Concluding Remarks

The nineteenth-century Catholic and Protestant missionary revivals were mainly the result of a powerful general religious revival as a reaction to the rationalistic Enlightenment. In contrast to the Evangelical Awakening, the Catholic Reveil was shaped by the traditionalist and ultramontane movement. In their approach to the "social question", both the Protestant and the Catholic missionary enterprise generally speaking adopted a moderate conservative and paternalistic attitude, except for the early colonial antislavery agitation among the Protestant and later among Catholic missionaries.

A real appraisal of the missionary enterprise during the nineteenth century cannot be completed unless a thorough and unbiased study of the missionaries' life and work is made within the context of the mission field or local Church itself. The sources for our further study are abundant as far as the European archives of the missionary societies and the SCPF are concerned, as well as the European and Chinese diplomatic archives. However, the materials concerning the life of the local Northern Chinese and Inner Mongolian Church are scarce or seemingly non-existent. It is my hope that this aspect can be further studied by the Chinese and the Mongol scholars themselves or by others in cooperation with them.