learning from Modern Chinese Intellectuals
China has always been an anomaly. She is open to the gospel, she is resistant to the gospel. She is hungry for things modern and Western, she is stubbornly proud of things traditional and Chinese. How do we make sense of all this? More importantly, how do we gauge the mindset of China's intellectuals and leaders? How do they view Christianity as a religion, as a Western cultural construct, as a world and life view?
Supporting Article
Facets of the Chinese Church
Of the many adjectives that could be used to describe the church in China, “diverse” is one of the most appropriate. The Body of Christ in China is indeed multi-faceted, a microcosm of the diverse population of China itself. Here we present four views of the church in China, each reflecting a different aspect of God’s working among the peoples of China.