The Contribution of Chinese Women to the Church

The history of Christianity in China provides very limited material about women playing a significant role in the Church. However, both in the past as in the present Chinese female Christians had and have an important or even crucial impact on the life of the Church, even if their role was commonly undervalued in reports and neglected in the research. Thus, many women in the Church in China have often remained nameless.

While in the West the vital role of women in the Church has been slowly recognized, in China, however, this is not yet the case. Due to the specificity of its history and society, the significance of Christian women has been overlooked and underappreciated. The names of Chinese women who are significant in the history of the Church are hardly known to the majority of the Chinese believers.

Many questions regarding the research on the impact of Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox women on the Church in China still remain unanswered. A systematic study of the historical sources and extensive field research are both desiderata in this area. Through the publication of research presented at the international workshop “I Have Called You by Name. Contribution of Chinese Women to the Church” in September 25-26, 2014 in Sankt Augustin (Germany), we hope to carry the urgency of such research more clearly into the academic world.