Saving Comrade Stalin’s Soul (1949–1958)

Abstract

During the 1950s, the universal ideology of Chinese Christian churches such as the True Jesus Church clashed with the universal ideology of the Maoist party–state. Christian communities’ relative ideological autonomy hindered the party–state’s ambitions for control. Christians, especially Christian leaders, experienced intense pressure to adopt the new code of Maoist speech during this era. Documents from archives in Shanghai, Nanjing, and Wuhan and oral history interviews with members of the True Jesus Church in South China show how between 1949 and 1958, top church leaders bowed to this pressure, replacing biblical rhetoric and discursive patterns with Maoist rhetoric and discursive patterns. The contest between religious communities and the state to control the terms of public moral discourse demonstrates the significance of such discourse in demarcating and legitimating community authority.