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Hermeneutical Principles to Buddhist Mission by Karl Ludvig Reichelt

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Hermeneutical Principles to Buddhist Mission by Karl Ludvig Reichelt KOREA PRESBYTERIAN JOURNAL OF THEOLOGY Vol. 51 No. 4 Hermeneutical Principles to Buddhist Mission by Karl Ludvig Reichelt CHEONG Chong-Seong, Ph.D. Professor, New Testament Studies Baeksuk University, South Korea I. Introduction II. Life and Work of Karl Ludvig Reichelt III. Missionary, Scholar, and Pilgrim IV. Hermeneutical Principles to Buddhist Mission V. Conclusion Korea Presbyterian Journal of Theology Vol. 51 No. 4 (2019. 11), 137-160 DOI: 10.15757/kpjt.2019.51.4.007 138 KOREA PRESBYTERIAN JOURNAL OF THEOLOGY Vol. 51 No. 4 Abstract This paper explores a hermeneutical possibility of whether the gospel of Jesus can be properly represented within the framework assumed by the Buddhist worldview, framework that does not require the religious other to assume a Western worldview. Karl Ludvig Reichelt (1877-1952), a Norwegian Lutheran missionary to China, established a Christian monastery Tao Fong Shan ( ) in Hong Kong which was 道風山 radically based on his Johannine hermeneutic, including architecture, outward and inward design, and daily life. It was modelled after Buddhist monasteries to make sense to Buddhists in appearance, worship ceremony, and terminology. His Johannine Approach gave special emphasis to the “Light” and “Logos” for developing Christ’s fulfillment through hidden disposition of teachings in Chinese religions, which was the key to elicit “all-embracing activity of Jesus Christ,” implicitly related to Jesus’ seven “I AM” sayings (egō eimi). Reichelt seriously considered not only the foundational depth of Buddhism as more than superficial and doctrinaire, but also how greater portions of Buddhist culture can be retained and the gospel of Jesus communicated in light of the Buddhist framework. He had a new attitude of courtesy and respect, accommodating to non-Christian religions, arguing that Christianity as the ultimate truth does not intend to destroy anything good or true of native faiths but instead to strengthen and fulfill them as preparation. Keywords Karl Reichelt, Hermeneutic, Johannine Approach, Buddhist Mission, Respect and Accommodation Hermeneutical Principles to Buddhist Mission by Karl Ludvig Reichelt DOI: 10.15757/kpjt.2019.51.4.007 139 I. INTRODUCTION* How can the gospel of Jesus be presented within the framework assumed by the Buddhist worldview (i.e., the Tao, ancestors, Yin-Yang, and divination), framework that does not require the religious other to assume a Western worldview (i.e., monotheism, judgment-reward, history, and ethics)?1 No doubt, such essential and cultural ideas in their worldview serve as foundational prisms and filters through which other religionists understand reality. In general, evangelical missionaries approach their adherents with the mindset that they can persuade local people to merely replace doctrines one for another without recognizing that such central defining elements are not merely doctrinal. To be sure, it is necessary for the evangelical missionaries to move beyond their efforts at making the Buddhists see the world as they do. Then, what about the work of Karl Ludvig Reichelt, a Norwegian Lutheran? In 1919, an American observer described him very interestingly: “He had gone out to change the East and was returning, himself a changed man... The conversion of the missionary by the Far East results in his being not only a missionary but also an internationalist, an intermediary between the two great civilizations that inherit the earth.”2 Described as such a paradoxical figure, Karl Ludvig Reichelt (1877-1952) was one of the increasing numbers of Western missionaries in China. With a burning passion, those missionaries came to China for preaching the Christian gospel to them, but in the process of evangelizing and living they found out that “the East had spoken its message to them.”3 Their * This paper was presented in SEANET XX Forum at Chiang Mai, Thailand on January 7-11, 2019 and supported by 2019 Baeksuk University Research Fund. 1 John W. Morehead, “Muck Lecture: Karl Ludvig Reichelt and the Johannine Ap- proach to Religious Studies,” Morehead’s Musings (April 20, 2007); http://johnwmore- head.blogspot.com/2007/04/muck-lecture-karl-ludvig-reichelt-and.html, accessed Dec. 17, 2018. 2 Notto R. Thelle, “‘The Conversion of the Missionary’: Changes in Buddhist- Christian Relations in Early Twentieth-Century China,” Christian Study Centre on Chinese Religion and Culture. Ching Feng, n.s., 4-2 (2003), 131-56, at 131, quoted from Earl H. Cressy, “Converting the Missionary,” Asia: Journal of the American Asiatic Association 19, no. 6 (June 1919), 553, 556. 3 Ibid., 131. 