Jonathan Andrew Seitz

B.A.        The College of Wooster

M. Div.    Princeton Theological Seminary

Ph. D.      Princeton Theological Seminary

Edited Books

Richard Fox Young and Jonathan A. Seitz, editors. Asia in the Making of Christianity: Conversion, Agency, Indigeneity, 1600s to the Present. Brill, 2013. 444 pages.

Blind, peer-reviewed publication in Brill’s “Social Sciences in Asia” series. Fifteen contributors wrote on the theme of conversion to Christianity in Asia. Includes analytical introduction, bibliography, illustrations, and index.

Asia in the Making of Christianity was reviewed favorably in The International Bulletin of Missionary Research by Sebastian Kim (York St. John University), in Missiology: An International Review by Arun Jones (Emory), in Cambridge Press’s The Journal of Ecclesiastical History by Chandra Mallampalli (Westmont College), and in Evangelical Missions Quarterly by Aminta Arrington (Biola University).

George Hunter McNeur (author), Jonathan A. Seitz (editor). Liang A-Fa: China’s First Preacher: Annotated with Introduction. Pickwick, 2014.

Revised edition of a 1934 English edition published originally by Oxford House, China. This version is annotated with footnotes and a glossary, and includes a ten thousand word critical introduction that examines recent scholarship on Liang. Endorsed by Brian Stanley (Edinburgh) and Ryan Dunch (Alberta).

This critical edition was reviewed in The Journal of Religious History by Stuart Vogel, by the Global China Center by Martha Stockment, in the Calvin Theological Journal by Zexi Sun.

Reviewed Articles

Unity Through Shared Adversity: A Case Study of the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan, Taiwan Journal of Theology台灣神學論刊 42:13 (2016) 131-146.

“Religious Dualism and the Problem of Dual-Religious Identity,” Buddhist-Christian Studies 35 (2015) (University of Hawaii Press): 49-55.

German translation, “Religiöser Dualismus und das Problem der doppelten religiösen Identität,” in Ulrich Winkler, ed., Salzburger Theologische Zeitschrift (2015: 1): 74-83.

“Humanistic Impulses in Christian Humanism,” Institute for Advanced Studies in Humanities Newsletter 6:2 (June 2011): 9-13.

“Converting John Sung: UTS Dropout, Psychiatric Patient, Chinese Evangelist,” Union Seminary Quarterly Review 62:1-2 (2009) 78-92.

“Calvin in World Christianity” Taiwan Journal of Theology 31:2 (2009): 157-174.

“Yes, There are Limits to Tracy’s Linguistic Emphasis, But We Can Only Talk About Them: A Response to David Brockman” Koinonia XV (2003).

Other Articles

“Reading Immigrants Here and There,” The Journal of the Asian American Theological Forum 5:1 (June 19, 2018) 32-36.

“Remembering the Great War,” The Living Pulpit (Spring 2017): 18-19.

“The Growth of Missional Language. Missio-Logoi: The Many Languages of Mission,” Justice Unbound (on-line), August 2015.

Review Essay, “Teaching the World: A Review Essay of Four Introductions to World Christianity,” Taiwan Journal of Theology 33 (2011): 166-177.

Review Essay of The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom: Rebellion and the Blasphemy of Empire and Acquainted with Grief: Wang Mingdao’s Stand for the Persecuted Church. Koinonia 17:1 (2005) 105-109.

Chapters published in Edited Volumes

Shih Shuying and Jonathan Seitz, “Ethnic Imagination: Conversion and Revival among the Atayal and Paiwan in the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan During the Post-War Period,” in Hsun Chang and Chih-wei Tsai, eds., Religion, Law and State: Cultural Re-invigoration in the New Age 宗教，法律與國家：新時代的文化複振 (Shung Ye Museum of Formosan Aborigines, 2017), 83-118.

“Missionary and Immigrants, Missionaries as Immigrants,” 67-80, in Allen Jorgenson, Hussam Timani, and Alexander Hwang, eds., Strangers in the World: Multi-Religious Reflections on Immigration (Fortress, August 2015).

