Theologizing in the Chinese Context

-- Benoit Vermander --

Note: This article was first published in Studia Missionalia, vol. 45, 1996, pp.119-134.

Since the very beginning of missionary activities in China, the way of relating to Chinese tradition and culture has been a serious challenge For Christian theology. Confucianism, especially, was always perceived as an “embedded cultural-linguistic matrix” [1]: in order for Christianity to be relevant within the Chinese context, doing theology entailed a critical wrestling with this living tradition. Overall, the Chinese Weltanschauung (be it considered as a wisdom, a philosophy or a religious way of life) has a consistency of its own that makes it difficult to accommodate the conceptual framework through which the Christian faith is expressed in other cultural settings.

I do not intend to discuss the history of this search for theological inculturation. I shall rather focus on the issues developed during the last thirty years or so. It is Indeed the direction pointed out by the Second Vatican Council that has encouraged Chinese Catholic theologians to build up a theological corpus consistent with the needs and difficulties encountered within the Local Church. Furthermore, it was in the year 1969 that the Collectanea Theologica Umversitatis Fu-jen (the review edited by the Jesuit Faculty of Taipei) started to appear. Although other publications are worth being noted, and will be quoted indeed In the course of this article, the Collectanea remains the main source in Chinese for grasping what has been at stake within the theological field during the last decades. I shall mainly rely on the materials they provide for sketching out the Chinese theological landscape. [2]

First, I shall give some hints of what it means to do theology in a Chinese language and context. Afterwards, I shall divide my inquiry into three areas: the work that has been done for understanding anew theological concepts in accordance with a few basic Chinese notions; the attempts made for linking Chinese spiritual traditions with the theological discourse; and the way the salvation history is narrated with regard to the Chinese historical experience.

I - THEOLOGIZING IN CHINESE

Chinese as a linguistic tool deeply differs from other languages such as Greek, Latin or Sanskrit. Its morphology does not distinguish between clear-cut grammatical categories. On the other hand, Chinese characters have a concrete flavor and a suggestiveness of their own and, as a whole, constitute a framework for expressing perception and thought that closely associates form and meaning. Consequently, basic Western concepts such as soul, substance, modality are often translated in a rather clumsy way, whereas finding equivalents for some basic Chinese categories is a painstaking endeavor. For an example of the misunderstandings that may easily arise, the character ti can be translated as “substance”, but Chinese classics always contrast it with “use” (yong) not with “accident”. Such difficulties deeply Influence the history of inter-religious and intercultural dialogue.

Furthermore, Chinese terminology is rooted in the canon of classical writings which constituted the basis for the development of Chinese culture and philosophy throughout the centuries. This canon plays too important a role not to be a constant reference for the Christian theologian. Roughly speaking, one has to distinguish between two canonical strata: the first is composed of the five “Books” (Books of History, of Poems, of Rites, of Mutations, of Documents) to which all schools refer in one way or another. The second stratum is composed of “Confucian” writings in a stricter sense. The process that led to their “canonization” is linked with the figure of ZHU Xi (1130-1200), the most important thinker of me Neo Confucianist school, who read the classical corpus through a principle of “reason” (li) which was seen as an immanent principle directing the wondrous working of the cosmos. Here might be the core of this “cultural-linguistic matrix” which theologians have to deal with. No wonder that Fr Peter HU Kuo-chen (born in 1948) still defines the process of theological inculturation as follows: finding out a Chinese philosophical system that makes use of the concepts of Heaven and Man for interpreting the Scriptures and the dogmas; and, through such a system, interpreting anew the more important Chinese classics. [3]

It should also be noted that making use of Chinese as a theological language is quite recent an enterprise. Fr Mark FANG Chih-jung reminds us that the Jesuit theologate of Zi-ka-wei (in Shanghai), which was first transferred to Baguio (Philippines) from 1952 to 1967, kept Latin as the only teaching language until 1964, later shifting to English. And it is only with the foundation of the Fu Jen Theologate, in the Taipei suburbs, that teaching and research were conducted in Chinese, starting in 1968. [4] It is then easy to understand why the first issue of the Collectanea stressed the fact that writing and teaching theology in Chinese was not only a means but indeed a goal per se. [5]

