Christian Cultural Review, Issue 7

Author: Chief Editor: Liu Xiaofeng
Publisher:
Publish Date: 1998-08-01
Features: Excerpt: Chinese Christian Theology in the Modern Context① According to the cognitive principles of modernity, the first step in the epistemological reflection on modern phenomena should be the analytical demarcation of the political-economic domain (the domain of modernization), the individual-group social domain (the domain of modernity), and the individual discourse-ideological domain (the domain of modernism) to determine the actual position of the problems of modernity. ② This does not mean that the three basic domains mentioned above can be handled entirely independently. This article will discuss Chinese theology from the perspective of modernity, with the domain of modernity as its focus. In the actual discussion, it will tangentially involve the domain of modernization and the domain of modernism, because whether discussing modern Chinese Christian theology as a discipline or as an ideology, it inevitably involves its socio-historical structural reality and the individual discourse of Chinese thinkers in the modern context. In my view, Chinese Christian theology emerged as early as the Ming Dynasty. Chinese scholars who criticized Christians (Xu Guangqi, Li Zhizao, Yang Tingyun) incorporated Christian doctrines into the fabric of Chinese thought and engaged in intellectual debates with Confucian and Buddhist ideas. ① The topic of this article is to examine the displacement of the issue of Chinese Christian theology in the context of modernity over the past century, specifically in two directions: (1) The socio-political situation and its problems of the Chinese Christian Church in the transformation of Chinese social forms over the past century, especially in the political structural changes in the Chinese world in the recent 15 years (the process of modernization); (2) The intellectual-cultural situation and its problems of Chinese Christian theology in the transformation of Chinese academic forms over the past century, especially in the ideological and cultural changes in the Chinese world in the recent 15 years (the generation of modernity). On this analytical basis, this article will explore several ideas for the development of Chinese Christian theology. ——. The Tension Between Christianity and the Nation-State in China's Modernization Process Discussion of Issues in the Modernization Domain can have different focuses and starting points, such as the formation of bureaucracy, the industrialization process, or the political mechanisms of mass society, for example. ② Regarding the topic of this article, the formation and conflicts of the nation-state in the process of modernization will receive primary attention, as it constitutes the actual foundation of the modern context of Chinese Christianity.