China and the True Jesus

The True Jesus Church was China's first major native Christian denomination and one of the earliest expressions of the charismatic and Pentecostal tradition that now dominates Chinese Christianity. Founded in 1917, after a silk merchant had a vision of Jesus, the Church was characterized by dramatic healings, exorcisms, tongues-speaking, and a call for a return to authentic Christianity that challenged the Western missionary establishment in China. In this history ofthe True Jesus Church, Melissa Wei-Tsing Inouye links together key themes from modern Chinese social history to tell the story of how members of the True Jesus Church in China over the past century have sought to muster divine and human resources to transform their world.