II- THEOLOGIZING IN CONTEXT

The context in which the enterprise of theological inculturation is pursued cannot but be deeply influenced by the traumas that the Communist victory of 1949 and the subsequent historical events have represented for the Christian community. As a consequence, the theological research which we are concerned with here is conducted in Taiwan, even if it takes into account the entirety of the Chinese cultural sphere. Such an institutional position might generate two tensions. The first is the gap that risks to widen between Christian thinking in mainland China and in Taiwan due to historical conditions. [6] In fact, the Catholic Church in Mainland China ― be it the “patriotic” or the underground one ― is not presently developing a theology of its own but is rather relying on publications and teachers coming from Hong-Kong and Taiwan. On the other hand, for many Chinese intellectuals or “Christians without Church”, the Bible appears now to be a relevant reference for cultural and spiritual reflection, a reference that they widely use for developing a new trend of thought. [7] Hence the threat of a growing gap occurs between the mainstream theological discourse and the positions and interpretations developed on the fringe of Christianity. The second tension arises when a theology concerned with traditional Chinese concepts has to come to terms with the realities of contemporary Taiwanese society. First of all, the debate with Confucianism might have little relevance for a society which has been, in many respects, deeply westernized. Secondly, some sectors within the Church which strive to assert their Taiwanese uniqueness are ill at ease with a discourse defining the task of inculturation only within the frame of “Chinese” tradition and concepts. “Inculturation” is to be implemented within a pluralist and somehow divided society.

Theologizing in context also means understanding the way a pluralistic, syncretic and all-encompassing cultural-religious system works: Chinese people have a natural tendency to stress the “unity of all religions”, first when it comes to their own tradition (thus postulating the identity of the ultimate meaning of Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism), secondly when trying to integrate the teachings of religions developed in foreign settings. Such a syncretistic outlook goes along with the overall fluidity of religious affiliations: the concept of “diffused religions” is widely used when observers seek to define the unique intertwining of social and religious rites, as well as the intermingling between different religious creeds and practices which has taken place throughout Chinese history. In Taiwan, recent inquiries confirm that nearly half of the people define themselves as Buddhists when they are asked about their religious affiliation. But further questions about observance of Buddhist beliefs and practices lead to a proportion of Buddhist believers between 7 and 15% of the whole sample (the conservative estimate being probably the more accurate). Furthermore, 7% are self-declared Taoists, and 29% consider themselves as belonging to “folk religion”. When it comes to distinguishing between affiliations, beliefs and practices, the matter is so intricate that researchers generally conclude that the most urgent task is to determine what the terms “religion” (the word in itself is recent in Chinese), “Buddhism”, “Taoism”, etc. mean for ordinary people. [8]

With regard to Cnristianity in Taiwan, at most 5% of the adult population define themselves as Christians (60% of them belonging to the various Protestant denominations). The more fundamentalist denominations keep growing, while many major churches, particularly the Catholic church, have remained at a standstill for the last twenty-five years. This might be partially due to the fact that Christianity is still considered as a foreign” religion. Although this foreign character was something of an asset at a time of low national consciousness, as was the case during the 1950s and 1960s, it has again become an impediment now that cultural pride has been gradually restored and further enhanced by economic success. However, the influence of Christianity in Taiwan cannot be measured only by the proportion of baptized people. Clearly enough, its cultural, social and educational influence goes beyond institutional boundaries. In any case, theologians have to deal, on the one hand with a “closed humanism” [9] characteristic of every developed society, and, on the other hand with the complexity of the Chinese religious inheritance.

III - THEOLOGIZING WITH CHINESE CONCEPTS

With regard to such an inheritance, it is not surprising that theological inculturation has much to do with semantics: how to understand Chinese notions and theological concepts within a unified frame of thought? In this respect, a few terms deserve special attention.

(a) As an introductory remark, let us simply be reminded that the word “God” has no immediate equivalent in Chinese. Already in the time of Mateo Ricci, a choice had to be made between the terms “Heaven” (tian) and “Lord (or Emperor) from above” (shangdi). Forming a pure neologism (as had been the case in Japan), making use of expressions such as “Supreme Principle” (taiji) or “Spirit” (shen) were less plausible alternatives. Later on, the Catholics adopted the term of Tianzhu (Lord of Heaven), and the ecclesiastical authorities prohibited the use of other names after 1704. Nowadays, most Protestant denominations still prefer the term shangdi, which is more common in Chinese.

