This collection of essays is committed to the belief that evangelicalism continues to have the historical assets and intellectual (hermeneutical and theological) tools able to contribute to the global church. Evangelicalism possesses assets with explanatory power to address significant theological and cultural issues arising out of the churches in the Global South. Evangelical approaches to contextualization and biblical studies can produce valuable fruit. Therefore in May 2008 over a dozen evangelical scholars (Chinese and Western) from the United States, Hong Kong and Taiwan, came together to address issues of Christian and evangelical identity. The ""Inter-Cultural Theological Conversation"" was titled ""Beyond Our Past: Bible, Cultural Identity, and the Global Evangelical Movement."" This collection of papers from the conference demonstrates the value of the careful balancing of judicious appropriation of the social sciences and thorough biblical inquiry. Questions of evangelical identity in China and around the world are addressed from the disciplines of history, biblical studies, and systematic theology/contextualization. ""An important volume for both church circles and academic scholars, After Imperialism touches off the issue of evangelicalism that connects the world, yet also creates conflicts between peoples in the history of Christianity. It represents the valuable fruits of a unique meeting of historians, theologians, and Bible scholars on the two sides of the Pacific Ocean. Their dialogue contains reflections, challenges, and deliberation of the Protestant missions in China in the past and also in the future. It makes a major contribution to the new horizon of study in this field while examining old ones in scholarly light."" -Peter Chen-main Wang National Central University Taiwan ""This book initiates a new, fertile conversation between biblical reading and understandings of modern Chinese history, informed by social science and post-colonial theory."" -Richard Madsen Distinguished Professor and Chair Department of Sociology University of California, San Diego Richard R. Cook is Associate Professor of Mission History and Global Christianity at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois. David W. Pao is Professor of New Testament and Chair of the New Testament Department at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois.
