The University of Chicago “The Spiritual Human Is
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THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO “THE SPIRITUAL HUMAN IS DISCERNED BY NO ONE”: AN INTELLECTUAL BIOGRAPHY OF WATCHMAN NEE A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE DIVINITY SCHOOL IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY BY PAUL H B CHANG CHICAGO, ILLINOIS JUNE 2017 For Laura 我妹子, 我親婦, 你奪了我的心 TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction 1 Chapter 1, Republican China 18 Chapter 2, Fuzhou: Church and Conflict 74 Chapter 3, The Spiritual Human 127 Chapter 4, The Nanjing Decade 169 Conclusion 223 Bibliography 250 Appendix 259 iii Introduction A network of congregations quietly rings the globe, comprised of Christians meeting in homes and unassuming buildings, which usually bear little resemblance to traditional “churches.” A few outward characteristics are obvious. The local gatherings are of varying sizes, from two or three to two or three thousand. Frequently the members share meals together, often before or after services which can be boisterous and participatory. Generally, no pastor, priest, or designated religious officiant presides. As the Spirit leads, different members stand to call hymns, declare verses from the Bible, give personal testimonies, or shout praises to God. But, for all their openness about their beliefs and their tireless attempts at outreach, it can be hard for outsiders to understand who these Christians are. Why do they not join existing Christian denominations? What is the basis for their identity and the institutions they create? When asked, congregants readily and happily acknowledge their fellowship and unity with other likeminded groups from around the world, but they may seem canny and evasive when asked for the name of their local church or the name of the church network as a whole. An inquirer may be told that the church has no name, that it is simply named with the local city, or that it is the same church to which all Christians belong. A visitor may even be treated to an extemporaneous bible study, explaining the generic naming customs of the church in the New Testament. All of these individuals and congregations speak of familiar Christian doctrines with a similar accent. From Nigeria to the Philippines, from Canada to Chile, visitors will hear talk of releasing the spirit, denying the self, building up the Body of Christ, and loving Christ as the bridegroom. Furthermore, all of these Christians will also share complex or indirect explanations 1 for who they are and what they represent. If pressed in the right direction, however, most members will readily acknowledge their indebtedness to and respect for the ministry of “Brother Nee.” As a matter of fact, the ways in which these Christians discuss their cardinal beliefs and the unique practices that embody their faith can largely be traced to the influence and ideas of a single man, Watchman Nee (1903-1972). Nee was an unconventional Christian minister who spent nearly his entire life in China. His prolific writings and church leadership have left an impressive legacy. Nee has millions of followers within China and hundreds of thousands in the rest of the world, putting him in rare company among Chinese thinkers. It is likely that Nee’s popularity outside of China is exceeded only by Confucius, Laozi, and Mao Zedong. As a result, secular scholars, Christian admirers, and critics within and outside the church have repeatedly engaged with various aspects of his life and theology. Nevertheless, he remains something of a mysterious figure. Someone who is interested in the broad outlines of Nee’s story can pick up any one of a number of popular biographies, which are generally accurate in recounting the basic facts of Nee’s life. Confessional, theological reflections about his adaptations of Christian doctrines are also available, largely in the many unpublished dissertations and theses that deal with his work. Recently, scholars have also begun to pay closer attention to Nee using broader frameworks of research. Historian Lian Xi has emphasized the common elements between modern Chinese Christians, including Nee, and indigenous Chinese religious traditions. In particular, Lian highlights their shared apocalyptic and millenarian themes.1 Theologian Alexander Chow has 1 Lian Xi, Redeemed by Fire: The Rise of Popular Christianity in Modern China. 