“Heaven”, as it is understood by Chinese people, is, at the same time, lofty, anonymous, and the source of endless production. The use of the expression “Lord of Heaven” has led Catholic theologians to emphasize the category of “unity” in the concept of God in order to complement that of “personality” which is more easily stressed within the Western tradition: “the divine power goes through the heart of a man; if he develops this power, he can then be in tune with all things, be responsive to all men, and be in harmony with Heaven and Earth.” [10] The Scriptures express this in another way: “For it is God who works in you, makes you will, and makes you act in order to accomplish His good will” (Phil. 2;13). Going from “the way of man” (rendao) to “the way of heaven” (tiandao) is what “The Way” (dao), Christ, allows us to do. Nowadays, the emphasis put both by Catholics and Protestants on the notion of dao, one of the most deeply rooted notions in the Chinese psyche, testifies to the shirt from a God-centered to a Christ-centered theology. [11]

(b) In Confucianism, there are two values which are considered as central, both from a personal and a social point of view: those of “filial piety” (xiao) and “humanity” or “benevolence” (ren).” [12] “Filial piety” is the way of attaining self-cultivation and, consequently, of being considered worthy to govern a nation and regulate the world. Many Chinese authors have seen in “filial piety” the key for interpreting the New Testament in a Chinese context.” [13] Archbishop LUO Kuang pointed out that the filial piety practised by the Catholic Church in the West has been too influenced by the spirit of the Roman Empire. As for the concept of filial piety among the Confucianists, it regards life and not duty as its basis. Feeling grateful for the gift of life, being part of this process of transmission from generation to generation, such is the Chinese way of understanding filial piety. [14] Moreover, because filial piety is the natural manifestation of love within the inner heart of man, it is also the root of Ren, the virtue of humanity. Cultivating filial piety is a way of forgetting oneself by relating to one's origin through an appropriation of the whole process of life. [15] Long ago, the Confucian thinker HAN Yu (768-824) said that the virtue of humanity was nothing else other than the name given to universal love. In other words, love is rooted in filial gratitude.

Some difficulties remain unresolved: in such a system, how can celibacy for the Kingdom be justified? Does not the Gospel uproot the hierarchy of kinship relations, and the subsequent hierarchy of feelings, which is a tenet of Chinese culture? Is the classic notion of filial piety still relevant in con temporary Chinese society? Despite tnese reservations, it is clear enough that the concepts of Xiao and Ren do enrich the idea of Love as it is expressed in the Christian faith. In this perspective, Love is the realization of the source of endless production which is manifested in the conservation and development of life. To love is to participate in the creative work of Heaven and Earth and thus to expand the life of all things. [16]

(c) Another field open for semantic inculturation is that formed by words such as virtue (daode), law (fa) and rites (li). “Virtue” is traditionally seen as an internal principle which governs one's conduct and deeply influences one's surrounding. By the very fact of being virtuous, a man can deeply change this environment. In contrast, “Law” is often accused of being an artificial construct which goes against the natural and virtuous flow of life. [17] Aloysius CHANG reminds us that Chinese culture is centered around the concept of virtue, and draws a parallel between Confucius, who gave his people a set of internal principles of conduct, and Moses, who gave his law. [18] Going further, some thinkers characterize China, as a “culture of innocence”, making it difficult to explain and interpret the dogma of original sin in such a context. [19] However, it should be noted that the weakness of the concept of Law has sometimes been seen as explaining the political vicissitudes of China. In Mainland China, the interest in the Bible shown by some intellectuals has to do with their discovery of the notions of “sin” and “law” as regulatory social and personal concepts.” [20] In addition, from a theological perspective, the sole use of “Virtue” makes this very concept difficult to understand: what happens to “Virtue” when not related to “Law” and “Spirit”?

In many respects, “Rite” is the best Chinese equivalent for “Law”. The function played by the ritual system is to educate consciousness so as to ensure the proper working of the social body. Hence the peculiar importance that a proper and solemn observance of liturgy has for Chinese Catholics. Fr Mark FANG has stressed the prophetic dimension of rites that classical writings also contain; without love and justice there is no true ritual observance. He has also shown that properly performing liturgical rites enables the Chinese Catholic community to recapture and reinterpret the symbolic richness of its own cultural inheritance. Performing rites is a way to educate and to unite the Christian consciousness. [21]

