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The Contribution of the Chinese Church

(Shanghai, 1939)

Chen Zemin

Introduction

If we carefully study and analyze all the great religious, political, or social movements of history, we will see that the substance of these movements cannot be separated from theory and practice. As to theory, philosophical foundations determine the basic meaning and directions of the entire movement, guide its practical work, establish its ideal goals, and serve as the springs of its power. As to practice, concrete plans and organization turn empty theories into actuality, turn faith into actual strength and work, and turn ideals into realities. Ideals that are divorced from reality become irrelevant abstractions and empty talk and offer no benefit to human life; practice that lacks theoretical foundation becomes blind and sluggish floundering that even at best can lead to only partial success. In the interaction of these two elements we can see the nascent form of a philosophy.

In volume 9, issue 2 of Truth and Life, Mr. Wu Leichuan’s (吴雷川) article “What contribution can Christianity make to the renewal of the Chinese people?” seems intended to be the embryo of a philosophy. Many other important church leaders have also voiced similar calls. But these theories were all voiced some years ago, and were all focused on particular movements, such as those to improve life in the countryside, to build human character, and so forth. Today every aspect of life in China—political, social, and all others—is experiencing dramatic changes, and in this special and critical era, the mission and responsibility of the Christian church in building a new China has become great and pressing. Now we have special need for a theory of construction that is complete and suits this special situation, and that can guide us in this important task of construction. We have even greater need for a realistic and effective plan and organization that is both all-encompassing and concrete so that we can realize our hopes and ideals, so that we can bring this war of resistance to the completion of its mission, and so that the special hopes of Christians in this war—hopes for the full revival of China, the Christianization of China, and the arrival of God’s kingdom in China—can be realized through the faith and efforts of compatriots in China.

The present article is the author’s weak but heart-felt and sincere call, stimulated by the needs of these times. My hope is that it will bring forth a response from China’s passionate and capable Christian compatriots, so that united under the banner of Christ we can complete this great task of building our nation, and bringing in the kingdom of God as it is in heaven.

The Theoretical Foundations for Construction.

In the Christian theory of building a nation, the most basic issue is that of faith. Within this issue, what we need to study is whether or not the Christian faith is suitable to the task of constructing China. Let us examine this first by looking at several basic Christian beliefs.

Christian faith in God is the foundation of Christian theology, and serves as the compass for all the work of the Christian church. As we Christians construct a new China, we should take this article of faith as a pre-condition. The God in the heart of Christians is an all-capable and all-benevolent God, the creator of all creatures and ruler of the entire universe, and for everything in the universe he has a wise and complete plan; the stars in the heavens and the creatures on the earth all move and exist within a great system of which he is the master. All the turmoil in the world is also under his supervision, and it is the lot of Christians to discover his great plan and will and act and live according to it; a meaningful life is one in which Christians do this to the utmost. This is the simple yet lofty Christian philosophy of life. Furthermore, while there are a great many unresolved disputes that make Christian philosophy complex and deep as theory, if we clean away all the loose ends and remove the disputed points, what remains are these essential truths on which the great majority agree. These are the truths that guide Christian act and thought, and they also serve as our goals in constructing a new China. If the Christian church is to fulfill its responsibility in the nation, faith in God is the starting point for all of our work. In our vision of the future, a new China is one part of the universal plan of a fully good and all-powerful creator, a part that is in harmony with the rest of creation; it is a country under the control of this all-benevolent God, and a channel through which the kingdom of heaven is realized on earth.

In Christian theology, God is a spiritual reality. This point of faith determines one important characteristic of our ideal new China. In this era of transition during which material civilization is developing and overtaking spiritual civilization, people sometimes come up with a mistaken understanding and estimation of material and spirit. One extreme development is materialist philosophy. Though this school of philosophy contains an element of truth in its reaction to older views’ over-emphasis on spirit, it has missed the center and veered too far to the left. This is the basic reason why it opposes Christianity, and why Christianity opposes it. Here we do not wish to enter into the endless debate between idealism and materialism. We simply stand on Christian faith, and state that our ideal new China is not a materialist country that ignores spiritual life; rather, it is a country that emphasizes the spirit while not overlooking material life. It is spirit that drives the material, rather than the material governing the spiritual, because the entire establishment of the nation is built upon a part of the great plan of an all-sufficient God who is spirit.

The God of Christianity also loves peace, justice, purity and truth. The building of new China shall take these four virtues as goals. We must steer clear of the violent contention of fascist nationalism, rid ourselves of all material and spiritual impurities and immorality, and end hypocrisy and ignorance in human society. Establishing peace, justice, purity, and love of truth in new China may seem to be too idealistic, but this is in fact the goal of Christians. We should take that which is highest as the goal of our striving, rather than pursuing goals that are lower and easier to reach, and establishing a baser society and country.

Finally, the God of Christianity is love, and our method is to rely on this ultimate love to construct a new China. This idea—taking the establishment of a new China of love as our goal—will be explained in detail below when we discuss the spirit of Christianity. The Christianity understanding of God is as stated above, and the Christian understanding of everything else follows and develops from this understanding. The world is the garden in which God’s plan is worked out, and the physical world is the outer shell through which the spiritual world is expressed. So the view of life of the citizens of a new China is definitely not a hedonistic view in which “the meaning of life is to serve the body, hedonistic view, nor is it a self-sacrificing stoic view; even less is it a totally materialist and mechanistic view in which the spirit is totally destroyed or denied.” Instead, it is a view of life in which God’s plan is realized, in which a proper relationship is established between the material and the spiritual, and in which true happiness is established. The ideal new China is a practical embodiment of the kingdom of heaven in which all kinds of conflicts are reconciled.

