Modern Chinese Theologies
Digital Logos Edition
Overview
It is well known that the Chinese church (and therefore Chinese theology) has been divided in the People’s Republic of China into “registered” and “unregistered” churches, and that while the state-approved church offers theologies that align with the nation’s socialist values, the unregistered or house churches have tended toward an evangelical theology that is now divaricating with the resurgence of denominations in China. What is less well known is that there has been a vibrant third field of Chinese theology: Sino-Christian theology, a contested, academic discourse that makes no claims to be a confessional theology. This theology, fostered by academics in secular Chinese universities, developed in the 1990s and has grown and diversified with the increasing number of scholars researching Christianity in China.
This volume offers essays on the message of Chinese Christian art, for example, alongside textual and Christological studies. The phenomenon of Sino-Christian theology, along with debates on its right to exist (if not authored by professing Christians), overlaps with broader debates on the nature of a “Chinese theology” and its unifying features.
The second part of the volume draws together nine essays on theological concerns in the Chinese diaspora. These range from the nature of diasporic experience itself to studies of individual writers, and from fundamentalist beliefs in Singapore to a queer theology academy in Hong Kong. Although Hong Kong is part of mainland China, given its history and the “one country, two systems” policy still in place, several essays on Hong Kong theologians are included here among diasporic writings. Three essays focusing on Taiwanese subjects include reflections on the role of Christian philosophy in the legal thought of John C. H. Wu, a reassessment of homeland theology in light of the nationalist resurgence, and the creative “theology of Yi” based on the Book of Changes, Yijing.
- Offers essays on the message of Chinese Christian art
- Draws together nine essays on theological concerns in the Chinese diaspora
- Includes reflections on the role of Christian philosophy in the legal thought of John C. H. Wu
- Jason Lam, “Sino-Christian Theology: A Peek into the Future--Reflections from a Diasporic Scholar” >
- Li Quan, The Concept of a Transcendent Christ and the Predicament of Chinese Public Theology: A Case Study of Liu Xiaofeng
- Liang Chia-Yu, The Hidden Politics the Avoided “Context” of Sino-Theology
- Lauren Pfister, Antiphonal Comparative Cultural Readings of the Analects and the Chinese Union Bible: Reflective Appreciations of Shí Héngtán’s 石衡潭Masterpiece of 2018
- Chen Jiushuang, Metaphors and controversy of the Cross: the Phenomenon of Cultural Christian in Chinese Modern and Contemporary Art
- Naomi Thurston, A Sino-Christian Critique of Contemporary Chinese Art: Zha Changping 查常平’s Humanist Criticism
- Easten Law, Decentering China in Chinese Christianity: A re-evaluation of Sino-Christian Theology in light of Sinophone Studies
- Hing-Cheong Ho, Enlightening diasporic identity through diasporic experience: diasporic theology in making
- Joyce Zhao, Church, Mission, and Holy Spirit: Exploring Philip Teng's Pneumatology
- Hung, Shin-Fung, The Queer Theology Academy: A Praxis Community for Chinese Queer Theologies
- Han Siyi, trans. Yuhuei Huang, The Borderland Theology of Thomas In-Sing Leung
- Cheng Mao, The Fulfilment of Humanism in Chinese Law: A Critical Review of John C. H. Wu from the Perspective of Natural Law
- Liu Ya-chun, A New “Homeland” Theology?--Remembering George Leslie Mackay amid the continued surge of Taiwan’s nationalism
- Cindy Lu, Chow Lien Hua's Theology of Yi
- Feng Chengwei, Chinese Theology of Religion and Science: A Case Study of Kang Phee Seng
- Joshua Dao Wei Sim, Localising Chinese and American Fundamentalism: Timothy Tow and his Construction of a Separatist Biographical Theology in Singapore
Part I: Sino-Christian Theology in the Present
Part II: Diasporic Chinese Theologies
This collection of studies of global Chinese Christian leaders and academics shows the diversity, interconnection, and dynamics of Chinese Christian theological explorations. It helps illuminate the extraordinary phenomenon of the rise of Christianity in modernizing China.
—Fenggang Yang, professor of sociology and director of the Center on Religion and the Global East, Purdue University, and author of Religion in China: Survival and Revival under Communist Rule and Atlas of Religion in China: Social and Geographical Contexts
A standard and illuminating work of reference, the third volume of Modern Chinese Theologies promises to break new ground and traverse the boundaries of multifaceted theological debates by engaging with Chinese academic voices and diasporic perspectives. Chloë Starr’s monumental contributions will be recognized and celebrated by scholars of Chinese Christianity and Sino-Christian Theology.
—John T. P. Lai, professor of religious studies, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, and author of Literary Representations of Christianity in Late Qing and Republican China
- Title: Modern Chinese Theologies: Academic and Diasporic
- Author: Chloë Starr
- Publisher: Fortress Press
- Print Publication Date: 2024
- Pages: 368
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
- ISBNs: 9781506488011, 9781506488004, 1506488013, 1506488005
- Resource ID: LLS:MDRNCHNSCDDSPRC
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2024-11-09T04:05:05Z
Chloe Starr is Professor of Asian Christianity and Theology and her courses explore a range of approaches to East Asian theology, including theological survey, Chinese and Japanese Christian literatures, China Mission, and Asian American theologies. She taught previously at the universities of Durham, where she was Senior Tutor of St. John’s College, and Oxford, where she taught classical Chinese literature. Professor Starr’s latest book, Chinese Theology (2016), is a study of Chinese theological texts and their ties to literary forms. She is currently editing and translating a reader in Chinese Christian theology and working on a volume on Chinese Christian Fiction. Prof. Starr’s Other works include Red-light Novels of the Late Qing (2007); a coedited volume, The Quest for Gentility in China (2007); and an edited volume, Reading Christian Scriptures in China (2008).