(d) More recently, attention has been focused on another concept - namely, “energy” (qi). The qi concept is more specifically rooted in the cosmological and Taoist stratum of Chinese consciousness. Recently, its popularity has tremendously increased, especially in Mainland China: numberless are the Qi Gong associations trying to develop the inner energy of their adepts through respiratory practices which aim to unite them with the cosmic breathing circulating throughout the world. The qi can somehow be defined as the power which makes everything grow according to its own nature. It is neither a “material” nor a “spiritual” concept, it rather points out the integrating factor behind the various spheres of natural and human development. For Chinese, and although the following observation should obviously be qualified, moral development goes along with greater physical well-being. The rich literature developed around the qi concept could enable Christians to Internalize what the Scriptures tell them about the Spirit, its tireless circulation, its unifying function. [22] The qi approach could especially help them to give a new meaning to the healing powers proper to Christ, in so far as they illustrate how his inner rectitude, his total remittance to the Source of all life irradiate his own body, making his strength contagious all around him.

IV - CHINESE SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCES AND THEOLOGICAL DISCOURSES

The research conducted within the semantic field has led quite naturally to a new concern: how to help Chinese Christians express and further their spiritual experience? How to develop a living faith within a living culture? Chinese theologians have then been led to situate the Christian experience vis-a-vis the main Chinese cultural and spiritual traditions, namely Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism. However, until now the dialogue with the first of these three traditions has been overtly privileged.

(a) An expression “quiet sitting” or “sitting in meditation” (jingzuo) is common to all Chinese spiritualities. However, the Neo-Confucian tradition has given it a particular meaning, which has drawn the interest of several theologians, among them Peter HU and Aloysius CHANG. [23] Their argument can be summarized as follows: Oriental spirituality's stress on quietness has helped Catholics to grow in their own faith, to discover aspects of prayer not fully developed within the Western Church. At the same time, colloquial prayer and attention to the Word have to remain central in any spirituality rooted in the biblical tradition. The Neo-Confucianist school has expressed an existential attitude which is of great help to Chinese Christians willing to enter into a living relationship with God. According to this tradition, to restore man in his true nature (fu xing) is to make the light of Heaven shine out through one's moral life. Only one who strives to rectify his mind, will and knowledge can know the will of Heaven. “Sitting in meditation” is to develop an attitude of contemplation and respect towards the world, is to awake (jue) to reality and to strengthen (jian) one's own faith by fostering a “recollection that penetrates movement and quietude” as the Neo-Confucians say. Restoring man's nature is also a collective process, which is tirelessly pointed out by the Chinese classics. This collective dimension is symbolized by the sacraments of the Church, whose goal is always to establish a new harmony among people, between man and the world and, finally, between Goa and man.[24]

(b) It is clear enough that this eulogy of the Neo Confucianist tradition partly derives from a relative distrust towards the Zen school, against which ZHU Xi had built his own synthesis. Zen spirituality is presented in a few articles[25], and indeed pervades the spiritual life of a great number of Chinese Christians. But, as noted earlier, theologians often point out that Zen does not hold the written word to be of much value. In a broader perspective, their attitude towards Zen testifies to a certain coyness when it comes to confronting Buddhism. As a matter of fact, the Collectanea and other publications offer little material for understanding what is at stake on this subject. This is so not only because of difficulties arising when it comes to a direct dialogue between the two religions, but also because the Confucian prism through which theological inculturation is mainly seen makes it difficult to accommodate the challengers of Confucian orthodoxy, especially Buddhism. In purely theological terms, the crux of the matter is generally considered to be the opposite conception of accomplishment that can be found in Christianity and Buddhism, the former based on the category of “plenitude”, the latter on the category of “nothingness”.[26] However, the situation is rapidly evolving. The new interest in Buddhism that can be sensed in the Chinese theological sphere is partly due to the fact that Buddhism itself is growing and changing at a rapid pace. During the last decade, in Taiwan, people entering the Buddhist religious life have numbered between seven hundred and one thousand per year. The success encountered by Zen sessions and the quest for one's spiritual liberation has developed along with a growing concern for social and environmental issues. The most attractive communities seem to be the ones that promote an existential attitude according to which “one has to live within the world with the spirit of one who leaves it”.[27] In the future, theological creativity could then be based on “cooperation” rather than on mere “dialogue”. Such a trend does not hide the fact that people advocating a more audacious inter-religious cooperation still meet a quite retricted audience in their respective organizations and churches.

