Reprint of the original, first published in 1884.

This comprehensive guide will facilitate scholarly research concerning the history of Christianity in China as well as the wider Sino-Western cultural encounter. It will assist scholars in their search for material on the anthropological, educational, medical, scientific, social, political, and religious dimensions of the missionary presence in China prior to 1950.The guide contains nearly five hundred entries identifying both Roman Catholic and Protestant missionary sending agencies and related religious congregations. Each entry includes the organization's name in English, followed by its Chinese name, country of origin, and denominational affiliation. Special attention has been paid to identifying the many small, lesser-known groups that arrived in China during the early decades of the twentieth century. In addition, a special category of the as yet little-studied indigenous communities of Chinese women has also been included. Multiple indexes enhance the guide's accessibility.

Despite the fact that women are often mentioned as having played instrumental roles in the establishment of Methodism on the Continent of Europe, very little detail concerning the women has ever been provided to add texture to this historical tapestry. This book of essays redresses this by launching a new and wider investigation into the story of pioneering Methodist women in Europe. By bringing to light an alternative set of historical narratives, this edited volume gives voice to a broad range of religious issues and concerns during the critical period in European history between 1869 and 1939. Covering a range of nations in Continental Europe, some important interpretive themes are suggested, such as the capacity of women to network, their ability to engage in God’s work, and their skill at navigating difficult cultural boundaries. This ground breaking study will be of significant interest to scholars of Methodism, but also to students and academics working in history, religious studies, and gender.

Constructing Opportunity: American Women Educators in Early Meiji Japan tells the story of Margaret Clark Griffis and Dora E. Schoonmaker, two extraordinary women who transcended the traditional boundaries of nation, class, and gender by living and working in an alternative cultural setting outside the United States in the 1870s. Author Elizabeth K. Eder draws on numerous primary sources, including unpublished diaries and letters, to give both an intimate biographical account of these women's lives and an examination of the social and institutional frameworks of their professional lives in Japan.

At the close of the nineteenth century, American women missionaries traveled far afield to spread Christianity across the globe. Their presence abroad played a significant role in shaping foreign perceptions of America. At the same time, the cultural knowledge and independence these women missionaries gained had a profound impact on gender roles and racial ideologies among Protestants in the United States. In Providence Has Freed Our Hands, Karen K. Seat tells the history of women’s foreign missions in Japan and reveals the considerable role they played in liberalizing American understandings of Christianity, gender, and race. The author uses the story of Elizabeth Russell, a colorful missionary to Japan, as the backbone for her study. As a member of the Women’s Foreign Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church, one of the most powerful women’s institutions of the late nineteenth century, Russell founded a progressive school for girls in Japan, defying the conservative ideologies not only of her own organization but also of the government of Japan. Transformed by her experience in Japan, Russell became a forceful advocate for racial tolerance and women’s access to education. With a storyteller’s gift for narration, Seat illustrates how Russell’s own life reflected the key issues fueling women’s missions: increased access to higher education, the impact of evangelical spirituality on women’s identities, and the broadening horizons available to women, while Russell’s missionary work in turn opened up new discourses in American culture.