Harvard Divinity School Center for the Study of World Religions Hackett Lecture: "The Light from the Other Shore”: The Rise of Public Christianity in Contemporary China, with Xi Lian

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In a major historical development in China since the 1980s, amid the crisis of belief in the post-Mao era, an assertive, homegrown Christianity has emerged in the public sphere to proclaim a transcendent truth and offer a new moral compass for Chinese society. Christian beliefs and values have since inspired some of the most unconventional and innovative intellectual and artistic works, reshaping the cultural mainstream. They have also given rise to a morally charged, frequently unrealistic, and at times tragically heroic political and social activism to promote democracy and human rights.  
  
XI LIAN is the David C. Steinmetz Distinguished Professor of World Christianity at Duke Divinity School. He is the author of The Conversion of Missionaries: Liberalism in American Protestant Missions in China, 1907-1932 (Penn State UP, 1997), Redeemed by Fire: The Rise of Popular Christianity in Modern China (Yale UP, 2010), and Blood Letters: The Untold Story of Lin Zhao, a Martyr in Mao’s China (Basic Books, 2018). He is also the co-editor of the forthcoming Highland Christianity: Modern Transformations of the China-Southeast Asia Borderlands (Penn State UP, 2026).