Hunan Bible Institute () was an important

fundamentalist Fundamentalism is a tendency among certain groups and individuals that is characterized by the application of a strict literal interpretation to scriptures, dogmas, or ideologies, along with a strong belief in the importance of distinguishi ...

Bible school in early-20th century

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. It was founded in 1916 and known as " Biola in China."

History

Frank A. Keller, a missionary with the

China Inland Mission OMF International (formerly Overseas Missionary Fellowship and before 1964 the China Inland Mission) is an international and interdenominational Evangelical Christian missionary society with an international centre in Singapore. It was founded i ...

, began evangelistic work among the houseboats of

Hunan Hunan (, ; ) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, part of the South Central China region. Located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze watershed, it borders the province-level divisions of Hubei to the north, Jiangxi to ...

in 1909. He saw the need to train Chinese evangelists and, with the financial support of the brothers Lyman and Milton Stewart, who helped establish Biola and funded the publication of ''

The Fundamentals ''The Fundamentals: A Testimony To The Truth'' (generally referred to simply as ''The Fundamentals'') is a set of ninety essays published between 1910 and 1915 by the Testimony Publishing Company of Chicago. It was initially published quarterly in ...

'', established Hunan Bible Institute. From its foundations, it was envisioned to support the indigenous Chinese church. The curriculum was designed to develop Chinese evangelists, with training that was Bible-centered and Evangelism-driven. Its faculty members included influential Chinese such as

Marcus Cheng Marcus Cheng (; 18848 March 1963), was a leading Chinese Protestant evangelical leader. Cheng became a prominent evangelical leader and Chinese nationalist and gained international attention in the 1920s. After the establishment of the People's Re ...

, Cheng Jigui, and Li Qiron, and in 1931, 12 of the 16 faculty and staff were Chinese. Despite the importance of Chinese leadership, when Keller was due to retire as superintendent, the Board of Founders looked to establish another missionary, Charles Roberts, as his replacement. In 1936, Chinese staff established their own Board of Directors and elected a Chinese president. But the Board of Founders dismissed this group and asked Keller to stay and establish a new committee that was dominated by foreign missionaries. By September 1936, Hunan Bible Institute lost most of its Chinese staff. When Keller retired in 1937, Roberts became its new superintendent and led the institute through the

Second Sino-Japanese War The Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) or War of Resistance (Chinese term) was a military conflict that was primarily waged between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. The war made up the Chinese theater of the wider Pacific Th ...

. The Hunan Bible Institute ultimately shut its doors after it was confiscated by Communist authorities in 1952. After the normalization of Sino-American relations in the late-1970s, Biola received $180,000 compensation for its properties, which helped establish Biola's School of Intercultural Studies in 1983.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Hunan Bible Institute Collections
20th century in China Christian missions in China Protestant seminaries and theological colleges Protestantism in China

History

See also

References

External links