During the May Fourth Movement (1915-1927) China's intellectuals went through a profound crisis in their self-perception and their national consciousness. Disillusioned with China's failure to cope with her problems, they looked for an all-encompassing solution. During this search man turned to Marxism. The May Fourth Movement also saw the rise of organized mass movements in China. One such movement was the Anti-Christian Movement (1922-1927).; The Anti-Christian Movement put the Protestant Church in China on the defensive. Made visible and vulnerable by their critics, China's Christians felt the need to demonstrate that being Chinese and being Christian were not opposed to one another. Rather, becoming a Christian was a very "Chinese" thing to do. They attempted to do this by constructing an indigenous theology, and a Christian program for China's social reconstruction. They sought to capture the intellectual leadership of the May Fourth Movement.; Life Fellowship was a group which sought to accomplish these goals through its "Christian Renaissance." Its members were some of China's leading and most articulate liberal Protestants. These men made a conscientious effort to respond to the issues raised by their May Fourth contemporaries. Yet eventually they failed to capture the leadership of the May Fourth Movement. This failure was due to factors both external and internal to their group. On the one hand, the task they set for themselves was too great given their limited resources. And time was too short. On the other hand, some of the basic tensions in their thinking, e.g. between Christianity and Chinese culture, theory and social practice, tradition and modernity, nationalism and internationalism, etc., could not be resolved. In the end, members of the Life Fellowship found resolution in resorting to their own personal experiences as Chinese Christian educator-reformers.; The "Christian Renaissance" illustrated the failure of liberal Protestant missions to accomplish their goals in China. It further exemplified the plight of all Chinese intellectuals during the May Fourth period. In going through this crisis in self-consciousness, members of Life Fellowship became truly "May Fourth" men. The present study, therefore, seeks to restore the indigenous Protestant church in China to its rightful place on the intellectual map of the May Fourth Movement.
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