Abstract

ZAVALA-PELAYO, Edgar. Genealogical Notes on the Defense of Self-Determination in the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan. Estud. Asia Áfr. [online]. 2022, vol.57, n.3, pp.627-656.  Epub Feb 06, 2023. ISSN 2448-654X.  https://doi.org/10.24201/eaa.v57i3.2772.

Founded in the 1860s and 1870s as a set of missions, the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan may be considered the most politically active Christian Church in Taiwan today. The church’s political profile became public since the 1970s, and it aimed to defend human rights and the right to self-determination of the island and its inhabitants. This article problematizes the historical narratives that trace the church’s defense of self-determination back to the nineteenth-century Presbyterian missions’ purported autonomy. Firstly, the missions’ autonomy is described as one of the main strategies of a network of missionary Protestant churches that sought to materialize the global expansion of Christianity. Secondly, the missions’ independence is qualified as one that required external supervision and relied on utilitarian operating mechanisms. Thirdly, it is argued that evangelization by the Presbyterian missionaries and the missions’ eventual autonomy required the creation and operation of problematic yet functional “Others”. The manuscript highlights the need for critical studies that approach the missions as sites traversed by extra-institutional and inter-subjective governmental dynamics.

Keywords : East Asia; self-determination; Christianity; government; Taiwan Presbyterian Church; Presbyterian missions.

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