2 suggested that Nee propounded a fundamentalist or legalistic theology, while also reflecting a particularly Chinese interest in the unity between heaven and humanity.2 Most scholars, however, have understood Nee to stand almost entirely aloof from larger trends in Chinese society and history. According to historian Daniel Bays, “In 1926-1927, at the height of national political drama in the ‘Nationalist revolution’, Nee barely paid attention. He was busy refining some of his basic ideas, applying the fruits of extended reading in works of the mystic Jessie Penn-Lewis and, holed up in Shanghai, writing the longest book he ever wrote, The Spiritual Man.”3 Similarly, Sinologist and theologian Chloë Starr suggests that Nee’s writings assume “a universal truth and universally applicable Christianity.” His writings “are peppered with Chinese examples and cases, but he uses these primarily to illustrate Christian truths, rather than to determine them.” She adds, “If we were to strip Ni Tuosheng’s [Watchman Nee’s] Chinese examples away, his point would almost always still stand,” in contrast to other Chinese Christians for whom the “particular lens or narrative frame” of the Chinese “literary or philosophical traditions” and “social environment” were more directly relevant.4 In between these very different characterizations of Watchman Nee’s relationship to Chinese culture, society, and thought lie the subtle—sometimes almost imperceptible—ways in which Nee’s life and thought actually reflected his environment. Nee himself occasionally tried to define this relationship, but his explicit references both to universal truths and to colorful, local Chinese anecdotes, have, in a way, occluded the most significant effects of China on his ideas. Nee’s Chinese context and heritage can be seen more clearly in implicit assumptions than in open declarations. His ideas mirrored broad thematic currents in both contemporary and 2 Alexander Chow, Theosis, Sino-Christian Theology and the Second Chinese Enlightenment. 3 Daniel Bays, A New History of Christianity in China (Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2012), 132-133. L 4 Chloë Starr, Chinese Theology: Text and Context (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2016), 4-5. 3 classical China, even when he was not purposefully echoing them. The legacy of his teachings, practices, followers, and institutions is shaped by Chinese history in ways that the participants themselves may not have realized. In fact, one of the most significant ways in which Nee’s life and teachings were clearly marked by his societal context was, paradoxically, in his choice of Western Christian influences. Nee’s ideas on the church were deeply influenced by the Plymouth Brethren, while his concepts of spirituality were heavily indebted to writers from the Keswick Convention. Nee’s thorough and detailed absorption of these Western influences was astounding. He understood their theologies and attitudes so completely that his work is still appreciated by contemporary forms of both movements. No doubt, this deeply “Western” voice is also a reason that scholars such as Bays and Starr have argued that Nee eschewed specifically Chinese influences. Upon closer examination, however, Nee’s attraction to both the Brethren and Keswick schools of thought follows an interesting pattern. On the one hand, the Plymouth Brethren’s ecclesiology was deeply pessimistic. The Brethren indicted virtually all Western Christian churches, denominations, and associations (even, to some extent, their own) for their divisiveness, artificiality, connections to local governments and politics, lack of holiness, and independence from God. On the other hand, despite its warm, devotional, and ecumenical tone, the Keswick Convention also judged Western Christians harshly. Keswick teachers assumed that very few Christians were actually living up to the biblical standard of holiness. Instead, these holiness writers supposed that most Christians were generally defeated in their Christian lives, beholden to sin, fleshly desires, their own egos, and the vanities of the world. In other words, Nee based his own thought upon two of the most self-critical strands of Western Christianity. Much of Nee’s active ministry took place in Republican China, when the 4 prevailing sentiment was fiercely patriotic and anti-Western. Chinese Christians had to fight off bitter accusations that they were foreign lapdogs, collaborating with imperialists. In such a context, it may seem odd that Nee chose to learn from Westerners at all. Nee’s choice of these particular Western influences, however, gave him access to some of the most subtle and scathing critiques that Western Christians had lodged against each other. If Nee had to be associated with Western Christian thought, the Brethren and Keswick theologies had the potential to gain him significantly more interest than almost any others. Because of their unfavorable judgements of other Christians, both the Brethren and the Keswick teachers were embroiled in controversies in the West, and these controversies would follow Nee throughout his career. In China, however, to be controversial among Westerners, was, if anything, a sign that one had maintained one’s nationalistic integrity. Although Nee could have easily traded on this anti-Western reputation, he took a more careful route. By taking many of his cues from the West’s own critics, Nee claimed to be following a more universal, pure version of Christianity than that practiced by the vast majority of Western Christians. Instead of being a simple champion of China, Nee was a champion of the idea that Chinese could engage in some of the most demanding forms that the Christian tradition had to offer. They could live rigorous lives of self-denial, forsaking their natural inclinations, preferences, and human affections, representing God in unified, holy congregations that pointed toward the truth of the mystical body of Christ.