Abstract
Faithful Disobedience is a well-contextualized anthology of Chinese house church leaders, featuring their writings and sermons on the topic of church and state. Through English translations, it presents the perspectives of prominent urban church figures from Beijing and Chengdu, whose insights have already resonated widely within the Chinese Christian community.
Each article in the book is framed with contextual comments by the editors, who also provide an insightful introduction and conclusion. The narrative spotlights religious persecution of Protestantism in China, charting its journey from the 1950s to the 2010s. The first section has given voice to several contemporary Chinese urban church leaders, tracing the indigenous house church tradition that emerged in the 1950s as it severed from missionary influence and survived political cooptation. This tradition endured political adversity during the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s and 1970s, with its legacy carried forward by leaders from the Tiananmen Square generation. The subsequent sections almost entirely profile Wang Yi, presenting his theology of the city and the cross, highlighting his advocacy for the urban house church movement’s global church integration.
The editors aptly underscore the “situational” (318) essence of the theology discussed, emphasizing its theological and missional bent in addressing the politically charged matter of church–state relations. This approach stands in contrast to the Martin Luther King Jr. style civil resistance that the book’s title might imply.
This book will appeal to a general readership of the global church while also serving as a valuable sourcebook for missiologists and mission agencies. For those seeking to delve deeper, a curated reading list at the book’s end spans diverse genres, from missiological and historical to theological and sociological.