Hunan Bible Institute () was an important

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

Bible school in early-20th century

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

. 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 Christianity, Christian missionary society with an international centre in Singapore. It ...

, began evangelistic work among the houseboats of

Hunan Hunan is an inland Provinces of China, province in Central China. Located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze watershed, it borders the Administrative divisions of China, province-level divisions of Hubei to the north, Jiangxi to the east, Gu ...

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 i ...

'', 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, 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 was fought between the Republic of China (1912–1949), Republic of China and the Empire of Japan between 1937 and 1945, following a period of war localized to Manchuria that started in 1931. It is considered part ...

. 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