Dr Jean Uayan comprehensively weaves the story of six Protestant Chinese churches in the Philippines into the local history of their individual settings in this important study. Uncovering new insight and historical information from extensive primary and secondary sources, Uayan presents a rich and previously unacknowledged heritage and support from four American mission organisations during the US occupation from 1898–1946. The seeds sown amongst Chinese communities across the Philippines resulted in indigenous churches that took differing journeys to full independence and now are also bearing fruit in missionary activity in South Fujian, China. This book is an important contribution towards a global church history acknowledging the work of the Holy Spirit establishing and building up the church of Jesus Christ among the nations.

In this historical account, Dr Raymundo Go presents the arrival and growth of evangelicalism in the Philippines from 1898 to 2000, looking in particular at the formation of the Philippine Council of Evangelical Churches (PCEC) and the motivating factors of the founding members. Weaving together a narrative almost forgotten in the Philippines, Dr Go also brings unique insights on the impact that North American events and theological debates had on the nascent Philippine church. Through detailed explanation of the interaction and influence of the modernist/liberal, fundamental, and evangelical movements in shaping Philippine Christian history, this study addresses the historical reason for a lack of unity in the Philippine church. Dr Go applies Paul Hiebert’s theory of bounded and centred sets to the divisions between key organizations and churches in the Philippines to analyze and understand the behaviours of the influential groups involved in shaping Protestantism in the Philippines today. This important work is not only needed to draw attention to the history of the church in the Philippines, but it is vital in showing the need to learn from a divided past when considering the potential for future reconciliation and unity in the body of Christ.

This interdisciplinary volume represents the first comprehensive English-language analysis of the development of Protestant Christianity in Xiamen from the nineteenth century to the present. This important regional study is particularly revealing due to the unbroken history of Sino-Christian interactions in Xiamen and the extensive ties that its churches have maintained with global missions and overseas Chinese Christians. Its authors draw upon a wide range of foreign missionary and Chinese official archives, local Xiamen church publications, and fieldwork data to historicize the Protestant experience in the region. Further, the local Christians’ stories demonstrate a form of sociocultural, religious and political imagination that puts into question the Euro-American model of Christendom and the Chinese Communist-controlled Three-Self Patriotic Movement. It addresses the localization of Christianity, the reinvention of local Chinese Protestant identity and heritage, and the Protestants’ engagement with the society at large. The empirical findings and analytical insights of this collection will appeal to scholars of religion, sociology and Chinese history.

The Hybrid Tsinoys is a study of hybridity and homogeneity as sociocultural constructs in the development of current ethnic identity/ies of Chinese Filipinos. This study employs a descriptive ethnographic research method to discover how they see or define themselves in terms of ethnicity (Chinese, Filipino, or both) and how their perspectives affect other aspects of their lives (language, marriage, and family). The research proposes that there are different kinds of Chinese Filipinos as evidenced in the six classifications in chapter 4. Further, most of them have constructed a hybrid culture exclusively and uniquely their own. On the one hand, they are still attached to their cultural roots; on the other hand, they cannot evade the fact that they are influenced by their host country and the present global and migratory age we live in. Second-, third-, and fourth-generation Chinese Filipinos demonstrate their hybridity in language and mindset. This dissertation also lays out some challenges in relation to doing mission among them.

The books of Ezra and Nehemiah illustrate how leaders of God’s people confronted the challenges facing the Jews during the post-exilic period of Israel. Zerubbabel inspires the people of God to rebuild the temple; Ezra leads them in renewing their faith in God; and Nehemiah rebuilds the wall and, importantly, the people as well. The examples in these books, of leading through challenges and opposition by trusting the Lord and committing to prayer, testify to how God’s gracious hand guides and blesses his people at each step. The careful exposition of these two books provides a valuable model for us to balance prayer and action with contextual application, and how the full obedience of leaders can lead to communities being transformed. The Asia Bible Commentary series empowers Christian believers in Asia to read the Bible from within their respective contexts. Holistic in its approach to the text, each exposition of the biblical books combines exegesis and application. The ultimate goal is to strengthen the Body of Christ in Asia by providing pastoral and contextual exposition of every book of the Bible.