Schism: Seventh-day Adventism in Post-Denominational China, the first monograph that documents the life of the Chinese Adventist denomination from the mid-1970s to the 2010s, will be published on October 15.
In this book, the author Christie Chui-shan Chow, an independent scholar of global Christianity and Chinese religions, explores how Chinese Seventh-day Adventists have used schism as a tool to retain, revive, and recast their unique ecclesial identity in a religious habitat that resists diversity.
In this book, Chow who holds a doctorate in religion and society from Princeton Theological Seminary demonstrates how “Chinese Adventists adhere to their denominational character both by recasting the theologies and faith practices that they inherited from American missionaries in the early twentieth century and by engaging with local politics and culture”, by searching into unpublished materials, fieldwork, oral history, and social media contents.
Publisher of the book, University of Notre Dame Press introduces that, “This book locates the Adventist movement in broader Chinese sociopolitical and religious contexts and explores the multiple agents at work in the movement, including intra-church divisions among Adventist believers, growing encounters between local and overseas Adventists, and the denomination’s ongoing interactions with local Chinese authorities and other Protestants. The Adventist schisms show that global Adventist theology and practices continue to inform their engagement with sociopolitical transformations and changes in China today.”
This book is the first release of a new book series, Liu Institute Series in Chinese Christianities, by Notre Dame Press in collaboration with the Liu Institute for Asia and Asian Studies, which will examine several denominations of Christianity in modern China.
According to the Liu Institute, nine books are expected to follow, releasing approximately one per year. Alexander Chow, senior lecturer in theology and world Christianity at the University of Edinburgh, serves as the series editor.
