This superb first book by Jesse Sun does three things very well. It interweaves historical context and theological development in twentieth-century China; it provides a new narrative for the interactions of Protestant intellectuals with governance, both proactively and in response to ever-changing government bodies and initiatives; and it offers illuminating detail on the lives of the three church leaders on which it focuses.

Sun frames the book in between two revolutions: the Xinhai Revolution of 1911 and the Cultural Revolution of the late 1960s. This short twentieth century enables the author to trace church history and an engaged public theology within the lifespan and thought of three individuals, Wu Yaozong, Zhao Zichen, and Cai Yongchun. Known to each other, the first two are relatively well-studied, as representatives of the left-wing of the church and of theological education, respectively, while the third adds a slightly more junior counterpoint and evangelical perspective.

Sun’s chapters guide us through the central decades of the twentieth century as currents in intellectual Christian thinking are mapped in conjunction with changing political circumstances. Sun begins by reminding that few in the 1910s and 20s opposed efforts to indigenize Christianity culturally in China. He characterizes the zeitgeist of this period as a “liberal synthesis,” when intellectuals broadly agreed on the need for an ethical foundation, an international outlook, and social action to bring about national salvation. Christianity was understood to have real power to change not just individuals but also to rejuvenate the nation, spurring Christian participation in a wealth of social programs, from the YWCA to land reform and education work, with liberal theology predicated on building the kingdom of heaven on earth.

The collapse of the liberal synthesis in the late 1920s led, for Sun, to two different responses: a leftward turn to Christian socialism, and from there toward the alignment of Christianity with Marxism and communism, as encapsulated in the thinking of Wu Yaozong; and retrenchment toward a more conservative theology, or a spiritual turn inwards, such as Zhao Zichen underwent. Both can be seen as responses to the perceived failure of Christianity to build a strong nation and to the incipient war with Japan. For Wu Yaozong, the route to Marxism and a new grasp of national salvation through communism came via a rejection of pacifism, while Zhao’s experience of wartime dislocation and his renewed pastoral work led him rather toward piety and a reassertion of orthodoxy. This general story is well-known, but Sun brings to bear much detail on his subjects’ experiences and reflection on the transition – as he does to the following chapter of theological history, amplifying the role of the Civil War period in the formation of Christian perspectives on communism. For both Zhao and Cai Yongchun, inner turmoil and desolation led to a re-evaluation of faith in the early years of the new People’s Republic.

Sun characterises the theological arc of the period as one in which the church proactively engaged with society and governance for the good of the country in the early decades of the century but was gradually pushed into a passive role vis-à-vis the state as church institutions encountered constraints. As Marxist ideology powered the change the church once sought to bring, the church was further forced into a subservient role under Communist rule, before becoming a shadow of itself as institutes and places of worship closed.

Despite the negative trajectory, Sun offers a deeply sympathetic portrait, generous in his interpretation of the dilemmas and challenges Christians faced. Meticulous archive work (noting Sun’s profuse thanks in the acknowledgements to the many librarians who helped him during Covid-19) forms the basis of the research, while the quality of his writing and the fluency of the narrative woven across the chapters makes it a highly readable account. A strength of the book is its unearthing of new detail in the lives and writings of each of the three figures. This is particularly true in the final chapters, documenting the dismantling of Christian higher education and the beginning of self-criticism sessions for church figures. The precarious positions of Cai and Zhao are documented through their difficult decisions to return to, or remain in, China, as well as in their evolving reflections on both church and Party-state following Liberation in 1949. A final chapter depicting the pathos, isolation, and self-questioning of the Cultural Revolution years brings new materials to light, while also documenting the reprise of Christian scholarship and friendships in 1979. For a historical study, Sun’s reading of the theology of his subjects is sensitive and usually sound (although it might be tantalizing for theologians among his readers, given enough to intrigue but not sate).

My main beef with the volume is its title. The “odyssey” is through the intellectual mind of urban Protestant leadership, and especially educational training centered on Yenching University in Beijing. To what degree can these three Christian leaders truly enflesh or represent the “Chinese Protestant Mind,” given that all three are male, two are Anglican professors, and all were at their prime in mid-century? “Salvation” and “Revolution” point to church and state respectively, but also to the church’s hope for its role in saving the nation, and the ongoing evolution in Christian thought. Yet the central concept that Sun emphasizes throughout the book is neither of these, but rather nation, and nationalism. My questions are thus ones of emphasis: whether nationalism is so unequivocally the central prism for church-state relations throughout the twentieth century; what a contrast with non-liberal voices and their patriotism might have brought to the notion of adaptation that Sun foregrounds. Setting aside the question of whether the title best reflects the contents, however, this is an excellent volume that deepens our understanding of Chinese Christian thought, and by uncovering its recent past, informs our grasp of the present-day church.