Christianity takes God as the loving father of the entire human race, so that all people on earth are compatriots, brothers and sisters. In this unified and great family, all of us as God’s children should love each other and cooperate with each other in order to create a great fellowship. The construction of a new China should take such a view as its foundation.

Christian faith gives us proper guidance in building our nation, and gives us a nation-building goal. We also need the Christian spirit to determine our nation-building method and give us the strength for nation-building, so we should now discuss the Christian spirit.

The greatest aspect of the Christian spirit is love. Broadly speaking, love is the entirety of the Christian spirit. Here let us leave aside onerous discussion and take a passage from the Bible to serve as our explication of love.

“Love is patient; love is kind; love is not jealous or boastful or arrogant, nor does it do that which is shameful. Love does not seek its own benefit, is not quick to anger, does not keep track of the evil actions of others, does not rejoice in injustice, and loves truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things. Love never ends.”1

If we analyze this passage of Scripture, we see that Christian love includes ten aspects: persistence, tolerance, kindness, grace, forbearance, humility, uprightness, sacrifice, love of truth, faith, and hope. If we analyze these ten virtues and seek general patterns, we find that they cover three general groupings of attitudes—those toward oneself, toward others, and toward God. With regard to self, there are four attitudes: persistence, tolerance, humility, and uprightness. With regard to others, there are three: kindness, forbearance, and sacrifice. With regard to God and truth there are three: love of truth, faith and hope. These constitute the core of Christian moral teaching, and serve as the driving force behind the development of the church today, and they should also be part of the spirit in which we build new China. These ten attitudes or virtues form a system that can be put into practice, rather than being empty phrases. The three attitudes toward God and truth serve as the foundation for the other seven, and the source of their strength. Love of truth gives birth to faith, faith gives birth to hope, and faith and hope give the birth to the strength for the carrying out of the other seven virtuous attitudes toward self and others. This is the foundation of the system of Christian love.

The four attitudes toward oneself involve an effort of cultivation, and are necessary conditions for strong character. In Mr. Wu Leichuan’s article, “What contribution can Christianity make to the renewal of the Chinese people?” we find that his conclusion is that “[Christianity] can create all the leadership talent needed for the present times.” In fact, in the movement to construct a new China that we are presently discussing, what we need is not only leadership talent; we need all kinds of talent for planning and building. We need leaders, but even more we need front-line talents who will follow the direction of leaders and carry out the actual hard work. The cultivation of such human resources cannot rely on the revival of old China’s high civilization as called for by Mr. Liang Shumin(梁漱溟), because China’s old culture and morality is only a product of the past and has the traces of feudal society. While it appears to have some points of similarity with Christian love, what Mr. Liang sees is the shell of a dead culture; in contrast, Christianity’s spirit of love is vital and alive. This the key difference between the two. (For a more detailed critique of Mr. Liang’s theories, see another article by the author, “A critique of Liang Shumin’s theories of rural reconstruction.”) Cultivation of human talent also cannot rely on the spirit of competition and progress of western material civilization and individualism for its nurture, because these are completely based on a system of individual profit. If this didn’t lead to China’s becoming even more divided, it would lead to imperialism. To raise up the talent China needs today, only the spirit of Christian love is suitable and efficacious. So we should expand Mr. Wu Leichuan’s conclusion, and take the Christian spirit of cultivation of personal character as our principle for cultivating all the people for constructing the nation.

Building on the cultivation of personal character as mentioned above, we need to consider the attitude people take as they deal with each other. Kindness, forbearance, and sacrifice are virtues and terms distinctive to Christianity. Kindness leads to forbearance, leading to sacrifice as its highest point. This spirit of dying on the cross is a historically unique example of the highest expression of love, and is the most praiseworthy virtue of Christianity. The building of new China absolutely requires many people who are willing to cooperate sacrificially, and the cultivation of such character is a big contribution of Christianity.

In addition to the spirit of Christian love discussed above, there is one other absolutely precious and valuable asset Christianity has for the work of constructing the nation—a spirit of bravely entering the world and engaging in hard and difficult work. Perhaps this spirit can be included within that of sacrifice, but it is worth special mention because it is easy for people to overlook it among the other attributes of love. The greatest difference between Christianity and other religions is precisely this spirit of entering the world. Christianity is a practical religion and one that is fully one with life. If we discuss Christianity but ignore the world, it becomes the Christian metaphysics of the Middle Ages, and lacks meaning and value. We need only look at the words and actions of Christ’s life, see how diligently and self-sacrificially he served among the people, see what he commanded his disciples when he left the world! We should use this kind of spirit to replace the Buddhist renunciation of the world and Confucian refinement that have influenced the hearts of Chinese people. The greatest mission of Christianity is to change society and the world, and in the special situation of China today, that means constructing a new China.

Above we have already briefly discussed Christian beliefs and the Christian spirit. Here we can conclude the theory section of this article by discussing how Christianity decides directions and methods for building a new China.

Christianity’s direction and method for building a new China should be determined based on three criteria. These are: 1) Christian faith and spirit; 2) the conditions in China; 3) the past experience and accomplishments of the Christian church in China. We have already examined the first two of these above, so there is no need to examine them again. The third of these is the most complex and difficult, so let us give it special attention here.

