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A Study of T. C. Chao’s Christology in the Social Context of China (1920–1949)

by Daniel Hoi Ming Hui (Author)
©2017 Thesis XXII, 346 Pages

Summary

The aim of this book is to show that during the early half of the twentieth century, Chinese society was disillusioned by both internal dissension and external invasion, and the churches experienced many challenges. In response to the traumatic events of 1920–1949, the Chinese theologian Prof. T. C. Chao tried to construct a ‘new religion’ for China, believing that an indigenous Christianity would offer a solution to the national crisis. Chao searched for a new interpretation of Jesus Christ to make him relevant to China’s context and social thought, and tried to develop Christology based on the encounter of Western Christianity, Chinese culture and social change. A personality-focused interpretation of Jesus Christ was developed, and an image of Confucian Jesus was found in his thought. Chao tried to explore his contextual Christology with the purpose of being faithful to Christian faith, and being relevant to Chinese classical culture and the contemporary context in order to enable intellectual Christians to contribute to the national reconstruction of Country.

Table Of Contents

  • Cover
  • Title
  • Copyright
  • About the author
  • About the book
  • This eBook can be cited
  • Abstract
  • Acknowledgments
  • Table of Contents
  • Preface
  • A Note on the Text
  • Abbreviations
  • Part I: Introduction
  • Chapter 1 – The Research
  • 1.1 Description of Research Problem
  • 1.2 Purpose, Scope, and Limitations
  • 1.3 Theoretical Considerations
  • 1.3.1 Christology
  • 1.3.2 Indigenization and Contextualization
  • 1.4. Research Methodology, Assumptions, and Research Questions
  • 1.4.1 The first Assumption
  • 1.4.2 The second and underlying Assumption
  • 1.5 Resources for the Study
  • 1.6 Survey of the existing Literature
  • 1.7 Originality and anticipated Contribution to Academic Scholarship
  • 1.8 Thesis Structure
  • Chapter 2 – A biographical Sketch of T. C. Chao and his theological Context
  • 2.1 T. C. Chao
  • 2.2 Western theological Influence on T. C. Chao
  • 2.2.1 Liberal Theology
  • 2.2.2 Social Gospel
  • 2.2.3 American Methodism
  • 2.2.4 Neo-Orthodoxy and Karl Barth
  • 2.3 Chinese theological Thinking in the Protestant Church
  • 2.3.1 The Controversy between Conservatives and Liberals
  • 2.3.2 The Atmosphere of Apologetics to respond to the Challenge of the New Thought Movement
  • 2.3.3 The Emphasis on the Practicability of Theology
  • 2.3.4 The Concern for cultural Identity in Theology
  • 2.3.5 The Centrality of Jesus Christ in Theology
  • Part II: Chao’s Christology in his own Time
  • Chapter 3 – A Humanity-Focused Interpretation of Jesus Christ and the New Thought Movement (1915–1922)
  • 3.1 Social Context and its Interaction with Chao’s Thought
  • 3.2 Six Characteristics of Chao’s Interpretation of the New Religion
  • 3.2.1 Serving human Life
  • 3.2.2 Accepting the Testimony of Science
  • 3.2.3 Complying with Reason and Experience
  • 3.2.4 Bringing out the Spirit of Democracy and Individualism
  • 3.2.5 Focusing on the Aspect of Ethics and Morality
  • 3.2.6 Contributing to the Reconstruction of Society
  • 3.3 Chao’s New Interpretation of Christianity
  • 3.3.1 Christianity and Chinese Culture
  • 3.3.2 The Apostles’ Creed
  • 3.3.3 Jesus’ Concept of God
  • 3.4 Concluding Remarks
  • Chapter 4 – A Personality-Focused Interpretation of Jesus Christ and the Anti-Christian Movement (1922–1927)
  • 4.1 The Social Context and its Interaction with Chao’s Thought
  • 4.2 A Person-Focused Interpretation of Jesus in Indigenization
  • 4.2.1 The first Step: Purification of Christianity
  • 4.2.2 The second Step: An Attempt to seek Christian Truth in Chinese Culture
  • 4.2.3 The third Step: Christianity’s Fulfillment of Chinese Culture
  • 4.3 A Personality-Focused Interpretation of Jesus Christ
  • 4.3.1 The Foundation: The Personality-focused Interpretation of God and Man
  • 4.3.2 The main Content: The Personality-focused Interpretation of Jesus
  • 4.3.3 Application: Developing the personalized Kingdom of God
