Sep 17, 2026 · 43 min · 11 segments
Christian missionaries have regularly been at the forefront of travel adventurism over the last 500 years, sent by their churches to parts of the world few back home knew much about, and often at…
Jeremiah JenneHost
Sarah KeenlysideHost
Now, before we start, Jeremiah, I think you do need to declare an interest, don't you?
One reason we chose this episode, and it probably won't be the last episode we do on the subject of missionaries, is that I have a book coming out in May of next year.
It's about a group of French nuns in Tianjin who in the summer of 1870 were suspected of running a sorcery slash kidnapping slash body mutilation ring out of their orphanage.
And this rumor led to a riot that killed more than 60 people, including the nuns.
So I've spent a lot of the last few years embedded in missionary records, researching missions and thinking a lot about how missionaries functioned in history.
But did you choose it because you're interested in the history of Christianity in China?
Yeah, that's a really good question, Sarah, because I think a lot of people who do write about missionaries often do come at it from a religious perspective or they're interested in Christianity as a historical subject.
I chose it because I think religion is a very important part of people's lives in history.
So if we want to get into what makes people tick, what their motivations are, looking at it religiously is one way to do it.
And we've seen a little bit, you know, on this show, we've talked, we've had episodes where people have gone to places and they think about those places in very religious or religious cultural ways.
So I think, you know, religion puts strangers into the same room, but sometimes it's also a really fast way to get them arguing with each other.
And, you know, when I did my book, it was about a city in China where the second thing happened.
So how do we want to talk about missionaries? I think that's quite important because obviously looking at it through a modern lens, it's very easy to see them all as agents of empire, essentially.
It is true that some of what they did could be seen as part of the larger business of colonialism and imperialism.
Now, before we start, Jeremiah, I think you do need to declare an interest, don't you?
One reason we chose this episode, and it probably won't be the last episode we do on the subject of missionaries, is that I have a book coming out in May of next year.
It's about a group of French nuns in Tianjin who in the summer of 1870 were suspected of running a sorcery slash kidnapping slash body mutilation ring out of their orphanage.
And this rumor led to a riot that killed more than 60 people, including the nuns.
So I've spent a lot of the last few years embedded in missionary records, researching missions and thinking a lot about how missionaries functioned in history.
But did you choose it because you're interested in the history of Christianity in China?
Yeah, that's a really good question, Sarah, because I think a lot of people who do write about missionaries often do come at it from a religious perspective or they're interested in Christianity as a historical subject.
I chose it because I think religion is a very important part of people's lives in history.
So if we want to get into what makes people tick, what their motivations are, looking at it religiously is one way to do it.
And we've seen a little bit, you know, on this show, we've talked, we've had episodes where people have gone to places and they think about those places in very religious or religious cultural ways.
So I think, you know, religion puts strangers into the same room, but sometimes it's also a really fast way to get them arguing with each other.
And, you know, when I did my book, it was about a city in China where the second thing happened.
So how do we want to talk about missionaries? I think that's quite important because obviously looking at it through a modern lens, it's very easy to see them all as agents of empire, essentially.
It is true that some of what they did could be seen as part of the larger business of colonialism and imperialism.
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