Submitting all the past work of the Christian church in China to a detailed and penetrating review would be a very difficult task. Much would need to be based on specialized academic knowledge. The American Layman’s Foreign Missions Inquiry is a work specifically devoted to such questions, but since its vantage point and goals differ from ours, it cannot fully meet our needs as a source of reference. All we have at present is a miscellaneous set of reports, incomplete statistics, and empty and uncertain superficial judgments. At present, all we can do is, on the one hand, gather these miscellaneous data and documents, make a tentative overall evaluation, and—to the extent possible—ascertain the directions and effectiveness of the church’s past work to serve as a guide to our present nation-constructing efforts; on the other hand, we should actively urge the central organizations of all the nation’s churches to quickly set up an investigative group to examine the work of the churches, a group which gathers especially qualified and experienced experts in all areas, including evangelism, education, rural construction, and literacy work, to produce a detailed and penetrating account of the past work of the church, and to investigate the actual situation and challenges, the possibilities for future development, and best means of promotion for all areas of church work. This group should produce a concrete and definite overall plan for all the nation’s churches to use and refer to. We shall come back to this idea later.

What the author wishes to do in the present article is the first of the two kinds of work mentioned above, that is, to do my best with the materials at hand to make a preliminary evaluation and examination of what our nation-building work and method should be. This is discussed in combination with the “practical work of constructing the nation” below, so here I will not discuss it separately.

The Practical Work of Constructing the Nation.

Above I have discussed the Christian church’s philosophical and theoretical foundation for building a new China. This serves as the basis and compass for the practical work discussed below. The explanatory notes to the title of the present article include the following words: “Emphasize the practical and avoid empty talk.”2 So, what follows is the most important part of the article, the part which the author most hopes fellow Christians will give their attention to, offering criticisms and corrections, and providing mutual encouragement in its implementation.

When examining the practical work of building the nation, there is one thing that we definitely should not forget—as we as the Christian church wish to construct a new China, we should stand on a solid and united foundation, and hold to a shared faith and goal in our efforts. So, this work is comprehensive rather than fragmented, and takes the Lord Christ as its head. While it has many facets, they cannot be separated from each other. For the sake of convenience, many people separate this work into spiritual and material work. This is correct if we see these as two different kinds of work within one unified plan and project, but it would be a great mistake to see these as two as separable and independent. Some people whose work focuses on the spiritual even go to the extreme of thinking that spiritual work is the entirety of Christian work, ignoring the link between religion and life. Overlooking the fact that human life cannot be separated from its material conditions leads to a decadent and narrow “personal gospel” in which individual spiritual cultivation is the only impact of religious faith. The result is detachment from the world, which threatens the nation and the entire world. On the other hand, some view the material work of Christians as everything, with the result that they lose the real meaning of the spirit of religion and fall away from religion, becoming materialist social reformers. This also is not what we should do. These two camps even attack each other and tear each other down, which is the most regrettable thing in Christian work. Now what we should see clearly is that spiritual civilization is the soul of material civilization, and material civilization is the body of spiritual civilization. These two are inseparable, and as we discuss various aspects of the Christian work of construction, this is a point we need to frequently remind ourselves of. Take, for example, the task of rural reconstruction. This task combines both spiritual and material work, and we cannot distinguish which takes the bigger part, so the epistemology of our philosophy of construction is not entirely idealist, even less is it mechanical dualism, and it is also not entirely materialist. Instead it is a Christian philosophy with love at its core that harmonizes the spiritual and material. We have discussed this above.

However, in practical terms, with a view toward making our work more convenient, we have no other choice but than to divide our work between separate departments, because the task is too great and this is not something that can be completed by an individual or small group working alone. So, in order to complete the task, we need an organization, and we need the work to be distributed appropriately by the organization. As we discuss this kind of work, we need to discuss according to how the task is divided according to the system of organization. But we should understand that what we are discussing is different aspects of one whole task.

Let us start by discussing the task of spiritual construction. With regard to this, there are at least five tasks the Christian church can do, divided according to their nature and degree of progress. The lines separating these tasks are not entirely clear, and they overlap each other to a considerable extent, as is often unavoidable with the social sciences. Now let us look at these five.

1. Evangelistic work.

In all work that is presupposed by the task of constructing the nation, evangelistic work should be distinguished to some degree from “preaching the gospel” in the ordinary sense in terms of their significance and methods. Here we are concerned with evangelistic work, in other words, active rather than passive evangelism. The purpose of this evangelism is to make people firmer in their faith so as to give correct guidance to their lives, so this kind of evangelism is not overly concerned with issues of sin and rewards, but rather with giving people a Christian love outlook in their daily lives, with giving them hope and creating proper and perfect ideals and—with such ideals as their goals—with helping them set high moral standards, build new habits of life, and prepare for the coming of the kingdom of heaven.

Here we should refer to the experience and achievements of past evangelistic work. In the past, evangelism made up most of the church’s work, and in some places all of it. This is the work to which most church human effort and funds were devoted, and in which achievements were most evident and most worthy of our attention. But if we examine this carefully, we will see that in much past evangelistic work, most attention was given to teaching doctrine, the Bible, and church governance, and that less attention was given to the practical aspects of living out Christian doctrine in daily life and using Christian teachings to develop a progressive view of life. In other words, in the past evangelism was quite successful with regard to form and organization, but our ideal results—building a new view of life, setting new standards, and forming the basis of a new Christianized society—have not yet been reached. This is like the revival movement that has been popular in the last few years. Superficially it appears to be a very positive phenomenon, but in fact many wonder whether those who are moved have a fundamental change in the way they approach life or permanent changes in the way they live their lives. Various other kinds of traveling gospel teams, “boat and cart” evangelistic bands, “new spring” evangelism teams and so forth do only the work of introducing the gospel, but probably too few can thoroughly inject the Christian spirit into the lives of the audience. There are various kinds of fellowship group movements that have deeper impact, and such efforts are very hopeful, but because of issues such as geographic limitations, limited time, and narrowly focused interests such fellowships can rarely become widespread movements. Also, fellowships have a natural tendency to become cliques, which is an inherent feature of group psychology, and if we are not careful this could become an obstacle to evangelism efforts.