  • 4.4 The Features of the Personality-Focused Interpretation of Jesus Christ
  • 4.5 Concluding Remarks
  • Chapter 5 – A Spirituality and Ethics Focused Interpretation of Jesus Christ and National Reconstruction and National Crisis (1928–1937)
  • 5.1 The Social Context and its Interaction with Chao’s Thought
  • 5.2 A moral and spiritual Interpretation of Jesus
  • 5.2.1 Learning from Jesus
  • 5.2.2 The Spirit of Jesus Christ
  • 5.2.3 The Cross of Jesus
  • 5.3 The ethical and religious Interpretation of Jesus in Ye Su Chuan
  • 5.3.1 The Person of Jesus
  • 5.3.2 The Salvation of Jesus
  • 5.3.3 The Mission of Jesus
  • 5.3.4 Jesus’ Kingdom of God
  • 5.3.5 The Resurrection of Jesus
  • 5.4 The Characteristics of the Spirituality- and Ethics-Focused Interpretation of Jesus Christ
  • 5.5 Concluding Remarks
  • Chapter 6 – A Revelation and Incarnation-focused Interpretation of Jesus Christ, the Sino-Japanese War and the Civil War in China (1937–1949)
  • 6.1 The Social Context and its Interaction with Chao’s Thought
  • 6.2 A Revelation-Focused Interpretation of Jesus Christ and its difference from Chao’s former Christology
  • 6.2.1 Jesus’ Humanity and Divinity
  • 6.2.2 Jesus’ Salvation (Soteriology)
  • 6.2.3 The Continuity of Christology
  • 6.3 Concluding Remarks
  • Part III: Analysis, Evaluation, and Comparison of Chao’s Christology
  • Chapter 7 – Analysis, Synthesis and Comparison between the various Periods of Development in Chao’s Contextual Christology
  • 7.1 Social Relevance
  • 7.2 Interpretations of Jesus Christ in different Periods
  • 7.2.1 The Foundation of Christology
  • 7.2.2 The main Theme of Chao’s Christology
  • 7.2.3 The Continuation of Chao’s Christology
  • 7.3 Interpretations of Christianity and Chinese Culture
  • 7.3.1 The Understanding of Christianity and Chinese Culture
  • 7.3.2 The Analysis of Methodology in Indigenization
  • 7.3.3 The Counterbalance between Christian Tradition and Relevance to Context
  • 7.4 Synthesis: Chao’s Faces of Jesus and his Major Christology
  • 7.4.1 Faces of Jesus
  • 7.4.2 Major Interpretation: Person-Oriented Christology
  • 7.5 Conclusion
  • Chapter 8 – Chao’s Contextual Christology compared with that of other Protestant Thinkers
  • 8.1 Introduction of three Protestant Thinkers
  • 8.2 The Work of the Protestant Chinese Thinkers
  • 8.2.1 Wu Lei-ch’uan
  • 8.2.2 Y. T. Wu
  • 8.2.3 Wang Ming-tao
  • 8.3 The Models of Protestant Thinkers
  • 8.4 Concluding Remarks
  • Chapter 9 – The Significance and Potentiality of Chao’s Person-Oriented Christology
  • 9.1 Chao’s Christology and its Significance and Potentiality for constructing a contextualized Chinese Theology
  • 9.1.1 Its Systemic Agenda, theoretical Structure, and broad Approach to Christian Theology
  • 9.1.2 Its contextual and practical Concerns in integrating Christianity and Culture
  • 9.1.3 Its hermenutical Key focusing on Person-Oriented Christology
  • 9.1.4 Its new Interpretation of the Christian Faith
  • 9.2 The Comparison between Chao’s Christology and that of Contemporary Chinese Theologians
  • 9.2.1 K. H. Ting
  • 9.2.2 Choan-Seng Song
  • 9.3 Concluding Remarks
  • Chapter 10 – Conclusion
  • 10.1 Research Result to Research Themes
  • 10.2 Prospects for T. C. Chao’s Thought
  • 10.3 Significance and Application of Chao’s Christology
  • 10.4 A Call for further Research
  • Appendixes
  • Appendix 1: The Contextual Christology of Chao and Chinese Protestant Thinkers (Table 1), see 227
  • Appendix 2: The Comparison of Christology between Chao and three Protestant Thinkers (Table 2), see 230
  • Appendix 3: The Author’s Reflection and Prospect after studying Chao’s Christology
  • Glossary
  • Bibliography
  • Sources in Western Language
  • The primary Sources
  • Secondary Sources
  • Sources in Chinese Language
  • Primary Sources
  • Secondary Source

Jeffrey S. Lamp

A Study of
T. C. Chao’s Christology
in the Social Context
of China (1920–1949)

About the author

Rev. Dr. Daniel Hoi Ming Hui is currently both Chaplain and Secretary of the Center for the Study of Religion and Chinese Society of Chung Chi College at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and a part time Lecturer in Divinity School.