“Liang Fa (Liang A-fa): Leader in Chinese Indigenization,” 49-64, in Wright Doyle, ed., Christianity in China (Pickwick, 2015).

“Is Conversion to Christianity Pantheon Theocide? Fragility and Durability in Early Chinese Diasporic Protestantism,” 163-188, in Richard Fox Young and Jonathan A. Seitz, eds.,

Conversion to Christianity in Asia (Brill, 2013).

“Jonah as Missionary” in Mark Roncace and Joe Weaver, eds. Global Perspectives on the Bible (Prentice Hall, 2013), 125-127.

“John Calvin in Missionary Memory and Chinese Protestant Identity” in Johan de Niet, Herman Paul, and Bart Wallet, eds., The Modern Calvin: Collective Memories of a Genevan Reformer, 1800-2000 (Brill, 2009), 195-216.

Entries published in Dictionaries, Anthologies, or Encyclopedias

“Confucianism and Christianity,” “Interfaith relations,” “Reformed Tradition,” and “Taiwan,” in Mark A. Lamport, ed., Encyclopedia of Christianity in the Global South (Roman & Littlefield, forthcoming 2018).

“China: History, Beliefs, Practices,” “China: Christian Contacts,” “China: Theological Exchanges,” “China: Current Issues,” 216-239 (four two-thousand word entries), in Terry Muck et al, Handbook of Religion: A Christian Engagement with Traditions, Teachings, and Practices (Baker Academic Books, 2014).

“Ecumenism and the Bible” in Dale Allison Jr. et al, eds. Encyclopedia of the Bible and its Reception (De Gruyter, 2013).

“Partnership,” in Jonathan Bonk, ed., Encyclopedia of Missions and Missionaries (Great Barrington, MA: Routledge, 2007): 323-324.

Book Reviews

Eastspirit: Transnational Spirituality and Religious Circulation in East and West (review). Mission Studies 35:3 (2018).”

https://brill.com/view/journals/mist/35/3/article-p472_21.xml.

Carl S. Kilcourse. Taiping Theology: The Localization of Christianity in China, 1843–1864 (review). Studies in World Christianity 24, no. 1 (March 15, 2018): 87–89. https://doi.org/10.3366/swc.2018.0208.

The Chinese Christology of T. C. Chao (review). Mission Studies 35:2 (2018): 310–11. https://doi.org/10.1163/15733831-12341583.

Boundless: What Global Expressions of Faith Teach Us about Following Jesus, Insider Jesus: Theological Reflections on New Christian Movements (review essay). International Bulletin of Missionary Research (February 20, 2017) 41 (2): 184ff. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/2396939317694138?journalCode=ibmd.

The Life and Legacy of George Leslie Mackay: An Interdisciplinary Study of Canada’s First Presbyterian Missionary to Northern Taiwan (review). 台灣神學論刊 Taiwan Journal of Theology, 41 (2015): 125-131.

Robert Morrison and the Protestant Plan for China (review). The Journal of Ecclesiastical History 66, no. 03 (2015): 673–74.

A Gracious and Compassionate God: Mission, Salvation and Spirituality in the Book of Jonah (review). 台灣神學論刊, 36 (2013): 171–74.

The Cave and the Butterfly: An Intercultural Theory of Interpretation and Religion in the Public. (review). Theology Today 69, no. 1 (2012): 93–95.

Handbook of Christianity in China: Volume Two: 1800–Present (review). Missiology: An International Review 39, no. 1 (2011): 114–15.

Jesuit on the Roof of the World: Ippolito Desideri’s Mission to Tibet (review). Buddhist-Christian Studies 31, no. 1 (2011): 263–66.

Incarnational Humanism: A Philosophy of Culture for the Church in the World (review).

Robert Morrison and the Birth of Chinese Protestantism. Social Sciences and Missions 22, no. 1 (2009): 115–16.

Confronting Confucian Understandings of the Christian Doctrine of Salvation: A Systematic Theological Analysis of the Basic Problems in the Confucian-Christian Dialogue (review). Sino-Christian Studies 7 (2009): 199.

Robert Morrison and the Birth of Chinese Protestantism (review). Social Sciences and Missions 22, no. 1 (2009): 115–16.