In general, it has been common for past evangelistic work to place too much emphasis on promotion and to neglect deeper study. Too many people only see the form of Christianity and the outline of its doctrine, but their real understanding of it is all too shallow, so Christianity doesn’t have much impact on their lives or give them any strong guidance. This is a lesson from the past to which we should pay much attention in our work of construction.

In order to correct the mistakes of the past and make up for weaknesses, we should thoroughly re-evaluate our evangelistic work, and should invest a little more effort and time in ensuring that those who accept Christianity see the implications of Christianity for their lives. From the Christian faith, we should seek out truths that fit into our nation-building goals; we should hold onto Christian faith as the rudder of life, as the ideal for life in new China, and as our goal in living, so that out of this grows hope and strength. This is the most basic task in constructing a new China, and what is most effective in shouldering this task is not temporary evangelistic and revival meetings but rather a church that has become integrated with its society; the most essential people for this kind of work are pastors and evangelists because it is they who have the deepest interactions with both believers and the common people, and are hence able to show Christian spirit and faith through their lives and give the people a powerful challenge. What we should now give the most attention to is this basic construction, strengthening the evangelistic work of all the churches so that they may spread the spirit of Christianity at the most fundamental levels of society, building strong faith among the people and serving as a base for constructing a new China.

2. Educational work.

In the past the educational work of the church has been its most fruitful. From the perspective of the average person who doesn’t pay much attention to evangelism, the educational efforts of the church have made the greatest contribution to China; church schools have made an undeniable contribution in China’s modern cultural history. But in the past ten years, like other aspects of church work, church school work has been gradually giving ground to a trend to emphasize other church organizations. Educational institutions are among the most important institutions in society, and in the work of constructing a new China the use of education as a tool is very important. So we should research how to use education to best effect in this great movement to build the nation.

The noun “education” is very broad, so in order to avoid repetition for the moment we should narrow our definition. By the term “education,” here we mean only three kinds—church schools, education in the home, and Christian education. Ten years ago, church schools were the leaders in contributing to education and cultural circles in China. They introduced Western academics and use of Western methods, establishing the foundation for a new culture in China. At that time, many of the schools in China with the best equipment and highest standards were church schools, and many outstanding people in cultural circles were graduates of church schools. If the same trend had continued to the present, the situation of churches in China today would probably be very different. However, the voices protesting the cultural imperialism of the foreign powers became louder, and people became more suspicious of Christian education and schools. Also, both private and public education in China advanced rapidly, and in many respects surpassed that of church schools, so now church schools are experiencing decline. This is something we should pay attention to and take seriously in our work of construction.

Church schools are the institutions through which the church cultivates talent for society, which is the greatest contribution of the church to society, something on which almost all both inside and outside the church agree. But the question now is, in the process of building China, what is the special responsibility of church schools? Now many state and private schools have disbanded or suspended their work, and temporary schools with special missions have sprung up in the rear areas of China. Those church schools which have not been ravaged by war should recognize the needs of the times and work effectively, so that the work of building the nation is not undermined by the closing of schools, and so that our nation building ideals are not diverted by the current special situation. Producing educated and talented people for the needs of constructing the nation is a most important work. But it is even more important to train such people so that they have noble ideals and goals, great character, and will definitely use their talents and learning to serve the nation and the people. In the past there was one failure of church schools that we must admit; many students who underwent “religious molding” were not obviously any better than students who did not undergo “religious molding,” and some were actually worse. In this War of Resistance3, many people see that China’s past education was a failure and, in the past, most education was in the hands of church schools. Thus, the failure of Chinese education is the failure of church education, and as we undertake the task of constructing a new China this lesson of past experience is worth our attention. Therefore, in church schools, religious and character education plays a very important part.

If we tie the Christian spirit and faith to this question we are discussing, the contribution of church schools to constructing the nation is even greater. Church schools are the institutions that give the Christian spirit to the people to make them effective workers in constructing the nation, and are the places where Christian faith is passed on to most people. If they are well run, church educational institutions will be the places where personnel for the construction of a new China are produced.

The work of Christian education in the home is as important as the work of Christian schools. In the past, the achievements of Christian education in the home have not been so visible because this is a relatively personal matter. However, the Christian family movement flourished for a time, and this was a beneficial effort. In the process of building a new China, this is an indispensable link.

The family is the smallest among society’s social units, and is the most important among society’s primary groups. We cannot say that ideal individuals can form an ideal society, but ideal families are the main factor in organizing an ideal society. The Christian family movement is an aspect of social education—a very fundamental one—and is the foundation of a new China’s society. For education in the home, there is no education that is more perfect and efficacious than education in Christian love, and this is also one of the greatest contributions of Christianity to the constructing of a new China.

Religious education is slightly different from the two kinds of education mentioned above. The religious education referred to hereconsists of the work of religious education groups other than schools and families. These groups are often attached to churches, voluntarily organized by children or young people and guided and trained by religious education staff of the churches. These are the best organizations for training young people for service work, and they include youth fellowships, YMCAs, Sunbeam Bands, and so forth. These are all bodies for after-school activities, organized around the interests of young people, and can help young people develop many valuable virtues, train their talents for service, and cultivate their spiritual lives. For some young people, the benefits they gain from these organizations are greater than those from school or family. The church can mold many precious workers in this way, and also give them religious training. The uncompleted work of realizing the kingdom of heaven in China is waiting in large part for such organizations. Such religious education fits people’s lives, and is precisely the kind our churches should have.

