Chinese Christianity Yale Divinity School Summer Course, June 2017
Course Description:
This course opens up the fascinating but surprisingly obscure story of Chinese Christianity, from the earliest Syriac-Chinese documents of the eighth century through to the sermons and micro-blogs of house-church pastors in the twenty-first century. We will consider how the Jesuit mission of Matteo Ricci and his confreres paved the way for a rich Chinese theological literature in the sixteenth century, and the questions of accommodation and theological synthesis it raised. We will look at the huge printing and education industry of the Protestant mission in the nineteenth century, before sitting at length at the feet of Chinese theologians of the early twentieth century. We will read (in English!) some short essays by theologians like Zhao Zichen, and consider what the legacy of imperialism meant for the new Chinese church in the early Republic. The devastation of the church during the Cultural Revolution forces us to confront the choices of the 1950s and church-state allegiances, while the reopening of Christian seminaries and churches in the 1980s invites a closer look at the bitter split between the state churches and the unregistered churches in the present, and what these mean for the church Catholic and Protestant in the future. We will watch some video extracts, look at texts and read some brief materials together in class as we ponder questions such as: what is Chinese theology and how does it differ from Western systematic forms? What does the contemporary Chinese church have to say to the rest of the world church? And how did the church grow to 80 million in just a few years?
Monday 5 From the “Nestorians” to Late Imperial China
Tuesday 6 Early Protestantism in China
Wednesday 7 Republican Era Church and Academy
Thursday 8 Fierce debates and church splits in the PRC
Friday 9 The Contemporary Scene: Registered and Unregistered church life
Readings for discussion (available online and in class). If you have a chance to read and digest before class, great. If not, we will catch up in class.
Monday: Matteo Ricci, The True Meaning of the Lord of Heaven, Chapters 1-2. Rev. ed. Thierry Meynard, S. J., Trans. Douglas Lancashire and Peter Hu Kuo-chen, S. J. Boston: Boston College, 2016.
Li Jiubiao, Kouduo richao Diary of Oral Admonitions. Excerpts. Sankt Augistin: Institut Monumenta Serica, 2007.
Extra reading for interest:
Xu Guangqi, ‘A Few Words on the Portrait of the Creator,’ ‘Memorial Statement,’ ‘On the Art of Discrimination’; Wang Zheng, Ultimate Discourse on Fearing God and Loving People.’
R. Po-Hsia A Jesuit in the forbidden City: Matteo Ricci, 1552-1610, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010), Chs 1, 3, 10
Starr, Chinese Theology, Ch 1
Tuesday:
Liang Fa, trans. Starr, ‘Good Words to Exhort the World,’ 1832 (extract)
‘The Conversion of Liang Fa’ in The Search For Modern China, A Documentary Source Book
Ryan Dunch, “‘Mothers to Our Country’: Conversion, Education and Ideology among Chinese Protestant Women, 1870-1930.” In Gender and Christianity in China, edited Jessie G. Lutz (Bethlehem, Pennsylvania: Lehigh University Press, 2010), 324- 350.
Lin Shao-Yang, A Chinese Appeal to Christendom Concerning Chinese Missions (London: Watts and Co, 1911), 1-70; 158-172
Extra reading for interest:
Morrison, Eliza, Memoirs of the Life and Labours of Robert Morrison, DD, Compiled by his Widow… (London: Orme, Brown, Green and Longmans, 1839) Volume 1, 253-315
George Hunter McNeur: China's first preacher, Liang A-fa, 1789-1855 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1934); extract.
P. Richard Bohr, ‘Liang Fa’s Quest for Moral Power,’ in Barnett and Fairbank, eds., Christianity in China: Early Protestant Missionary Writings (Harvard UP, 1985)
Wednesday:
Zhao Zichen, in Xiaochao Wang, ed., The Collected English Writings of Tsu Chen Chao (Beijing: Zongjiao Wenhua, 2009), 177-242
Wu Yaozong (Y. T. Wu) ‘Christianity and Materialism’ (extract) Wu Leichuan, Christianity and Chinese Culture (extract)
Extra reading for interest:
Starr, Chinese Theologians, Chapters 2 - 5
Gao Wangzhi, ‘Y. T. Wu: A Christian Leader Under Communism’ in ed. Daniel H. Bays, Christianity in China (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1996)
Emily Honig, ‘Christianity, Feminism and Communism: The Life and Times of Deng Yuzhi’ in ed. Daniel H. Bays, Christianity in China (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1996)
Thursday:
Wang Mingdao, A Call to the Church (Fort Washington, PA Christian Literature Crusade, 1983), pp1-81; ‘The Bride of Christ,’ extract.
K. H. Ting, God is Love: Collected writings of Bishop K. H. Ting (Colorado Springs: Cook Communications, 2004), 17-138, 526-580
Extra reading for interest:
Lian Xi, Redeemed by Fire: The rise of popular Christianity in Modern China (Yale University Press, 2010), Chapters 5
Ted Harrison, Much Beloved Daughter: the story of Florence Li (Wilton, CT: Morehouse-Barlow, 15-49
Watchman Nee (Ni Tuosheng), The Spiritual Man
Philip Wickeri, Reconstructing Christianity in China (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 2007), Chapters 8, 10
Starr, Chinese Theologians, Chapters 7
Friday:
Yang Huilin, Christianity in China: the Work of Yang Huilin (Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 2004), 1-99. (Special issue of Contemporary Chinese Thought v 36, No.1 Fall 2004.