China’s Millions: The China Inland Mission and Late Qing Society, 1832-1905 (review). Journal of Presbyterian History 86, no. 2  (2008): 85-86.

Secularisms (review). Journal of Cultural and Religious Theory 9, no. 3 (2008): 41-44. 

Respondent

American Academy of Religions “Chinese Christianities Seminary” panel, November 2018.

American Academy of Religions “Chinese Christianities Seminary” panel, November 2015.

Academia Sinica conference on Indigenous Christianity paper, response to Hayami Yoko, “Traveling Karen Preachers and the Culture of Evangelism: The Founding of Modern Mission in Nineteenth-Century Burma,” November 2015.

Presentations

“Dilemmas in Teaching Cross-Culturally,” Yale-Edinburgh Conference on World Christianity, New Haven, CT, June 2019.

“Surveying Taiwanese Christianity: Results from the 2012 and 2017 Studies of Taiwanese Christianity,” (together with Ta-Li Hsieh), Princeton Theological Seminary Conference on World Christianity, Princeton, NJ, March 2019.

“Multiple-Religious Belonging and Protestant Dilemmas in the Theology of Religions” (Panel: “Multiple Religious Belonging: Promises and Perils”), Parliament of the World’s Religions, Toronto, Canada, November 2018

“The Temple is a Dojo, the Church is a Gym,” American Academy of Religions Annual Meeting, Nov. 17-20, 2017.

“Migrants and Missionaries in the Nineteenth Century Protestant Missionary Movement,” Yale-Edinburgh World Christianity Group meeting, Yale Divinity School, New Haven, CT, July 2017.

“Transmissional, Remissional, Omissional, Dismissional? Open Questions in Missional Theology,” Theology, Ecclesiology & Missiology section, American Society of Missiology Annual Meeting, Wheaton, IL, June 2015.

“Taiwanese Contextual Theology in the Third Generation,” American Society of Missiology Annual Meeting, St. Paul, June 2014.

“Christianity as a Chinese Religion,” Chinese Religions Unit, American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting, Baltimore, November 2013.

“Religious Dualism and the Problem of Dual-Religious Identity,” World Christianity Unit, American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting, Baltimore, November 2013.

“Unity Through Shared Adversity: A Case Study of the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan,” Reformed History and Theology Unit, American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting, Chicago 2012.

“Comedy, Filial Piety, and Theology: The Story of the Blanket, Missionary Studies of Filial Piety 孝, and the Fifth Commandment,” National Taiwan University conference “Cultural Translation, East Asia, and the World,” May 2011.

“Early LMS China Mission (1807-1834) and Qing Law,” Yale-Edinburgh Conference on World Christianity, July 2009.

“Jesus’ Three Pearls? The Saving Merit of the God Jesus? Christian Doctrine in a Chinese Diasporic Religious Context,” Mid-Atlantic AAR Meeting, March 2008.

“Is Christianity a Foreign Religion?” Sino-Christian Conference, LA, November 2007.

“Morrison’s First Translation? Writing Chinese in London,” Morrison Bicentennial Conference, University of Maryland/Library of Congress, March 2007.

“Liang A-Fa Takes a Name,” Yale-Edinburgh Group on World Christianity, July 2005.

“Barbara Kingsolver’s The Poisonwood Bible on American Imperialism, Foreign Missions, and African Christianity,” Annual Meeting, American Academy of Religions, November 2004.

“Canton in London and London in Canton: Robert Morrison, Yong Sam-Tak, and Religious Translation,” Beijing University Conference on Missions and Translation, May 2004.

“Feeding the Nation: The 1911 Revolution and Famine Relief” Association for Asian Studies Annual Meeting, March 2004.

“Reorienting Early American Mission: The Conversion of Henry Obookiah,” Yale-Edinburgh Group on World Christianity, July 2003.

研究領域

History of Religions; Ecumenism; Conversion theory; Christianity in East Asia; World Christianity; Christianity and World History; Christianity and Local Religions; Mission and Evangelism; Pluralism, Witness, and Dialogue; Sinology and Theology; American Presbyterian History; Jonah as a Biblical Exemplar of Mission