140 KOREA PRESBYTERIAN JOURNAL OF THEOLOGY Vol. 51 No. 4 burning passion to represent a universal religion to the East and change the society to which they committed their works was gradually replaced by strong felt-needs for changed attitudes and new breadth of visions, accompanied by deeper appreciation and respect for the greatness and worth of the Eastern civilizations. Reichelt broke the Western pattern of wholesale condemnation of other faiths at that time, seriously considering not only the foundational depth of the worldview base of Buddhism as more than superficial and doctrinaire, but also consistently considered how greater portions of the Buddhist culture can be retained and the gospel of Jesus communicated in light of the Buddhist framework. What were his missional principles behind such ventures, and what kind of hermeneutical assumptions and implications lay behind his attempt to create unique Christian monasteries and liturgies so heavily loaded with Buddhist thinking and language? II. LIFE AND WORK OF KARL LUDVIG REICHELT Raised in a conservative pietistic church community, Karl Reichelt had begun his mission work at Changsa and Ningxian of Hunan Province in China since 1903 as an ordinary evangelical missionary, doing an open air preaching and distribution of evangelistic tracts in Chinese for 8 years, and later as a professor of the New Testament at the Lutheran Seminary until 1920. While he did see some success in winning a few converts in this period, nevertheless he must have thought that this was an effort with no appreciable success, so that probably the time was set for him to move beyond. A significant momentum took place while he stayed in the famous Weishan monastery in Hunan province in 1905, which was obviously the most fascinating experience to the Buddhist rituals, the beauty of the temple halls with their multitude of statues, both with sympathy and frustration.4 Moreover, he was struck by the 4 That moment seemed to be an epochal “mental awakening” as for Reichelt, almost like Paul’s conversion experience on the road to Damascus. Notto R. Thelle, “Christian Hermeneutical Principles to Buddhist Mission by Karl Ludvig Reichelt 141 teaching of grace in Buddhism, as he described Guanyin as the goddess of mercy.5 On this visit, he mentioned, “I got a glimpse of a peculiar and exclusive world, a world of full of tragedy and heart-rending, but also marvellous rich in points of contact and sacred religious material.”6 Hence, in 1922, he himself became a student of Buddhism and earnestly studied how the Chinese religion and culture understood not only its own religious expression, but also how its foundational and cultural prism and filter interpreted reality. Reichelt was always eager to learn from Buddhists and Taoists, studying their practices, participating in their rituals and meditations. Karl Reichelt had a different attitude of courtesy and respect toward the Asian religions and felt a great need for a new apologetic for the educated classes in the East, whose enlarging nationalism considered Christianity as Western religion. He gradually recognized that Asian religions could be a Christian ally against modern secularism and materialism, and that their good teachings also could be a preparation for fuller revelation in Christ.7 In particular, he had performed his unique mission work among Chinese Buddhists who held enthusiastic and devout faith until his death.8 He established a Buddhist-style Christian center on a hill in Shatin valley, Hong Kong, called Tao Fong Shan ( 道 Monastery for Buddhist Monks. Part I: Karl Ludvig Reichelt’s Sacred Mountains,” Christian Study Centre on Chinese Religion and Culture, Ching Feng, n.s., 6.1 (2005), 1-35, at 5-6. 5 Notto R. Thelle, “Conversion of the Missionary,” 135. 6 Håkan Eilert, Boundlessness: Studies in Karl Ludvig Reichelt’s Missionary Thinking with Special Regard to the Buddhist-Christian Encounter (Århus, Denmark: Forlaget Aros, 1974), 21. 7 For example, he recognized that Buddhist moral teachings like the Four Noble Truth ( ) and the Eightfold Path ( ) was already for them a good channel 四聖諦 八正道 leading to the absolute peace of mind. Choi Jin-bong, “Bog-eum-ui Seolgyoleul Wihan Hanguggyohoeui Haeseoghagjeog Seon-Ihaee daehan Seongchalgwa Gwaje-Bulgyo- Yugyoui Gyeongjeonsin-ang Jeontong-eul Jungsim-eulo” [A Critical Reflection and Challenge of the Korean Church’s Hermeneutical Pre-understandings for Preaching the Gospel: On the Basis of the Buddhist and Confucian Faith Tradition of Scripture], Korea Presbyterian Journal of Theology 50-5 (2018), 176-77. 8 Thor Strandenæs, “Contextualising the Commiments and Concerns of Dr. Karl Ludvig Reichelt in the 21st Century,” Swedish Missiological Themes 97 (2009. 2), 127-40, at 128. 142 KOREA PRESBYTERIAN JOURNAL OF THEOLOGY Vol. 51 No. 4 ), a pilgrim’s study facility that Reichelt himself named it as “the 風山 mountain from which the Logos wind, the Christ-spirit, blows.”9 It was established using Buddhist forms and conventions as a meeting ground where Buddhist monks and Taoists could encounter Christians in a familiar and congenial, refined and religious atmosphere indigenous to the soul of China, which was consolidated by his own emotional and aesthetic predilection favoring evocative rituals and pious mood. He always thought that Christianity had to be indigenized, attuned to, and adapt itself to Chinese traditions and conventions.10 III. MISSIONARY, SCHOLAR, AND PILGRIM Reichelt’s mission may remain one of the classic studies in an incarnational mission or contextualization and one with great lessons for those working among the Asian religions.
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