Wang Yi, ‘Spiritual Revival and Secularization: An Evaluation of House Churches in China,’ Contemporary Chinese Thought, 47.4 239-254 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10971467.2015.1262626
See also: http://www.chinapartnership.org/blog/2015/08/95-theses-the- reaffirmation-of-our-stance-on-the-house-church
Extra reading for interest:
Xin Yalin, Inside China’s House Church Network (Astbury Theolgical Seminary Series: Emeth Press, 2009), Chs 3, 4
Starr, Chinese Theologians, Chs 8-10, and Starr, “Wang Yi and the 95 Theses of the Chinese Reformed Church” http://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/7/12/142
Bibliography (for reference)
Some primary sources in English: Lai Pan-chiu and Jason Lam, eds, Sino-Christian Theology, (Peter Lang, 2010). Twelve critical essays (including some by Taiwanese or US based Chinese) which also represent new theological thought Liu Xiaofeng, trans. Leopold Leeb, Sino-Theology and the Philosophy of History (Leiden: Brill, 2015) *Malek, Roman ed. The Chinese Face of Jesus Christ, Volumes 3a, 3b (Sankt Agustin: Monumenta Serica). Selection of primary and secondary sources from various time periods. Yang Huilin, trans. various, China, Christianity and the Question of Culture (Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2014) *Zhou Xinping, ed., Christianity. (Leiden: Brill, 2013). Twelve translated essays by contemporary Chinese scholars on various aspects of Chinese Christianity.
Selection of secondary works: Barnett, Suzanne W. and J. K. Fairbank, eds. 1985. Christianity in China: Early Protestant Missionary Writings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Bays, Daniel H. ed. 1996. Christianity in China: from the C18 to the present. Stanford: Stanford University Press. *Bays, Daniel H., A New History of Christianity in China (Oxford: Blackwell-Wiley, 2011) Brockey, Liam, Journey to the East, The Jesuit Mission to China, 1579-1724 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard (Belknap), 2007 Cheung, David (Chen Yiqiang). 2004. Christianity in Modern China: the making of the first native Protestant church. Leiden: Brill. Chen Yongtao. The Chinese Christology of T. C. Chao (Leiden: Brill, 2017). Chow, Alexander. Theosis, Sino-Christian Theology and the Second Chinese Enlightenment (NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013) Cohen, Paul, Paul Cohen, China and Christianity: the Missionary Movement and Growth of Anti-Foreignism 1850-1900, Intro Dunch, Ryan. 2001. Fuzhou Protestants and the Making of a Modern China (1857-1927). New Haven: Yale University Press, esp. Ch 5 the Protestant Heyday in Fuzhou, 1912-22 Eber, Irene, ed., Bible in Modern China. The Literary and Intellectual Impact (Sankt Augustin: Nettetal, 1999). Fällman, Fredrik, Salvation and Modernity: Intellectuals and Faith in Contemporary China (Stockholm University, 2004) *Fulton, Brent. China’s Urban Christians: A Light that Cannot be Hidden. Cambridge: Lutterworth Press, 2015. Goossaert, Vincent and David Palmer. The Religious Question in Modern China. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011. Hanan, Patrick. 2003. ‘The Bible as Chinese Literature: Medhurst, Wang Tao, and the Delegates’ Version.’ Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 63.1: 197:239. *Lam, Wing-hung, Chinese Theology in Construction (Pasadena, CA: William Carey Library, 1983), Lai Pan-chiu and Jason Lam, eds, Sino-Christian Theology, (Peter Lang, 2010) Latourette, Kenneth Scott. 1929. A history of Christian missions in China. London: SPCK. Lee, Joseph Tse-Hei, The Bible and the Gun: Christianity in South China 1860-1900 (New York: Routledge, 2003) *Lian, Xi. 2010. Redeemed by fire: the rise of popular Christianity in modern China. Ling, Samuel D. The Other May Fourth Movement, the Chinese “Christian Renaissance,” 1919- 1937. PhD Dissertation, Temple University. 1981. *Madsen, Richard. 1998. China’s Catholics, Tragedy and Hope in Emerging Civil Society. Berkeley: University of California Press. Mariani, Paul. Church Militant: Bishop Kung and Catholic Resistance in Communist Shanghai. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2011. Menegon, Eugenio, Ancestors, Virgins, and Friars: Christianity as a Local Religion in Late Imperial China. (Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press, 2009) Standaert, Nicolas. 2001. Handbook of Christianity in China I. Leiden: Brill. *Starr, Chloë. Chinese Theology: Text and Context. Yale University Press, 2016. YDS bookstore has been offering 25% discount on new hardbacks – do ask. Tiedemann, R. G. 2009. Handbook of Christianity in China II 1800-Present. Leiden: Brill. T’ien Ju-kang. 1993. Peaks of Faith: Protestant mission in revolutionary China. Leiden: Brill. Weilander, Gerda. Christian Values in Communist China. Abingdon: Routledge, 2013. *Yamamoto Sumiko, History of Protestantism in China: The Indigenization of Christianity (Tokyo: Tōhō Gakkai, 2000) Yang, Mayfair Mei-hui, Chinese Religiosities: Afflictions of Modernity and State formation (Berkeley: U. Cal, 2008) Yang, Fenggang. “Lost in the Market, Saved at McDonalds: Conversion to Christianity in Urban China” Journal for Scientific Study of Religion. Vol. 44 No. 4 (2005) 423-441 *Yang Huilin. China, Christianity and the Question of Culture. Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2014. Zetzsche, Jost Oliver. 1999. The Bible in China. The History of the Union Version or The Culmination of Protestant Missionary Bible Translation in China. Nettetal: Sankt Augustin.