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Aikman is the right person to write this book. At home in Chinese and Christian cultures, he is also a serious scholar of Marxism and religion. His 1979 dissertation, The Role of Atheism in the Marxist Tradition, traced with erudite pugnacity the Promethian (even demonic) rage that infused the thinking of Marx, Engels, and Lenin. But he is matter-of-fact and fair, if occasionally cynical, about modern Chinese politics.

Aikman is weaker on how Christianity is becoming Chinese. Marx claimed to "abolish all religion and all eternal truth," and his disciples swept the public square clean of bourgeois gods. By contrast, followers of Jesus generally want not to abolish Chinese tradition but to renew it.

"The most important thing is to make people realize that Christianity is related to Chinese culture," Aikman quotes philosopher Yuan Zhimin. Though Aikman fails to fully develop this crucial insight, he does explore political aspects of how the "Christian spirit" may in the future help "save China" and benefit humanity as well. Considering the growth and influence of Christian minorities in other parts of East Asia, Aikman makes the case that if the church continues to grow, "it is almost certain that a Christian view of the world will be the dominant worldview within China's political and cultural establishments."

Some of the implications Aikman suggests—such as more cooperation in the war against terror and state protection of missions to Muslim lands—seem heady and speculative. Aikman more reasonably relates church growth to an Augustinian "sense of restraint, justice, and order in the wielding of state power," and the development of civic virtue.

Chairman Mao, it is clear, did not extinguish the light of the cross that shines into People's Park. It burns ever brighter, though it competes now with neon. The church in China seems "bathed in grace." Reading of lives touched by that grace, told in this well-informed and honest piece of reporting, it is easy to catch the enthusiasm of the Chinese church. The resurrection of Chinese Christianity bodes well not only for China, but for us all.

David Marshall is the author of True Son of Heaven: How Jesus Fulfills the Chinese Culture (Kuai Mu Press, 1996).

Copyright © 2004 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

Jesus in Beijing is available from Amazon.com and other book retailers.

The book has been covered by The Dallas Morning News, Associated, Press, The Washington Times, National Review Online, and CBN.

Last summer, Aikman testified before a congressional commission on religion in China.

Christianity Today's postings today also include an interview with Aikman and a news story on renewed persecution of Christians in China.

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February (Web-only) 2004, Vol. 48