Pearl Buck's “Several Worlds” and the “Inasmuch” of Christ

Abstract

Pearl Buck, born in West Virginia to Presbyterian missionaries, lived most of her early life in China. She introduced Americans to China and the Chinese through her novel The Good Earth (1931) and numerous other writings, which won for her both the Pulitzer and Nobel prizes for literature. She also helped Christians to rethink the meaning and method of the mission enterprise in the 1930s and to understand the conflict under Chaing Kai-shek and Mao Tse-tung that shaped the China we know today. Her perspective and insights are still pertinent to our relations with the Chinese today.