In the Province of the Dragon - Hardcover

by Robert Banks (Author), Linda Banks (Author)

This book provides a close-up account of a singular woman's life and work. Sophie Newton's desire to serve God led her to the forefront of missionary work in Southeast China from the last years of the Imperial Dynasty. She lived through the tumultuous events of the Boxer Rebellion, the Nationalist Revolution, the Warlord Conflicts, and the rise of the Communist Movement. Newton spent her life empowering females through establishing schools, training Bible-women, and adopting children as well as challenging infanticide, child marriage, foot-binding, and the opium trade. Drawing on a wide range of family journals, personal letters, archival records, newspaper reports, and personal interviews, this book tells her story: one that shows how personal conviction, selflessness, and single-minded compassion can make a real and lasting difference to people in a village, provincial city, capital, or province.

Author Biography

Robert Banks was formerly professor of the ministry of the laity at Fuller Theological Seminary and is the author of books on earliest Christianity, new forms of church life, faith, work, and leadership. Linda Banks has worked as an educator, pastor, and university chaplain. They have cowritten three earlier mission biographies, They Shall See His Face (Pickwick, 2017), Through the Valley of the Shadow (Pickwick, 2019), and Children of the Massacre (Pickwick, 2021).