3. Publishing work.

Christian publishing, like church schools, has contributed greatly to China’s new culture movement. In a recent article, Zhu Weizhi (朱维之) of the University of Shanghai has discussed this point. In the past, Christian publishing was quite extensive. When the new culture was in its beginning stages, Christianity exerted no small efforts to cultivate and nourish it. But now we are falling behind. Every year the Christian Literature Society for China, the Association Press, and other such organizations produce quite a few new books, but in comparison to the total number of readers in China the numbers are too small, and most of these books tends to be relatively theoretical. In the constructing of a new China, we also need to start a new movement in publications. In bookstores there are too many books that obstruct the task of construction, and too little of practical value to constructing the nation is published. This is an opportunity for revival in Christian publishing, and this is the time for Christian writers to arise and make their voices heard. Just look at the confused state Chinese literature is currently in. In both its thought and form, time and again we can see evidence of naiveté and weakness. Occasionally a few writers strike out and call for raising the quality of literature or for other special literary movements, but among both opponents and supporters there is a lack of powerful writers and high-quality readers. So far there are few literary works of real value, and within Christian literature such quality works are even rarer. In the West, Christianity has an important place in literature. There are many famous works by Christian authors, and these have served as guides for many social reformers and inspired many valuable social movements. Our new China needs this kind of new and valuable literature, and in the process of constructing a new China we even more need such literature to inspire the enthusiasm of citizens in constructing the nation. Christian writers should view such a responsibility as very important. Christian publishing organizations should also make haste to encourage young writers to write. Among young Christians, there are many talents that have not yet been discovered, and churches and church leaders should take up the responsibility of finding and digging out such talents so that they are not buried and so that the garden of Christian literature is not neglected and barren.

Using Christian literature as a vehicle for evangelism is very effective if we can really produce good literature. This is a relatively new ministry, with a very bright future. The cultural climate and mood of a nation is sometimes greatly influenced by special literature of its age, and as we engage in the task of construction it is necessary to have several powerful literary works; we long for several new books that are filled with the spirit of Christianity. May the leaders of the church no longer neglect this kind of ministry, and may bright flowers soon spring up in the garden of a new China’s literature.

Cooperative writing between Christian authors is another effective new ministry. A few years ago we had organizations like the association of young Christian authors, and this was a very hopeful development. We hope that the church can again encourage this kind of movement, so that Christian writers working toward a common goal can produce collective works, and works of genuine literary merit, to serve as a source of guidance and strength for constructing new China.

4. Medical work.

The “medical work” referred to here is quite broad. In the past the medical work achievements of the church, especially with the assistance of western mission agencies, have been considerable, and in medical circles in China they still play a guiding role. However, we believe that the church can do even more. Simply treating diseases is definitely necessary in a poor China, but we have even greater work and hopes, and medical work in future China has an even greater mission.

At present, nursing wounded soldiers and refugees is a task calling for all our efforts. Our nation has many inadequacies in medicine and medical equipment, and has experienced many serious losses, and this is definitely something that we should work on. But after the war, treating diseases and accumulating medical equipment and training is a big task in national construction. There are ways in which church organizations and people can presently make a contribution in this regard. We only need to unite our doctors and nurses together in a large organization, mutually encouraging each other with Christ’s love, and working together to research, to plan, and to carry out plans, and the people of China will be spared many innocent deaths and much pointless wasting of strength in struggles with disease and weakness. An ideal healthy China depends much on our efforts!

5. Social work.

This is a relatively vague term because we use it to cover all the kinds of work not covered by the terms above, such as the work of the YMCA and other social service organizations. In the past Christianity has already invested much effort in such work. However, in this time when the old social system has been shattered by war and chaos and the new system is already under construction, the responsibility of Christian social service is even more pressing and urgent. Evangelistic, educational, publication and the other kinds of work mentioned above are all foundation-laying long term efforts, and the accomplishments we hope for do not depend on immediate realization. However, before these accomplishments materialize, tens of millions or hundreds of millions of our compatriots will have lost their social ties due to war. Amidst poverty and disorder, if there is no good way to provide relief to them and help them resolve the serious problems in their lives, they may well generate very negative consequences for society. These problems are very immediate, and pose a great challenge to us. While such work is not the basis on which to build a new China, it is the start of building a new China. These are not tasks that pre-existing social work organizations are capable of handling on their own, but rather a cross that the whole church needs to bear. Whether or not the church has the strength to contribute to the construction of a future new China will be seen in such work now.

So far our discussion has journeyed from spiritual culture to social life. Next we should examine what kind of contribution Christianity can make to the economic structure of a new China. From a materialist perspective, this would be most fundamental. Here we have placed it at the end not because it is secondary or unimportant. We acknowledge that economic organization is a most important part of society, and if Christianity only exerts itself with regard to spiritual culture and ignores material life, then our overall Christian theory of nation building cannot be put into practice and would instead be only empty imaginings.

Christian “economic construction” is a relatively new work, and many people have harbored doubts about such a term. This has been a mistake, one that we should now strive to correct. If our religion is one that is integrated into life—indeed, if our religion is life itself—than we should give attention to every aspect of life, and not ignore the material aspects of life. Dr. Stanley Jones’ book Christ’s Alternative to Communism is a powerful challenge to Christian over-emphasis on the spiritual. Christ’s answer in the wilderness when tempted by the devil was “Man should not live by bread alone,” not “Man does not live by bread.” When Christ raised the widow’s son from the dead, the instruction he gave us was “Give him something to eat.” Furthermore, we can find much evidence that would lead us to believe that if Jesus lived in today’s China, he would definitely call for more than what the church has done in the past. Real Christianity is a religion of life, and addresses every aspect of life.

