Sacred webs: the social lives and networks of Minnan Protestants, 1840s-1920s

In Sacred Webs, historian Chris White demonstrates how Chinese Protestants in Minnan, or the southern half of Fujian Province, fractured social ties and constructed and utilized new networks through churches, which served as nodes linking individuals into larger Protestant communities. Through analyzing missionary archives, local church reports, and available Chinese records, Sacred Webs depicts Christianity as a Chinese religion and Minnan Protestants as laying claim to both a Christian faith and a Chinese cultural heritage.Accepted manuscrip

The mosses of Easter Island

The bryophyte flora of Easter Island has been poorly known primarily because few botanists have collected there. In order to increase the knowledge of the flora the two authors collected bryophytes from 12 localities on the island from April 28-May 3, 2000. The small island, which is south of the Tropic of Capricorn, is of volcanic origin and the volcanic soil as well as the destruction of most of the native flora have undoubtedly contributed to the paucity of bryophytes. The present study revealed that the bryophyte flora consists of only a few species, including one unidentifiable member of the Anthocerotaceae, 11 hepatics and 30 mosses. Eighteen mosses are new to the island. Three mosses, Chenia leptophylla (Müll. Hal.) R. H. Zander, Dicranella hawaiica (Müll. Hal.) Broth. and Tortella humilis (Hedw.) Jennings, are new for Chile, while three, Fissidens pascuanus Broth. in Skottsb., Ptychomitrium subcylindricum Thér. and Trematodon pascuanus Thér., are presently known to be endemic to Easter Island. Two of the three endemics, Fissidens pascuanus and Ptychomitrium subcylindricum, were rediscovered on the island. Fissidens pascuanus was found with sporophytes for the first time and a revised description of the species is provided

Effects of moderate abundance changes on the atmospheric structure and colours of Mira variables (Research Note)

Aims. We study the effects of moderate deviations from solar abundances upon the atmospheric structure and colours of typical Mira variables. Methods. We present two model series of dynamical opacity-sampling models of Mira variables which have (1) 1 solar metallicity 3 and (2) "mild" S-type C/O abundance ratio ([C/O]=0.9) with typical Zr enhancement (solar +1.0). These series are compared to a previously studied solar-abundance series which has similar fundamental parameters (mass, luminosity, period, radius) that are close to those of o Cet. Results. Both series show noticeable effects of abundance upon stratifications and infrared colours but cycle-to-cycle differences mask these effects at most pulsation phases, with the exception of a narrow-water-filter colour near minimum phase.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, accepted for A&

John Sung: Christian revitalization in China and Southeast Asia

This dissertation examines the powerful vortex of John Sung's revivals in China and Southeast Asia, which directly influenced ten percent of all Chinese Protestants by the end of the 1930s. It begins in 1926 with his decision to pursue theological education in the United States, and ends with his physical collapse in 1940. But the work is not focused on biographical details; it is primarily concerned with how Sung's ministry evolved. Contrary to the numerous biographies on Sung that circulate in multiple languages, he did not return to China as a newly born-again believer enthusiastic to call the nation to repentance. Instead, this work demonstrates that Sung first floundered in China, spending several years piecing together his conversion narrative, and he adopted the revivalism that made him famous only after joining the Shanghai Bethel Mission in 1931. Once those pieces fit together, however, Sung became the preeminent Chinese evangelist of the twentieth century. The dissertation uses archival material and unrestricted access to Sung's own diaries not only to reconstruct the transformations within Sung's ministry, but also to make new dimensions of his work accessible. Particular attention is given to class, women, and divine healing. Sung's revivals appealed to the xiaoshimin, or China's petty urbanites, who sought a modern spirituality that befit their urban lives, yet wanted a religious system that addressed their traditional concerns. Women appeared at Sung's revivals in disproportionate numbers, because in China and Southeast Asia revivalism and modernity fueled one another, and women could use that combustible mix to cast new places for themselves in local societies--even if it meant challenging Sung's own perception of women. Sung's practice of healing, derived from the holiness movement, temporarily challenged China's medical pluralism, before eventually becoming part of it. Analysis of Sung's ministry suggests that revivalism was a powerful tool for personal and social revitalization. Through it, Sung not only rebuilt his own life and ministry, but he also used revivalism to recreate a distinctively Chinese spirituality, though now Christianized and expressed in ways appropriate to China and Southeast Asia's modernizing cities