About the book

The aim of this book is to show that during the early half of the twentieth century and as Chinese society was torn apart by both internal dissensions and external invasion, Christian churches in China experienced significant challenges to their theological self-understanding. In response to the traumatic events of 1920–1949, Chinese theologian Prof. T. C. Chao tried to construct a ‘new religion’ for China, believing that an indigenous Christianity would offer a solution to the national crisis. In essence, Chao searched for a new interpretation of Jesus Christ that would make Him relevant to China’s context and social thought. It was a contextualized Christology that was based on the encounter of Western Christianity with Chinese culture and contemporary social changes. As a result, a personality-focused interpretation of Jesus Christ was developed to re-formulate Jesus according to the classical Confucian ideals for the cultured man. In exploring his contextual Christology, Chao not only tried to be faithful to the Christian faith but also relevant to classical Chinese culture and the contemporary context so that Christian intellectuals could also contribute to the national reconstruction of the country.

This eBook can be cited

This edition of the eBook can be cited. To enable this we have marked the start and end of a page. In cases where a word straddles a page break, the marker is placed inside the word at exactly the same position as in the physical book. This means that occasionally a word might be bifurcated by this marker.

Abstract

During the early half of the twentieth century, Chinese society was disillusioned by both internal dissension and external invasion, and the Church experienced many challenges from the New Thought Movement, the Anti-Christian Movement, the national crisis, and the Sino-Japanese War.

In response to the traumatic events of 1920–1949, a Protestant intellectual, T. C. Chao (1888–1979) tried to construct a ‘new religion’ for China, believing that an indigenous Christianity would offer a solution to the national crisis. In order to achieve indigenization, Chao particularly attempted to develop a person-oriented Christology. He attempted to reinterpret Jesus Christ in the light of his relevance to the social context and new social trends. In order to explain Chao’s contextualization, his Christology is classified and analysed for the purpose of this study in various periods defined by the changing social contexts.

Although Chao’s work is considered by many Chinese Protestant thinkers to be controversial, and although he himself was uncertain of its success, the author finds it enlightening for constructing Chinese theology today, since the questions Chao asked, and the problems he encountered in the process of contextualization still exist. In investigating the uniqueness of Chao’s work, three comparative studies of Chao’s Christology are made according to his interpretation of Jesus Christ: a comparison between Chao’s own writings in different periods, a comparison between Chao and other Protestant thinkers of his time, and a comparison between Chao and contemporary theologians. It then goes on to evaluate Chao in the light of the above thinkers’ contextual work, using their models for reference. Furthermore, the significance of Chao’s work and the potential of his Christology for constructing contextual theology is considered for further study.←v | vi→ ←vi | vii→

Acknowledgments

I wish to express my gratitude to all those without whom this work would never have been completed. My very special thanks go to Mr. Edmond Tang, my supervisor, for his dedication in directing this thesis and his thoughtful and helpful comments. I am grateful for the scholarship of the Council of World Mission and the financial support I received from the Church of Christ in China Hong Kong Council, and the Amphlett Scholarship Fund for support received during my period of study in the United Kingdom. Many thanks are owed to Ms. Carol Rowe, who carefully proof read the thesis prior to its submission. Many thanks are also due to the library staff of the Orchard Learning Resource Centre of the University of Birmingham, the China Collection at the School of Oriental and African Studies in the University of London, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and the Baptist University of Hong Kong, who were always helpful and kind in offering assistance in collecting materials. A special word of thanks goes to Mr. City Kwok, a student of the Baptist University of Hong Kong, who helped me in collecting much material from the Christianity and Chinese Culture Research Centre of Hong Kong, Alliance Bible Seminary, and also to the China Graduate School of Theology for presenting my thesis. I am grateful to Ms. Keren He who has given me guidance in doing Hanyu Pinyin, and to my friends, Tony Chan, Chi-yeung Lam, and Andrew Chan, who have shown their interest in my study and given me encouragement. I must say thank you to my family who have offered their constant support: my wife, Belinda, has taken care of our family during my research; my children, Esther and Joshua, have always remembered their father in their prayers. Phoebe, my younger daughter sometimes said, ‘Don’t give up, Daddy!’, as she blew me a kiss! Nor can I forget to thank God for giving me the opportunity to study and write my thesis, through which I have certainly gained good experience and learned a lot.←vii | viii→ ←viii | ix→