(c) The premises for a dialogue with the Taoist spiritual tradition are not identical. In so far as “Taoism” is identified with folk religion, the challenge is not generally seen as theological but rather as pastoral or liturgical. How can the popular sensitivity shown by ordinary people in front of the mystery of life and death be translated into appealing rites and songs?[28] One suspects that, asked solely in these terms, the question is too restricted. It might be that the increasing anthropological knowledge of Chinese folk religion will eventually inspire theologians, making them able to articulate questions on the experience of the Divine manifested through popular beliefs and customs. When it comes to “Taoism” seen as a spiritual and philosophical corpus, the interest generated is more direct, although quite recent. What has already been said about the qi concept is a rather good example of the way the dialogue with the Taoist tradition is perceived: Breathing is seen here as a metaphor for the work that the Spirit pursues in one's life, and the eucharistic liturgy creates the space and the dynamics in which such an experience can be tasted and expressed.[29] The Taoist “passivity” is, at its roots, a way of entering the liberty of the Spirit. Its anthropological wholeness, that makes it integrate spirit and body into one and the same living unity, helps Christians to penetrate more fully the mystery of the Word become flesh. Overall, there is general agreement on the perspectives that the Taoist spiritual experience offers for deepening theological inculturation, but this has not yet led to any land-marking theological synthesis.

V - TOWARDS A NARRATIVE THEOLOGY?

Clearly, both “semantic” and “spiritual” inculturations have a strong historical dimension. As a matter of fact, the Chinese debate on faith and religion might not be so different from that on politics and society: how can the Chinese people come to terms with their own history, how can they overcome the traumas that deeply influenced their historical consciousness, in order to enter into a mature dialogue among themselves and with other nations and cultures? Obviously, such questioning is relevant for the building of the Local Church. In this regard, the attempts made by Fr Aloysius CHANG and Mark FANG are especially noteworthy.

(a) Since 1971, Aloysius CHANG has struggled in order to displace the debate about Confucianism from the field of morality to that of salvation history. According to him, the covenant that linked God and the people of Israel was the “social method” which God made available to His chosen ones in order to be saved. Similarly, God made a “revelation” to Confucius which was propagated through him to the Chinese people. “Revelation” does not mean here a list of dogmas, out a kind of spirit and practice. Confucius had a mission, which was meaningful for the salvation history of the Chinese people as a whole. The sense of mission, the prophetic sense of urgency manifested by Confucius, clearly shows that what is at stake in his teaching is not only the establishment of an ethical code but has to do with salvation itself. Chinese history is, in some way, sanctified by this Confucian revelation, it has to be seen and respected as Holy History. Thus, in the “Old Testament” of the Chinese canon, something of a prefigurement of Christ can be found. It is from this perspective that Confucius still has something to say to the Chinese people today, it is in this light that one can attempt a Christian reading of Chinese history.[30]

(b) In the same vein, Mark FANG notes the evangelical flavor of some Confucian virtues and attitudes, stressing however the fact that Christ fully accomplished God's plan for salvation by linking in His person teaching and sacrifice.[31] But the perspective developed by Mark FANG is not merely a Confucian one: he prefers to emphasize the diversity of Chinese culture, a diversity to be heard anew, with its richness and contradictions. In this light, biblical hermeneutics is able to integrate into a whole the multiplicity of Chinese cultural sources, acknowledging the fact that such diversity is inscribed within the structure of Creation. “Biblical exegesis demands that the rich literature and culture of China and the literature of the Bible be explained and illuminated reciprocally (...) The characteristics of Chinese commentary on the classics can be helpful in this process: (1) it has moral practice as its basis; (2) it does not simply use logic but lends life a direction; (3) it lets the reader take into account his subjective experience and opinion”.[32] Biblical history can then be reread in a dialogue with the Book of Mutation or the Laozi.[33] This is also the way which allows the Bible to put its own questions to Chinese culture and history: in another instance, Mark TANG notes that the true difference between the Confucian Heaven and the God of the Bible resides in the fact that the latter is on the side of the weak and small.[34] The Gospel is always a novelty and, as such, challenges every culture at each stage of its development.[35]

VI - CONCLUDING REMARKS

Today more than ever, “theologizing in Chinese context” is a multivalent endeavour. It means coming to terms with the Chinese tradition, but also putting this tradition in contact with the disruptive novelty of the Gospel; it means dealing with contemporary China, which is undergoing drastic and unprecedented changes, and whose society, politics and culture are diversifying. It requires taking into account such diversity, while making a discernment among the various sources that historically constitute Chinese culture as a whole. Furthermore, it requires a commitment to remain open to the plurality of Christian experiences: that of the Taiwanese church, which tries to assert its own identity; the struggle for communion with the Universal Church and the heart-breaking divisions within the Catholic community in mainland China; the theological research conducted by Protestants or by various “Christians without Church”.[36]

