John Song. Modern Chinese Christianity and the making of a new man. By Daryl R. Ireland. (Studies in World Christianity.) Pp. xx + 248 incl. 2 ills. Waco, Tx: Baylor University Press, 2020. $49.95. 978 1 4813 1270 7

Coming of age during a period in China concerned with revolution and social change, the fundamentalist-modernist controversy and the birth of the charismatic movement, Song is often seen as providing a new Christianity that spoke free of the nation, scientific modernity or traditional Christianity. Ireland is able to place Song's faith-healing against the dual trends of foreign and national (‘Chinese’) medicine. Among scholars, Song's independent Christianity and Evangelical-fundamentalist theology, informed by charismatic leaders and faith-healing, have grown in influence; however, they are not universally lauded.