Liu T'ing-fang (18 January 1890-1 August 1947), known as Timothy Lew, one of the most influential Chinese Protestant leaders of the republican period. He taught for many years at Yenching and Peking universities. A native of Chekiang province, Timothy Lew studied in Wenchow and at St. John's University in Shanghai before going to the United States, where he received a B.A. degree from the University of Georgia in 1914, an XLA. degree from Columbia University in 1915, a B.D. degree from the Yale Divinity School in 1918, and a Ph.D. degree in education and psychologyfrom Teachers College, Columbia University in 1920. During his years as a student in the United States he served as president of the Chinese Students Christian Association in North America and chairman of the board of representatives of the eastern section of the Chinese Students Alliance. He also was the editor of the Liu-mei ch'ing-nien, the quarterly journal of the Christian Association, and associate editor of the Chinese Students' Monthly. Beginning in 1918 he taught in the department of religious education at Union Theological Seminary in New York, thus becoming the first Chinese to teach a non-Chinese subject at an American theological school. He also became a member of the council of the Religious Education Association.

After returning to China in 1920, Timothy Lew became dean of the graduate school of education at Peking Normal College, professor of psychology at Peking University, and a professor of theology at Yenching University's school of religion. From 1921 to 1926 he was dean of the Yenching school of religion and assistant to the chancellor of the universitv, and he was one of several featured speakers at the National Christian Conference of 2-10 May 1922. At that time, in speaking of the type of Church desired by Chinese Christians, he said that "she shall teach her members to agree to differ, but resolve to love." He also continued to teach at Peking University and served as honorary pastor of the Mi-shih Chinese Independent Church in Peking. In March 1925, assisted by Y. Y. Tsu (q.v.), he conducted the Christian funeral service for Sun Yat-sen that was held at Peking Union Medical College. During this period Lew, who was a Congregationalist, participated in the activities of the World Student Christian Federation and helped organize the National Christian Council of China, which was established in 1922. He served as a member of the council's executive committee for more than a decade. He also was a director of the Peking YMCA and a member of the commission on literature of the YMCA's national committee.

Timothy Lew also exerted a significant influence on educational practices in China. He was a founder and a director of the Psychological Association in China, and in 1923 he became chairman of the committee on standardized tests of the China Christian Education Association. The tests produced by his committee were used in an extensive survey conducted in 1924 on behalf of the Chinese government and the Christian mission schools by the National Association for the Advancement of Education, of which Lew was executive secretary. From 1924 to 1927 Lew was president of the China Christian Education Association, the first Chinese to hold that office.

In 1926 Timothy Lew went to the United States, where he lectured at Yale Divinity School, Union Theological Seminary, and Hartford Theological Seminary. In 1927 he was awarded honorary degrees by Middlebury College and Oberlin College. That summer, he served as a delegate to the ^Vorld Conference on Faith and Order at Lausanne, Switzerland and represented the National Christian Council of China at a meeting in Germany of the World Alliance for Promoting International Fellowship Through the Churches. By this time, he had become known as one of the most articulate Protestant leaders of China. After he went to London as a guest preacher at the City Temple, the editors of Punch were so intrigued "by his name, his personality, and his linguistic gifts (he spoke eight languages) that they published a verse, "Dr. Lew," to commemorate his visit. In the autumn of 1927, Liu returned to the United States to become a visiting professor at Boston University. In 1928 he delivered the Enoch Paul lectures at the Bangor Seminary in Maine and the Aldon Tuthill lectures at Chicago Theological Seminary.

After returning to China in the summer of 1928, Timothy Lew resumed his posts at Yenching and Peking universities. However, his many responsibilities forced him to reduce his teaching load. In 1930 he was elected unanimously to the chairmanship of the newly created China National Committee on Christian Higher Education, and he was returned to this office in the next five annual elections. He also was chairman of the Religious Education Fellowship of China, and he served on a number of committees which were investigating elementary-school conditions in China. He also served on committees that were trying to establish a standard scientific vocabulary for use in China.

Timothy Lew further contributed to the causes of education and Protestantism in China by editing such well-known journals as the Life Journal (1920-24), Truth Weekly (1924-26), the Truth and Life Journal, the Amethyst Quarterly Journal, and Education for Tomorrow. As chairman of a joint commission established in 1932 by six missionary societies, he wrote and translated hymns for and supervised the preparation and editing of the Chinese union hymnal. Hymns of Universal Praise. It was published in 1936 and was adopted enthusiastically by Protestant groups throughout China, In 1936 Timothy Lew became a member of the Legislative Yuan. The following year, he was a delegate to the World Council of Churches' conferences at Oxford (Life and Work) and at Edinburgh (Faith and Order). He w^ent to Tembarum, India, in 1938 to participate in the International Missionary Conference. By this time, the Sino-Japanese war had broken out, and it was not feasible for Lew to return to north China. Accordingly, he established residence in Shanghai, where he remained until the end of 1941. Lew had always been slight and rather frail, and by the late 1930's his many years of prodigious labor had undermined his health. In 1942 he went to the United States to ^seek relief from the headaches, respiratory difficulties, and chronic fatigue that prevented him from working. He died of tuberculosis on 1 August 1947 at the Southwest Presbyterian Sanitorium in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Timothy Lew was one of the most persuasive spokesmen for the Christian way of life in republican China. He defined the basic concepts of Protestant Christianity in terms that were both challenging and comprehensible, and he demonstrated their relevance to issues then current in China: democracy, the scientific revolution, and the problems involved in China's transition from its traditional past to modernity. Although some of his colleagues thought him too much of a heretic to be considered a great ecclesiastic, they all praised his strong influence on and efforts on behalf of generations of Chinese students.