Daniel H. Bays

China's Millions

Evangelism & Missions

“A rich, lovingly crafted, and elegantly written study. . . Probably the single largest contribution is the sympathetic yet sober and objective portrayal of Hudson Taylor as a person, along with insightful profiles of a whole host of other CIM worthies, power brokers, and assorted oddballs. Embedded in this informative (and often entertaining) narrative (which skips, rather than plows, through decades of history) comes an implicit interpretation of the institutional growth of the CIM as an organization. . . Austin's portrayal of the formidable Pastor Hsi is deft, a real contribution in itself.”

Converting Colonialism

Evangelism & Missions

“Converting Colonialism, ably edited by Dana Robert, is part of the fine Eerdmans series Studies in the History of Christian Missions. This volume is one of the best. It contains some of the most perceptive writing in recent years on the relationship between colonialism and missions in the two centuries before 1914. This is both a sad and a hopeful story, convincingly told by the nine distinguished authors, whose essays range from mission theory to compellingly interesting case studies from Africa, India, China, and the home front. The scholarship here is outstanding; some of these studies will be reprinted, I am sure, and may well become classics.”

English Ministry Crisis in Chinese Canadian Churches

Church Leadership & Ministry

“This is a creatively conceived and systematically executed research project on the role of language and its social impact, focusing on Canada but in many ways applicable to the U.S. as well. It is solidly based on empirical data.”

Explorations in Asian Christianity

History & Biography

“In this scholarly contribution to studies of church history, professor Sunquist provides rich intellectual fare. He is a mature scholar with a comprehensive scope of vision that is evident all the way through this book. He has become one of the giants in the transition from a focus on Western missionaries to world Christianity.”

History and Belief

“This is a thoughtful treatise in the realm between history and philosophy, the product of mature reflection on the part of a historian who has himself struggled for decades with the issues of historical understanding and writing honest history, Robert Eric Frykenberg shows us many different functions of 'history — including memory, mythic legacy, anecdote, narrative, classicity, and theodicy (as 'redemptive event'). But he is at his sharpest in the chapter titled 'History as Rhetoric,' in which he boldly assaults the ideologically charged bastions of postmodernism, post-Orientalism, subalternism, and other manifestations of the literary theory of 'culture studies' approach. Overall, this book reinforces eloquently the truth that deep-seated religious or ideological beliefs inform the very conceptualization of history and are inextricably intertwined with historical understanding.”

Opening China

Evangelism & Missions

“In this fine book, a worthy addition to a distinguished series, Jessie Lutz gives us the most insightful portrait yet of the enigmatic Karl Gützlaff — genius, entrepreneur, salesman, charlatan, and missionary extraordinaire — who with his indefatigable energy participated in every issue that arose during his twenty years in China. As a bonus, Lutz weaves the remarkable personal story of Gützlaff together with very astute discussion and analysis of many aspects of early Sino-Western relations between 1830 and 1860: trade and opium, China and the West's limited knowledge of each other, early Bible translations and the importance of language skills, foreign links with Chinese society, and dynamics of the foreign community itself. Opening China contains the accumulated wisdom of one of our very best and most respected China scholars.”

Salt and Light, Volume 1

History & Biography

“I highly recommend this collection of succinct, deftly drawn portraits of Chinese Christians, whose lives made a difference. The editors and authors are sympathetic to their subjects but also realistic in their evaluation. Historians of modern China, and many in Chinese Christian communities worldwide, will enjoy and profit from learning about these ten laypersons who contributed much to the Kingdom of God and to the society in which they lived.”