Xu, Edward Yihua, “Religion and Education: St. John's University as an Evangelizing Agency” (1994)

Title : “Religion and Education: St. John's University as an Evangelizing Agency”

Author(s) : Xu, Edward Yihua

Year : 1994

Type : Dissertation

Subject : History

Keywords : culture;education;religion

University : Princeton University

Language:Name : English

Support : Print

Abstract : St. John's University, established by the American Church Mission (American Protestant Episcopal Church) in Shanghai in 1879, was one of the oldest and greatest Christian colleges in China. Like most of the Christian colleges in China, its original purpose and ideal as an evangelizing agency were gradually diluted, and its policy and function became less and less avowedly Christian. The author, taking St. John's University as an example, tries to explore the problems facing all Christian colleges in China, such as the conflicts between religious and educational work in Christian colleges, and influences of these colleges on the development of an indigenous church. The dissertation is composed of four chapters. The first chapter traces the development of St. John's University from a small liberal arts college to a comprehensive institution of higher learning. The second chapter deals with the administrative structure of the College, and the different or conflicting policies adopted by the Mission, the Kiangsu Diocese, and the University toward such matters as Chinese participation in the administration, the student movements, and the registration with the Chinese government. The third chapter describes the religious work of the University, the general attitudes of students toward Christianity, and job distributions of the graduates at different times. The fourth chapter focuses on St. John's Theological School: its policy of theological education, its graduates, and its role in the Protestant missionary movement in China. The dissertation concludes with the arguments that a successful educational institution could hardly be an effective evangelical agency at the same time, and the educational objectives of missionary schools were often achieved at the price of compromising their religious objectives. The excessive expansion of the missionary schools and other institutions also created serious financial and human resource problems for the struggling Chinese Church, hindering it from becoming indigenous. Ironically, the Protestant missionary movement in China became a movement with far-reaching radii but a weakened center, in which the churches were its weakest asset. Those churches which involved less in educational work were often more successful in terms of evangelical results, both in Taiwan and mainland China, than the churches which had large investments in education.