The world's largest monastic library, the Admont Abbey Library, is in Austria. Built in 1776 and designed by the architect Josef Hueber, the library houses 70,000 volumes accessible to the public, and the total collection of the abbey exceeds 200,000 books, including manuscripts dating back to the 8th century.
The library of the Lutheran Theological Seminary holds approximately 100,000 printed books and more than 100 printed periodicals, according to its official website. It can get access over 100,000 e-books and 840 full-text e-journals. The library provides access to Logos, BibleWorks, and other CD-Rom resources. It is a member of the Ecumenical Information Network (EIN), which is the largest theological library network in Hong Kong. Through interlibrary loans among the five member libraries, users can access over 510,000 printed volumes. The library also supports the development and computerization of theological libraries in mainland China, Malaysia, and Myanmar.
The library of the Butterworth Baptist Theological Seminary in Butterworth has a collection of over 50,000 volumes, covering a wide range of fields such as the Bible, theology, the history of religion, pastoral care, and church music. Additionally, it features periodical reading rooms with various academic journals and religious magazines. The library offers a comfortable reading environment and advanced facilities, providing excellent conditions for study and research.
As a major resource center for Christian theological education in China, the library of Nanjing Union Theological Seminary has a rich physical collection (ranging from 60,000 to 80,000 volumes) and combines modern facilities with digital resources to form a comprehensive academic support system centered on theology.
However, the distribution of Christian literature resources in China are structurally imbalanced. While seminaries in developed regions possess substantial collections, they are rarely open to the public. However, churches in remote areas often lack even basic Bible study materials. It may be argued that, with today's abundance of online resources, believers can learn through the Internet. However, the reality is that truly high-quality, systematic, and value-aligned Christian book resources are very scarce online. They fail to form a complete learning system and cannot provide the in-depth reading experience and lasting knowledge that physical books offer.
Only by establishing libraries within churches themselves can this gap be truly filled. Imagine a comprehensive library with theology at its core, yet also encompassing philosophy, history, literature, art, science, economics, law, and medicine. What kind of transformation would it bring to our faith communities? It would become a spiritual oasis amid the busyness of life, enabling believers to settle their minds and commit their study to the Bible deeply while drawing wisdom from other disciplines to enrich their understanding of faith. It could offer robust resource support for church educational activities, whether in theological thought-building or various thematic seminars. It could also serve as a platform for believers to communicate and share learning experiences, thereby deepening spiritual connections and mutual growth.
Moreover, existing church libraries have often become reading spaces for only a select few and are not open to the public. For most believers, access is denied. Hasn't that turned these spaces into zones of privilege? They become mere displays.
Take me, for example. I buy books every year and read new ones every month. However, my house is now overflowing with books: by the bed, under the bed, even occupying my children's bookshelves. My family disapproves, and I also find it inappropriate. If the church had its own library, wouldn't all these problems be solved?
Can some of our larger churches or local CC&TSPM consider establishing a truly full-scale library, which is centered on Christian theology and encompasses multiple disciplines?
I propose building a three-tier document service system with a central library in each prefecture-level city as the hub, grassroots church reading corners as endpoints, and a cloud-based digital library serving as a bridge. This would form an all-time, cross-regional network for spiritual resource supply. As for how to establish a library owned by believers, the method is quite simple. It only takes three "little" contributions:
1. The church contributes a little by providing funds, space, furniture, computers, etc.
2. Believers contribute a little by donating books, money, and materials.
3. The community contributes a little with support from local society.
In fact, this is already being done, as most of the books in church reading corners have come through this channel.
We can also consider establishing a library development fund to accept targeted donations from the public through formal procedures. For instance, the Nanjing Union Theological Seminary Library, with special funding from the religious affairs department, has completed the digitization of 400,000 ancient books within three years, with daily reader visits increasing by 300%.
A church library's function goes far beyond simple reading. For example:
- Special Collections: Creating a local church archive section to preserve records such as pastors' profiles, church chronologies, baptism records, wedding archives, and other valuable historical materials; equipping the library with document digitization tools.
- Practical Skills Training Corner: Regularly updating books for vocational qualification exams (e.g., nursing licenses, electrician manuals) and providing scheduled tutoring sessions.
- Artistic Workshops: Collecting Christian art albums and photographs, providing design collections of glass artwork, and holding regular hymn composition seminars.
- Oral History Project: Setting up a recording and video studio to document the life stories of senior pastors and believers and creating a searchable audio database.
- Festive Cultural Exhibit Area: Rotating displays according to the liturgical calendar and showcasing resources such as Advent wreath-making and Easter egg painting.
- Mobile Book Box Plan: Rotating selected books among county-level churches on a regular or irregular basis; promoting book recommendations and reading plans to encourage library visits.
- To maintain sustainable library operations, we can implement a book circulation plan by setting up a public bookshelf with the principle "take one, return one" and organizing regular book exchange fairs.
- The library can also be a multi-functional research and study center, supporting remote theological courses and academic seminars.
- The public, including both clergy and lay believers, should have access to seminaries.
A church library is more than a reading room. It is another field for nurturing believers and pastors, and it forms a Christian knowledge service system. There, pastors and believers can find the strongest cultural foundation for the healthy continuation of Christianity in China through the power of books. In doing so, the tradition of "evangelism through the written word" can flourish anew in the digital age, ensuring that every seeker of truth "lacks nothing."
(Originally published by the Gospel Times, the article has been edited under permission and the author is a Christian living in Liaoning Province.)
- Edited by Karen Luo, translated by Charlie Li
