‘Does God Mind?’: Reshaping Chinese Christian Rites of Passage, c.1877–1940

Chinese Anglicans and missionaries wrestled with the relationship between Christian rituals and culture. Missionaries entered China with preconceived notions about rites of passage, but quickly realized the difficulties of implementation. For example, with the backdrop of Western imperialism, clergy reported ‘unworthy adherents’ misusing their certificates of admission to churches only to gain extraterritorial legal privileges. Another question was how far traditional Chinese wedding customs could be integrated into Christian marriage. Students at Anglican schools wondered whether God would ‘mind’ if they believed Jesus in their hearts, but did not receive baptism because of parental opposition, because, to them, both faith and filial piety mattered. The complexity of the Chinese social and cultural context made it impossible to prescribe set formats for rites of passage. Instead, clergy and Chinese Anglicans reshaped rites of passage by referring to loosely formulated guidelines, using case-by-case discretion, and adjusting to their surroundings. © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Ecclesiastical History Society