Indeed, the dimension of the task that Chinese theologians have to fulfill is impressive. There are several requisites for deepening the theological inculturation whose scope has just been sketched in this article. I would like to point out just one of them, that I will call “hermeneutical attentiveness”. By this, I mean that the various texts that Chinese theologians have to deal with are to be taken and analyzed according to their hermeneutical status: as has been underlined by Mark FANG, a closer look at the ambivalence of Chinese classics can enrich biblical exegesis; when read in context, individual narrations of the spiritual experiences undergone during the cultural revolution or other events do manifest the work of the Spirit throughout Chinese history; Buddhist or Taoist scriptures obey specific hermeneutic models which have to be worked out before entering into any theological discussion; artistic and medical traditions are very important vectors through which China develops its anthropological and spiritual experience and are to be interpreted according to the codes proper to such fields. Finally, “hermeneutic attentiveness” is the best antidote to syncretism, since it qualifies statements uttered in different contexts, but such alertness has indeed much to do with “reconciliation”: the Chinese Church itself urgently needs to be reconciled, and it is only by doing so that Christians will be able to work for the reconciliation of their nation. Understanding what other Catholics, other Christians or other believers say in their own language, from their own experience and standpoint is a key factor for starting an enterprise of discernment and dialogue － an enterprise through which God will be manifested among His own people.

[1] Heup Young KIM, "Jen and Agape: Towards a Confucian Chrislology", Asia Journal of Theology, 8(2), oct. 1994, p. 335.

[2] Provided that the materials we use here are limited to literature published in Chinese by Catholics. A presentation in Western language of this literature is available in two other publications: Aloysius CHANG, "The Inculturation of Theology in the Chinese Church", Asian Theological Search n. 15, Colombo, Centre for Society and Religion, August 1984, 44 p; and my own article: "Theologiens Catholiques en Monde Chinois", Nouvelle Revue Théologiens, 117(5), sept.-oct 1995 and 117(6), nov.-dec. 1995.

[3] In Collectanea (CTUF), 60, Spring 1984, 208.

[4] Mark FANG, "Faire de la Theologie en Chinois", in Ouvrir les Ecritures, Mélanges offerts à Paul Beauchamp, Paris, Cerf, 1995, 310. Of course, translations and research had already been done in Chinese, but the result was not yet included in the official teaching.

[5] CTUF, 1, Fall 1969,3.

[6] Numerous articles by A. CHANG on the relationship between the Church In the Miinland and in Taiwan, especially in CTUF, 88, Summer 1990 and 96, Summer 1993.

[7] See Michel Masson, "China and Christianity: Assessing the Agenda", Pacifica 7 (1994), especially 129-130.

[8] For a more developed presentation, see my article "Religions in Taiwan Today", China News Analysis, 1538-1539, July 1-15, 1995.

[9] J.B. JUANG, “Christian Hope and ‘Closed Humanism’ in Taiwan”, CTUF, 43, Spring 1980, 91-112.

[10] A. CHANG, “The Inculturation of Theology in the Chinese Church”, art. cit., 33. See also articles on the concept of “Heaven” by Mark FANG and Mgr LUO Kuang in CTUF, Spring 1977.

[11] See for instance articles by Joseph ZIA and Peter HU in CTUF, 60, Spring 1984. Also: A. CHANG, “The Chinese Church and Christology”, CTUF, 37, Fall 1978,435-451

[12] “Etymologically, its (i.e. ren) Chinese character, composed of a graph which means human being and two strokes that mean two, denotes two human beings, or togetherness of hurnan beings. (…) Humanity is benevolent co-humanity. The immanent-transcendent self conceived in the everyday living situation does not mean a self-fulfilled, individual ego in the mean sense, but a communal self or the togetherness of a self as a center of relationship. (...) This love is basically prereflective and spontaneous like the feeling of commiseration. Its execution snould follow the order of this natural feeling of social relations, started from one's nearest shared praxis and extended to the remotest.” (Heup Younng KIM, art. cit., 242-243)

[13] See especially three articles by TIEN Liang, New Vox Clerici, vol. 5, n. 27, 28, 29, jan.-may 1960; KUNG Shih-jung, “Kinship and Friendship”, New Vox Clerici, vol. 6, n. 12, sept. 1968, 17-22.