So we need to raise the slogan of Christian economic construction, and let all the people of the nation know that we are not empty idealists. In the work of constructing new China, we need to strive to set up a new Christianized economic structure to serve as the foundation for the other kinds of construction.

However, the issue of economic construction in today’s China is difficult and complex. There are many different views and parties, and many disagreements and conflicts. Even if we only look at rural economic construction, there are a huge range of divergent views among scholars. Now with the war, much is being heard of the so called Chinese Industrial Cooperate movement. Ultimately, faced with such the massive problem of economic construction, how much can our church do? What can we do? These questions go to the heart of what is discussed in this article, and are the questions to which the author wishes to call the attention of co-workers in Christ.

Let’s start from rural reconstruction. If we remove the spiritual culture elements of the rural reconstruction movement, what remains is within the domain of economic construction. Above we have already briefly discussed spiritual culture construction, so here, in order to avoid repetition, we will focus on the economic aspects of rural reconstruction.

Over the last ten years, the call for rural reconstruction has been increasing daily, though it has fallen off somewhat recently due to the war. If we investigate the rural reconstruction work and theory of each place and organization, we will see that with the exception of the Rural Reconstruction Institute (乡村建设研究院) of Mr. Liang Shumin in Shandong, neither Christian or non-Christian rural reform has been tied to construction of the nation. Many who carry out this kind of work simply feel that in rural areas bankruptcy is too severe and life is too bitter, so that there is no choice but to provide relief. The successful cases of Ding County (定县) and the Mass Education Movement (平民教育运动), of the well-known Li Chuan (黎川) rural reconstruction project, and cases of bank loans to rural areas—all are related to concerns of relief. Only Mr. Liang Shumin’s rural construction theory is a systematic and visionary nation-building philosophy. Even though his proposals and ours as Christians differ somewhat in purpose and principles, and we cannot fully agree with his epistemology and methodology, his rural construction philosophy definitely provides the nation constructing efforts of the church with valuable guidance and stimulation.

In the constructing of a new China, we should give much effort to rural reconstruction, and there is no need to spill much ink explaining the reasons why this is true. China’s historical background, China’s current situation, and China’s geography all make the rural reconstruction movement the most pressing one in China. Even though rural reconstruction cannot solve all of the problems facing China at the moment and cannot achieve much on its own, and even though there are many other important tasks for us, rural reconstruction is without a doubt an indispensable part of constructing a new China. Most important is that the church should see this clearly, and place rural reconstruction and national construction together in a single unified plan, and also take this as a responsibility of the church.

Even though the rural reconstruction movement was a fairly late development, and most of its work has been experimental in nature, these experiments have already given us much important and valuable knowledge and guidance. Until the outbreak of the war there were already almost 200 rural reconstruction sites, and of these more than 20 were managed by churches or church organizations. Of these, the rural reconstruction project in Li Chuan was the most successful. Also, many Christians have served at sites not associated directly with the church; Dr. James Yen (晏阳初) in Ding County is an important example.

In the past rural reconstruction organizations nation-wide held three conferences, leaving us with three thick and valuable books of conference reports. In 1933, the National Christian Council of China also held a rural reconstruction conference in Ding County, with more than 100 participants representing 14 provinces and 15 organizations, and this conference also published a rural reconstruction conference report containing many precious presentation papers, work reports, and practical work plan outlines. These events and records now provide us with at least the following points of guidance:

1. Christian rural reconstruction work is an important part of our work of constructing a new China, but this work is somewhat behind that of organizations outside the church, so we should quickly make efforts to catch up.

2. Christian rural development work should not be done for the narrow goal of evangelizing; the purpose is rather rural reconstruction work itself. This is part of building the kingdom of heaven on earth. So in planning such work, we should pay attention not to put evangelism in the domain of rural development work. It is best that evangelism and rural development work are carried out by two separate bodies, working in cooperation but without one being administered under the other. In other words, the church’s social gospel and individual gospel should proceed parallel to each other, each supporting the other.

3. All previous rural reconstruction work has seemed to have an experimental flavor, or seemed to be a mix of relief work and experimentation. Now we should expand this work, turning the results of past experiments into a large-scale plan and carrying out positive construction work. Many of the inefficient methods tried in the past, such as excessive expenditure of money and human investment, should now be avoided, and we should use the Christian spirit to encourage many young people to undertake training and become directly involved in rural reconstruction.

4. We should set up national guiding and supervisory bodies to be responsible for overall management and planning of rural reconstruction work. This is a need that was felt commonly by several hundred representatives at the third national conference on rural reconstruction. In this conference that was not purely a conference, many complicated relationships prevented a unified national plan from being realized. Even though Dr. XuBaoqian (徐宝谦) presented such a suggestion, and it received the sympathy of most of the representatives, in the end it didn’t succeed. In the meetings called by the National Christian Council of China, such a proposal has also been made, but it has not been realized due to issues of personal relationships. However, as rural reconstruction work becomes increasingly developed, the need for such unity is increasingly pressing. Especially now as we need large-scale construction efforts to replace small-scale experimental projects, this unity is needed. It is easier to unify the work of Christian organizations working toward a common goal, rather than the current situation of different church organizations working toward different goals, so we should call on the sympathy of the existing experimental projects to work toward the achievement of a united rural reconstruction movement.

5. Improvement and sharing of technical skills is an important part of rural reconstruction work, and we should invest effort in this, rather than placing all of our efforts into organization and evangelism. Dr. XuBaoqian has noted that “We are putting ample spirit into evangelism but not enough into daily practical work.” This is a serious indictment of our past Christian work. In the future we need to emphasize the improvement and sharing of techniques, and especially emphasize the effectiveness of practical working methods, so that the rural reconstruction work of churches will not consist mainly of research edited into reports.