Table of Contents

Preface

A Note on the Text

Abbreviations

Part I: Introduction

Chapter 1The Research

1.1 Description of Research Problem

1.2 Purpose, Scope, and Limitations

1.3 Theoretical Considerations

1.3.1 Christology

1.3.2 Indigenization and Contextualization

1.4 Research Methodology, Assumptions, and Research Questions

1.4.1 The first Assumption

1.4.2 The second and underlying Assumption

1.5 Resources for the Study

1.6 Survey of the existing Literature

1.7 Originality and anticipated Contribution to Academic Scholarship

1.8 Thesis Structure←ix | x→

Chapter 2A biographical Sketch of T. C. Chao and his theological Context

2.1 T. C. Chao

2.2 Western theological Influence on T. C. Chao

2.2.1 Liberal Theology

2.2.2 Social Gospel

2.2.3 American Methodism

2.2.4 Neo-Orthodoxy and Karl Barth

2.3 Chinese theological Thinking in the Protestant Church

2.3.1 The Controversy between Conservatives and Liberals

2.3.2 The Atmosphere of Apologetics to respond to the Challenge of the New Thought Movement

2.3.3 The Emphasis on the Practicability of Theology

2.3.4 The Concern for cultural Identity in Theology

2.3.5 The Centrality of Jesus Christ in Theology

Part II: Chao’s Christology in his own Time

Chapter 3 – A Humanity-Focused Interpretation of Jesus Christ and the New Thought Movement (1915–1922)

3.1 Social Context and its Interaction with Chao’s Thought

3.2 Six Characteristics of Chao’s Interpretation
of the New Religion

3.2.1 Serving human Life

3.2.2 Accepting the Testimony of Science

3.2.3 Complying with Reason and Experience

3.2.4 Bringing out the Spirit of Democracy and Individualism

3.2.5 Focusing on the Aspect of Ethics and Morality

3.2.6 Contributing to the Reconstruction of Society

3.3 Chao’s New Interpretation of Christianity

3.3.1 Christianity and Chinese Culture

3.3.2 The Apostles’ Creed

3.3.3 Jesus’ Concept of God←x | xi→

3.4 Concluding Remarks

Chapter 4 – A Personality-Focused Interpretation of Jesus Christ and the Anti-Christian Movement (1922–1927)

4.1 The Social Context and its Interaction with Chao’s Thought

4.2 A Person-Focused interpretation of Jesus in Indigenization

4.2.1 The first Step: Purification of Christianity

4.2.2 The second Step: An Attempt to seek Christian Truth in Chinese Culture

4.2.3 The third Step: Christianity’s Fulfillment of Chinese Culture

4.3 A Personality-Focused Interpretation of Jesus Christ

4.3.1 The Foundation: The Personality-focused Interpretation of God and Man

4.3.2 The main Content: The Personality-focused Interpretation of Jesus

4.3.3 Application: Developing the personalized Kingdom of God

4.4 The Features of the Personality-Focused Interpretation of Jesus Christ

4.5 Concluding Remarks

Chapter 5 – A Spirituality and Ethics Focused Interpretation of Jesus Christ and National Reconstruction and National Crisis (1928–1937)

5.1 The Social Context and its Interaction with Chao’s Thought

5.2 A moral and spiritual Interpretation of Jesus

5.2.1 Learning from Jesus

5.2.2 The Spirit of Jesus Christ

5.2.3 The Cross of Jesus

Details

Pages
XXII, 346
Year
2017
ISBN (PDF)
9783034328036
ISBN (ePUB)
9783034328043
ISBN (MOBI)
9783034328050
ISBN (Softcover)
9783034328029
Language
English
Publication date
2017 (July)
Keywords
T. C. Chao Christology Contextual Theology
Published
Bern, Bruxelles, Frankfurt am Main, New York, Oxford, Warszawa, Wien, 2017. XXII, 346 pp., 2 b/w tables

Biographical notes

Daniel Hoi Ming Hui (Author)

Rev. Dr. Daniel Hoi Ming Hui is currently both Chaplain and Secretary of the Center for the Study of Religion and Chinese Society of Chung Chi College at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and a part time Lecturer in Divinity School.

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