Taiwan Church News

3319 Edition

October 5 - 11, 2015

Church Ministry

One And A Half Centuries' Medical Ministry Of Dr. James Laidlaw Maxwell Reviewed By Taiwan History Scholars

Reported by Chen Yi-fang

To commemorate the contributions and impacts of the medical ministry of Dr. James Laidlaw Maxwell, initiated oneand a half centuries ago, a commemorative seminar was jointly organized by Kaohsiung Museum of History(KMH) and Kaohsiung Medical University(KMU) and held at KMH on October 3.

Many famous scholars in Taiwan history were invited to deliver their study finds, including Dr. Wang Chau-wen, a Taiwan history expert; Prof. Zeng Yang-en, church history professor of Taiwan Theological Seminary and College; Dr. Lee Shang-jen, Associate Research Fellow of Institute of History and Philology at Academia Sinica and Dr. Liu Shi-yung, Deputy Director of Institute of Taiwan History at Academia Sinica.

Dr. Wang Chau-wen pointed out that the medical ministry of Dr. Maxwell functioned only as a measure of preachingthe gospel. His major purpose was to save the souls of the Taiwanese, said Wang. Seen from the surface, Dr. Maxwell seemed practiced his medical ministry alone. As a matter of fact, he had many colleagues co-operated with him, including Rev. Carstairs Douglas, Chen Tse-lu, Wu Wen-suei and Hwang Jia-che.

Prof. Zeng Yang-en underlined the distinctive influence of the Scottish enlightenment, together with the religiousrevival, upon those early Scottish missionaries coming to Taiwan. At his very beginning service in Taiwan, Dr. Maxwell thought that medical ministry was only an instrument for the ultimate soul-salvation. But, influenced by the Scottish enlightenment , Free Church's overseas evangelicalism and social-work inclined ministry, Dr. Maxwell started to recognize another importance dimension of medical ministry - promotion of the well-being of the people.

Dr. Lee Shang-jen explained the historical reason: why the Scotland-based Presbyterian church turn to themovement of overseas evangelicalism? For the inspired Scottish Presbyterian church after the religious revival, a geographic barrier preventing Scottish evangelicalism into the Anglican-dominated England did exist, sending missionaries overseas became an alternative.

Dr. Liu Shi-yung described the unfortunate impact on medical missionary when the Japanese government meddledin the state medicine system. Liu remarked that the medical ministries in Taiwan, under the rule of Japanese government, was usually limited at the rural areas lack of medical resources. As there were also many conflicts between the doctors trained by the Governor-General's Office and those practiced medical ministries for the church, medical nomenclatures or textbooks written in Romanization (Poe-oe-jih) were gradually forced to exit Taiwan.

Translated by Peter Wolfe