6. With an eye to avoiding bureaucratization of rural reconstruction work and other malpractices, Christian rural reconstruction work should not rely on political support for its implementation. The only effective method in our work is the love of Christ. Relying on political power will result in rapid but temporary advances in the impact of our rural reconstruction work, but the need result is often that reconstruction work that was filled with vitality becomes rigidified with rules, killing our spirit of creativity. It is best if we cooperative with the government in a spirit of friendship, working toward common goals, but not be organizationally tied to the government.

7. The rural reconstruction conference report of the National Christian Council of China contains many concrete plans and proposals. While some of these have now lost their original value because time has passed and the social situation has changed, others can still be implemented, and we should do so promptly. Otherwise, we not only disappoint the efforts and hopes of participants in the conference but also lose a ready-made source of assistance.

The above addresses rural reconstruction, one aspect of national construction that the church has already begun to recognize the importance of. Two additional aspects to be developed are industry and commerce.

With regard to the question of the church’s work in constructing industry and commerce, many people would have doubts, because it seems more reasonable for the nation to develop industry, and more effective for commerce to be either private or a combination of national and private. After all, the church generally doesn’t like to engage in material works for profit. However, we should note this: The task of the church in constructing industry and commerce is not direct management of industry or business by the church, but rather something different in purpose and method.

According to political economists, heavy industry should be managed by the state, and this is a principle we accept. However, in the past, for a variety of reasons, the church has taken an opposing stance toward the state (though not an antagonistic one), and had an attitude of unconcern for the government. In the past, the deepest involvement of the church with the nation and government consisted of prayer. So as soon as it is acknowledged that many kinds of work should be managed by the state, the church no longer talks about them and lets the state handle them by itself, as if such matters were completely unrelated to the church. This is an erroneous attitude that we should correct, and here lies the significance of our industrial work in economic construction.

At present, as everyone knows, China needs extensive industrial facilities. In the past because our economy was backward, even though China had rich natural resources we had no way to develop them. Every year we suffered great losses as they were developed by our low-efficiency labor under the dominance of the foreign powers. To rectify this situation, the most effective strategy is to develop our industry. However, in a country as large as China, even if the government had deep financial resources and the most effective administrative power, it would be hard to be successful in immediately starting a big project to develop industry without the devoted cooperation of most of the people. The responsibility of Christianity consists of calling on citizens both in and outside the church to respect the government’s plans for industrial construction, and in every area—including human resources, capital, and administration—give the utmost cooperative support.

With regard to human resources the church can help more than in other areas. In the process of development industry, we need technicians who have good character, a spirit of sacrifice, and high degrees of professional training, and churches can serve as important bodies for training such people, especially with regard to spirit and character.

However, because in the past the church only paid attention to building character and the spirit, we seem to have neglected technical training to some extent. Here we only need to look at professional training bodies established by the church such as colleges and research institutes. Outside medical training, which is associated with charity work, achievements in areas of technical training seem relatively weak. This is a result of the incorrect attitude mentioned above, and something we should start trying to correct.

The situation described above is just a generalization. Amidst the special situation facing China, the government is occupied with prosecuting the war and maintaining social order, so the responsibility on the shoulders of the church for training specialized personnel is heavier. In this area the church must make greater efforts to move forward!

There is one more point we cannot overlook. In the midst of developing industry, China should avoid the dangerous road taken by capitalist Western nations. The taking of this road by China is something about which many people have doubts, and is something that we Christians should give special attention to. The dead end the industrial nations of the West have now reached is not an inherent result of developing industry, but rather represents an unnatural situation resulting from extreme individualism and liberalism. If we can use the Christian spirit and faith to drive the process of industrial development, keep watch at every step to prevent selfishness from seeping in, and take the realization of the kingdom of heaven as our goal, we can certainly avoid this unfortunate result.

Finally, the Chinese Industrial Cooperative movement which is currently being promoted is a plan that is worthy of study by the church. Here it is not necessary to provide a detailed introduction to this project. Our hope is merely that the church will pay a little more attention to industrial development. With regard to business, our hope is the creation of a new commerce system so as to eliminate the defects of the profit system. We should recognize the fundamental impact of commerce on society, and fill the majority of the people with the Christian spirit so that they realize the kingdom of heaven on earth in their commerce. Perhaps religious work, educational work, and social work are ways to realize this hope. In any case, at present we have no promising concrete plan, but through faith and hope, we feel that the establishment of this new commerce system is an area in which the church can contribute to China, and this is something which we should be able to achieve in the future.

Now we have already generally discussed all the kinds of work the Christian church can do for the construction of a new China. Here we should again state that these individual works areas are the individual parts of one large movement, driven by a single force toward one ultimate goal. This is one wholistic Christian movement to build the nation, one that draws on Christian faith as its strength and takes the realizing of the kingdom of heaven as its goal. This is because each of these parts are tied together to produce a complete overall impact. In order to reach our goal, we must have one central organization to serve as the overall plan designer and promoter of this movement. So the “overall mind” of Mr. Liang Shumin is a necessary part of this movement.

Concrete organization.