[14] See for instance “The Way of Filial Piety in the Catholic Church”, Chinese Catholic Culture, l, april 1974.

[15] CHIN Hsiang-k'uei, “The Difficulties in Explaining Filial Piety”, CTUF, 21, Winter 1974, 439-459.

[16] Luo Kuang, “The Principle of Endless Production”, CTUF, 14, Winter 1972, 599-614. General discussion in A. CHANG, “The Inculturation of Theology in the Chinese Church”, art. Cit., 12-18.

[17] Mgr CHENG, New Vox Clerici, 10(7), 1972; J. CHOU, “Christian Norms, Traditional Chinese Norms and the Concept of Natural Law”, CTUF, 72, Fall 1987, 201-232.

[18] See for instance articles on Confucius by A. CHANG in CTUF Spring 1971 and 70, Spring 1987.

[19] Cf Mgr Luo Kuang, CTUF, 75, Summer 1988, 199. See also FU Pei-rong, “Chinese Thought and the Christian Religion”, CTUF, 32, Summer 1977, 215-216.

[20] See for instance M. MASSON, art. cit.

[21] M. FANG, “Chinese Symbols and Liturgy”, CTUF, 68-69, Fall 1986, 243-269. See also A. CHANG, CTUF, 32, Summer 1977, 327.

[22] See A. CHANG, “The Problematics of Qi...”, CTUF, 53, Fall 1982, 341-368; CHING Yao-shan, “Human life and the Yin-Yang concept”, CTUF, 40, Summer 1979, 259-264; YAO You-hung, “The Spiritualily of Qi”, CTUF, 95, Spring 1993, epecially 124.

[23] In this section we rely mainly on Peter HU, “The “Sitting in Meditation” of Chinese Christians”, CTUF, 37, Fall 1978, 343-375. See also A. CHANG, My Humble View on Chinese Spirituality, Taipei, Kuang Ch'i Press, 1978.

[24] See P. HU, “A Reinterpretation of the Sacrament of Reconciliation”, CTUF, 61, Fall 1984,331-348.

[25] See for instance SUNG Chih-ch'ing, “Prayer and Sitting in Meditation”, Witness Monthly, June 1978, 4-20; Mark FANG, “The Contemplation in the Bible and the Oriental Sitting in Meditation”, CTUF, 37, Fall 1978, 377-392.

[26] See articles by Joseph CHING Yao-shan and A. CHANG, respectively in CTUF, 15, Spring 1973, and 98, Winter 1993.

[27] See for instance YANG Hui-nan, “An Analysis of the Nature of 'Beyond this World' in Contemporaty Buddhism”, Studies in Oriental Religions. (Taipei), oct. 1990,315-343.

[28] See for instance PAN Pei-chi “The Indigenization of Sacred Music”, CTUF, 102, Winter 1994,563-572.

[29] YAO You-hung, art. cit. See also Juo Shui (pseud.) Methods of Contemplation, Taipel, Kuangch'i Press, 1994.

[30] See especially “An Explanation about Confucius”, CTUF, 7, Spring 1971, 33-39; “Chinese People and the Divine Revelation', CTUF, 71, Spring 1987, 73-77.

[31] CTUF, 61, Fall 1984, “Images of Christ reflected by Confucius”, 361-374.

[32] Report on the Study Meeting for Chinese Theology”, Kung Kao Po, Hong-Kong, March 2,1979,6.

[33] See “A Tentative Explanation of the Imitation of Heaven in Matthew's Gospel by Means of the Diagram of Heaven in the Book of Changes”, CTUF, 29, Fall 1976, 329 - 346; “Building up Chinese Local Church”, CTUF, 30, Winter 1981, 519-537.

[34] “A Comparison between the Heaven of Confucianism and the God of the Bible”, CTUF, 31, Spring, 1977,38.

[35] Mark FANG, “Biblical Hermeneutics m Chinese Context”, CTUF, 40, Summer 1979, 245-258.

[36] When it comes to Protestant theologians, the Nanjing Theological Review is of particular importance. Translations into Chinese are provided by the Chinese Theological Review published by the “Foundation for Theological Education in Southeast Asia”, Holland, ML, USA. As to the spiritual experience of individual Christians narrated by themselves, the Catholic review Tripod, published in Hong-Kong, regularly provides interesting pieces.