Book Review: The Oxford Handbook of the Bible in China by K. K. Yeo, ed.

Abstract

The massive 878-page Oxford Handbook of the Bible in China is an ambitious attempt to provide a broad and encompassing reference work to boost our understanding of the “impact of the Bible’s translation, expression, interpretation, and reception in China” (1). The forty-seven essays are grouped into four general categories: “Translation through Versions,” “Expression in Literary and Religious Contexts,” “Interpretation and Methods of Reading,” and “Reception in Institutions and the Arts.” The number of forty-nine contributors with their differing expertise and interest in the Chinese Bible is in itself impressive, and the range of topics offers a look at the impact of the Chinese Bible according to many different perspectives and disciplines. The first group of essays provides overviews of various Chinese Bible versions, which include some of the more rarely studied versions like the Eastern Orthodox Bible, the Basset-Su translation, and Louis de Poirot’s Mandarin translation. The second group of essays provides a welcome expansion of the discussion of textual and semantic interaction between the Chinese Bible and various Chinese religious writings and modern fiction, as well as the manifestation of the Chinese Bible in Chinese Christian writings, such as missionary novels and Christian poetry. The third section is more diverse, with articles ranging from reviews of the study of the Bible in Chinese academia and publication of NTmonographs and commentaries in China, to the Jesuits’ use of printed illustrations of the gospel, and discussions of how Christianity relates to the Chinese Jing culture and the concept of sacredness in Chinese cultures. The last group of essays focuses on the sociocultural impact of the Bible in China in areas such as basic