Abstract
As we have seen thus far, several major thinkers of Chinese theology across the two Chinese enlightenments have tended to follow the theological trajectories of types A and B, especially as developed from Western or Latin Christianity. It is curious that, in Chinese theology’s need to be cohesive within the Christian tradition, thinkers have not shown much interest in Eastern Christianity. Moreover, while debates on the contextualization of Christianity were of much interest among May Fourth Protestants, the foci were somewhat different in Catholic and Orthodox Chinese Christians. As previously discussed, May Fourth Catholics were somewhat bound by scholasticism while Eastern Orthodoxy in China has and still is mainly focused on ministering to the Russian expatriate communities residing in China. While these Protestant reformers were eager to strip Christianity of its foreign label, it was foreign theologies of Latin origins that served the basis of their theological reflection. Yet at the same time, other sociopolitical concerns and the Chinese traditional religions played important roles in their thought process—consciously or not. As discussed in chapter 1 of this study, this is largely the result of attempts to construct a new hyphenated or hybridized identity of “Chinese Christian” where theologians must reconcile the meanings of “Chinese” and “Christian.”
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Notes
C. K. Yang, Religion in Chinese Society: A Study of Contemporary Social Functions of Religion and Some of their Historical Factors (Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press, 1991), 294–340.
Wolfram Eberhard, Guilt and Shame in Traditional China (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1967), 13.
Wu Leichuan, Jidujiao yu Zhongguo wenhua [Christianity and Chinese Culture] (Shanghai: Shanghai gu ji chubanshe [Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House], [1936] 2008), 4. Translation mine.
While I focus here on one aspect of Wu’s hamartiology, Lee-ming Ng identifies three categories of sin in his thinking: (1) human suffering, (2) crimes against societal laws and (3) selfishness (zisi). Lee-ming Ng, Jidujiao yu Zhongguo shehui bianqian [Christianity and Social Change in China], 3rd ed. (Hong Kong: Jidujiao wenyi chubanshe [Chinese Christian Literature Council Ltd.], 1997), 232–233.
Examples of this can be found in the important Neo-Confucian anthology compiled by Zhu Xi and Lu Zuqian, Jinsi lu 2.4 and 5.22. For English, see Wing-tsit Chan, trans., Reflections on ThingsatHand: The Neo-Confucian Anthology (New York: Columbia University Press, 1967), 39–42, 163.
Brian Bruya, “Emotion, Desire, and Numismatic Experience in René Descartes, Zhu Xi, and Wang Yangming,” Ming Qing Yanjiu (2001): 57.
Liu Xiaofeng, Zhengjiu yu xiaoyao [Salvation and Easy Wandering] (Shanghai: Shanghai Renmin Chubanshe [People’s Publishing Company], 1988), 173–183.
Liu Xiaofeng, “Joy in China, Sin in Christianity? A Comparison,” trans. Georg Evers, China Study Journal 7, no. 3 (1992): 17–25.
Zhuo Xinping, “The Concept of Original Sin in the Cultural Encounter between East and West,” trans. Edmond Tang, in Christianity and Modernization: A Chinese Debate, ed. Philip L. Wickeri and Lois Cole (Hong Kong: Daga Press, 1995), 91–100.
Yang Huilin, Zui’e yu jiushu: Jidujiao wenhua jingshen lun [Sin and Atonement: The Spirit of Christian Culture] (Beijing: Dongfang chubanshe [Oriental Press], 1995).
Zhang Qingxiong, “Sin and Evil in Christian and Confucian Perspectives,” in Christianity and Chinese Culture, ed. Miikka Ruokanen and Paulos Huang (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2010), 22–36.
Whalen Lai, “Chinese Buddhist Causation Theories: An Analysis of the Sinitic Mahāyāna Understanding of Pratitya-samutpāda,” Philosophy East and West 27, no. 3 (July 1977): 241.
