In the spring of 1738, Fr. Bernardino Bevilacqua was hustled out of Shandong to quiet the uproar over his sexual seduction of young Chinese converts. Fr. Alessio Randanini followed him to Macau in 1741. The story of this scandal has remained largely untold for nearly three centuries. Among Christians in Shandong and southern Zhili provinces during the years 1650-1785, the spirit and the flesh lived in constant tension as the aspirations of the spirit (faith, hope, love, devotion, mercy, and piety) contended with the passions of the flesh (hatred, jealousy, lust, and pride). The Spirit and the Flesh in Shandong tells the deeply human story of the introduction of Christianity to a provincial region in China where European missionaries shared the poverty and isolation of their Chinese flocks. Their close personal relationships led to intellectual and pastoral collaboration, suppression, an underground church, imprisonment, apostasy and martyrdom as well as peasant secret society affiliations, self-flagellation, and sexual seduction. In the remote villages of this region, the missionaries and their converts lived out their pious aspirations and eternal damnations under a darkening sky of growing anti-Christian policies from the capital.

"Mungello's discussion on the underground church throws important light on our understanding of religious questions, especially Catholic problems in modern China." - China Quarterly

"Lucid, concise, and absorbing." - China Review

"A meticulous reconstruction of indigenization through an ethnographic approach utilizing records of European missionaries and Chinese Christians." - Missiology: An International Review

"Lively and all too human are the people who inhabit D. E. Mungello's latest work on European missionaries and Chinese Christians during the early Qing years. Like his previous books, The Spirit and the Flesh in Shandong is outstanding and accomplishes what every historian seeks to do: put the reader in the time and place where the story happens. Meticulously researched and masterfully written." - American Historical Review

"As meticulous and detailed as this material is, it has been presented in a very readable style, illustrated with maps, photographs, and drawings. Above, however, its value as a resource for the study of the church in this time and place, Mungello has alerted us to the richness and variety of Christian presence in China dating to the second generation of the Lutheran Reformation." - Concordia

"...compelling and richly documented history. The author succeeds so admirably in this endeavor because he has mastered both the European and the Chinese sources, making extensive use of Church documents. The book also includes good maps as well as excellent images." - Itinerario

"Reading this book, the phrase 'rich tapestry' comes to mind, in praise of the meticulous research." - Journal of Asian Studies

"David Mungello's latest monograph is a pioneering effort [that serves] to open up for examition by a larger public the little-known Franciscan sources on Christianity in China, and to offer insights into exciting themes for future research." - The Catholic Historical Review