Above we have already seen that a unified nation-wide organization is greatly needed in the rural reconstruction movement, and lack of such an organization is a serious problem. Similarly, if we wish to promote our Christian movement to build a new China, we must also study how to create a well-structured and strong national organization, and also find ways to avoid or solve the difficulties and malpractices faced in past church unification movements. Here we need to understand a distinction. The unified national organization spoken of here is not the same as the united national church of which we often speak, in other words, the elimination of denominations. Instead, our purpose is, in the process of carrying out a responsibility shared by all churches in China, to establish one massive cooperative effort based on a shared mission, shared needs, and a shared faith. There have been many examples of this kind of thing in the past, but most relate to one particular area of work. These existing joint organizations could unite into the ideal large organization of which I speak, but they could not shoulder the heavy task of building a new China in its place.

In the past, the issue of church unification has given rise to a great deal of controversy. Because at present all the churches realize that the mission of the Christian church in China faces them with shared needs and a shared situation, the feeling is growing that the unification of the churches is an indispensable part of church progress. However, this is only a shared feeling. In practice, due to differences in mission agencies, economic support, faith, and organization, the church unification movement has encountered many difficulties. Now our Christian movement to build a new China is actually a vehicle for dissolving many of these differences. We are not advocating this movement of national construction in order to unify the church; however, for the sake of the nation constructing movement, we simply must have a considerable degree of oneness in spirit, work, and organization. In the process of advancing this movement, for the sake of shared work and a shared mission, the church is naturally uniting, so that the church in China is becoming one family in the Lord. This is a natural outcome, and a necessary aspect of the realization of the kingdom of heaven.

But what form would a unified organization for the building of a new China take? Given the present situation of the church, the National Christian Council of China would be an appropriate and solid organization to serve as a starting point, because it presently has the strength to call on all the churches of the nation, it has strong human resources, and is viewed as a leading organization by churches all over China. So we hope that the Christian Council can carefully consider this movement, and then summon representatives from church organizations and different churches to hold a large-scale conference to discuss an overall church nation-constructing body and also choose staff for the overall body (such as board members). It would be best if these representatives were leaders within different churches and church organizations in different areas so that they could represent the views of different churches, organizations, and regions, carry out the plan nation-wide, and recommend experts from different churches. This is the first step of organizing.

Next, the chosen representatives should set up a tightly structured central body according to the outline plan decided by the representative conference, and gather different kinds of experts from across the nation to serve as the staff of the central body. It would then be up to these experts in the central body to decide the next steps of carrying out this movement’s plan. This is the second step.

The third step involves grassroots-level work. Under this unified organization, each church, church district, and church organization would, in the spirit of Christ, carry out the concrete work following the plan of the central body and—with strong faith and hope—complete the plan.

This organization and plan would not be experimental in nature. This would be a practical general mobilization so, in order to avoid large-scale mistakes, it would be very important for the central body to gather many specialists to carry out research and supervisory work.

This idea is only a very general opinion. Specific and practicable methods would need to be determined by those with special expertise who are in charge of administering and organizing. What is described above is only the author’s ideal for the great movement; I also point out that the work of national construction cannot succeed without systematic organization.

Finally, within all the plans and work, the condition that determines the success or failure of the entire movement is the source of our effort and our strength. The entire work of Christianity is built on faith, and the source of strength for our work lies in our faith and in our leader Jesus Christ, to whom no one can compare. Why can’t we achieve even greater works than others? Christ has already promised us that we can do even greater things than he did. Christ has already picked up the cross, blown the first trumpet call of the movement for the kingdom of heaven, and laid the foundation for this movement. Fulfilling the implications of his death on the cross falls to us as Christians. Completing the great task of building the kingdom of heaven on earth falls to us as Christians. Making China into a Christianized country and making it a model of the kingdom of heaven on earth falls to us as Christians!

Conclusion.

The plea above is not a new one. It represents rather the thoughts, desires and strength found in the heart of many Christians. I have already heard similar sighs, and sensed a similar growing of Christ’s life in our hearts. In the midst of cruel war, in the midst of Christ’s blood flowing on the cross, we need to gather such desires together, uniting scattered strength into a great movement, and bringing the spirit of the great movement Christ began in Palestine into the chaos of China today, to serve as comfort to those who are disappointed, to serve as a gathering of strength, to serve as a revelation of hope, and to serve as light in the darkness!

Watching the bodies of our compatriots shattered, watching the achievements of centuries torched into ashes in the blink of an eye, watching our burdened motherland gradually disintegrate, how can our young hearts be still? How can we keep our lips tight together? Watching the budding of new hope, watching the twinkling light in the darkness, watching the work of God’s saving grace in this turmoil, watching the glory of the heavenly kingdom promised by Christ, how can we not call out the hope and passion in our hearts even more loudly!

This is but a weak call from the heart of a Christian, but I believe that in the hearts of many compatriots across the country it will find an echo, and my hope is that these echoes will combine into a loud roar calling forth the sympathy of Christians across the nation, inspiring great power, and bringing the hoped for heavenly kingdom into reality in China, so that all glory be given to the all-holy, all-powerful, and all-loving Father in heaven!

原本发表于《真理与生命》第12卷第5–6期, 1939年10月出版, (301–332页)。 (“燕京大学宗教学院”？)

作者当时是上海沪江大学 (社会学系)本科三年级学生。本人对此文的写作, 早已忘记得一干二净。后来于2008年由北京世界宗教研究所的段琦教发现此文。我认为当时虽有一股热情, 但思想还远没有成熟, 极为肤浅；而且改朝换代, 时政背景已经大为不同, 现在不值得发表!承蒙刘若民老师恳请南京大学Don Snow教授译成英文, 至为感谢!陈泽民谨识。2010年3月15日。南京。

1. I have translated this passage from First Corinthians (13:4–8) directly from the Chinese text in Prof. Chen’s article, using the NRSV translation as a point of reference. (Translator.)

2. 强调实践, 避免空谈

3. Sino-Japanese War.