Tiansheng, rencheng is a four-character aphorism (commonly found in Chinese idioms and proverbial sayings as a chengyu) that abbreviates a phrase found in Xunzi 10.6 and 27.31: Tiandi sheng zhi, shengren cheng zhi—Heaven and Earth create it, the sage perfects it. John Knoblock, trans., Xunzi: A Translation and Study of the Complete Works, 3 vols. (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1988–1994), 2: 126, 3: 215.While some may notice that the abridged version omits explicit reference to “Earth” (Di), the use of “Heaven” (Tian) is often understood within Chinese philosophy to be a shorthand for “Heaven and Earth” (Tiandi). Therefore, in the phrase’s more common form, it is not necessary to explicitly identify both Heaven and Earth. In contrast, there are other ancient passages which do explicitly speak of Heaven, Earth and humanity in discussing their individual meanings and their relationships with one another (e.g., Laozi, Daodejing 25). The other thing to be aware of is that Xunzi’s understanding of “Heaven” ( Tian) or “Heaven and Earth” ( Tiandi) is naturalistic. See Antonio S. Cua, Human Nature, Ritual, and History: Studies in Xunzi and Chinese Philosophy (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2005), 172–178. In both instances, Xunzi uses the phrase Tiandi sheng zhi, shengren cheng zhi to explore several of the wulun—the so-called five relationships of Confucianism.
However, ever since the first Jesuits encountered Confucianism in medieval China, discussions have arisen as to whether or not Tian was transcendent like the God of Christianity—a matter very critical in Christian theology. While earlier Confucians tended to maintain a more naturalistic view of Tian, later thinkers contend that this is a very limited understanding. For example, Tu Wei-ming (Du Weiming, 1940–) champions an “anthropocosmic” vision of humanity, while Thomé Fang (Fang Dongmei, 1899–1977) speaks ofhumans as “concreative” agents. In both cases, these scholars argue that the Confucian texts assert the overall picture that humans are partners or cocreators with a more transcendent understanding of Tian. Tu Wei-ming, “An ‘Anthropocosmic’ Perspective on Creativity,” in Dialogues of Philosophies, Religions and Civilizations in the Era of Globalization, ed. Zhao Dunhua (Washington, DC: Council for Research in Values and Philosophy, 2007), 143–153.
Thomé H. Fang, “The World and the Individual in Chinese Metaphysics,” Philosophy East and West 14, no. 2 (July 1964): 107–108.
Nick Knight, “The Dilemma of Determinism: Qu Qiubai and the Origins of Marxist Philosophy in China,” China Information 13, no. 4 (1999): 1–26.
Sun MingYee, “Urban House Church in China,” Behold, no. 26 (2007), available at http://www.oc.org/web/modules/smartsection/item. php?itemid=3175&lang=english.
Andrew Brown, “Chinese Calvinism Flourishes,” The Guardian, May 27, 2009, availableat http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/andrewbrown/2009/may/27 /china-calvin-christianity.
Julia Ching, Chinese Religions (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1993), 5.
Xunzi 17, translated in Wing-tsit Chan, ed., A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1963), 117.
Li Zehou, Li Zehou shinian ji, di san juan: Zhongguo gudai sixiangshi lun [A Decade of Li Zehou’s Writings, Volume 3: On Ancient Chinese Intellectual History] (Hefei, China: Anhui wenyi chubanshe [Anhui Literature and Art Publishing House], 1994), 313–319.
Fredrik Fällman, Salvation and Modernity: Intellectuals and Faith in Contemporary China, rev. ed. (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2008), 65–66.
Fung Yu-lan, A Short History of Chinese Philosophy: A Systematic Account of Chinese Thought from its Origins to the Present Day (New York: Free Press, 1948), 338–340.
Watchman Nee, The Spiritual Man (New York: Christian Fellowship Publishers, [1928] 1977), 3. 81–84.
Witness Lee, The History of God in His Union with Man (Anaheim, CA: Living Stream Ministry, 1993), 58.
Witness Lee, The Vision of the Lord’s Recovery (Anaheim, CA: Living Stream Ministry, 1985), 29–31.
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© 2013 Alexander Chow
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Chow, A. (2013). Theological Concerns. In: Theosis, Sino-Christian Theology and the Second Chinese Enlightenment. Palgrave Macmillan’s Christianities of the World. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137312624_6
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