Читать книгу The Church in China in the 20th Century - Chen Zemin - Страница 7

(Tokyo, 1992)

Chen Zemin

One way to present a picture of the Christian church in China to our Japanese friends is to begin retrospectively and in comparison with Japan. There are many similarities between the Christian churches in the two countries.

First, in both countries Christianity had been from the beginning a foreign religion, imported from the west at about the same time. Catholic Christianity was introduced by the Jesuits during the period of colonial expansion of the so-called Christian powers in the 16th century. Francis Xavier came to Japan in 1549, and Matteo Ricci to China in 1583. Both used the colonial enclaves of Goa and Macao as their springing boards. Both succeeded in some measure in their inaugural attempts, then met with difficulties and suffered temporary decline due to the failure on the part of some earlier missionaries to take enough notice of the foreignness of their religion. Catholicism was almost exterminated under the persecutions in the 16th to 17th centuries and prohibition policy in the 16th to 17th centuries in Japan. Xavier had been rightly accused of his lack of understanding of oriental religions and civilizations. Matteo Ricci made some headway because of his policy of accommodation, but the Franciscans and Dominicans were banned by Emperor Kang Xi after the Rites Controversy in 18th century, as a punishment of the reluctance on the part of the Pope and his emissaries to realize the significance of Chinese historical cultural and religious forces, in sharp contrast to the wiser and more understanding Ricci.

Protestant Christianity came to Japan in the later half of the 19th century, and developed the Meiji period (1868–1912), through the efforts of denominational missionary organizations. In spite of the admirable anti-denominational “non-Church Movement” (Mykyokai) headed by KanzoUchimura (内村鉴三), Protestant Christianity as a whole had been looked at with askance and suspicion by the people because of its foreignness. In China, it was unfortunate that Protestant Christianity was forced upon China in the salvoes of gunboats and through the intrigues of merchants of Western imperialist powers, and missionary advances were flanked and protected by unequal treaties imposed upon the rotten Manchu Government in the 19th century. As a result Christianity, both Catholic and Protestant, had been long regarded by most patriotic Chinese as a tool of political, economical and cultural invasions of colonialism and imperialism. Until the last three decades Christianity had been stigmatized by the Chinese people, who were not particularly anti-religious at all, as yang-jiao (洋教, foreign religion), with justifiable sentiments of hatred, contempt and resentment.

Another similarity lies in the historical cultural and religious background of the two countries. In Japan, Confucianism, Buddhism and Shintoism have had deep and far-reaching influences over a thousand years. In China, Confucianism with its ethical, pragmatic and humanistic emphases, remained the main stream watering the national cultural soil, and together with Buddhism, which had been long indigenized, and Taoism, somehow fused with the other two, formed the triple roots of the national ethos. In both countries the traditional religious and cultural factors have been so strong and all-permeating that any imported religion that failed to assimilate or to accommodate with them, but claimed to be the sole and exclusive source of revelation, condemning dogmatically other affiliations to heathenism and damnation, would be sure to meet with suspicion and resistance. When it did make some success, as in pre-liberation China, it was at the cost of alienating its adherents from their compatriots. The terse acid saying that “one more Christian means one less Chinese” sums up the deplorable general situation.

A third point of similarity, as a consequence to the two pointed above, is that believers both in Japan and in China constitute a very small minority among the peoples. If I am not mistaken, they amount to only about one percent in Japan, although the influence and prestige of Christians are far greater than the numerical strength. In China, taking Catholics and Protestants together, the percentage is still lower, about 0.6–7. So we are both facing the task and challenge of how to bear witness to our faith and commitment amongst an overwhelming majority of fellow-countrymen of strong non-Christian cultural background and orientation.

Having made these comparisons, I presume it is easier for you Japanese Christians to understand the situation, endeavours, aspirations and problems of Chinese Christians than those from the so-called Christian countries in the West. We are near neighbours, and we have so much in common in our historical cultural heritage and experiences. We know that you have been grappling with similar problems. The well-known Japanese Catholic novelist Shusaku Endo (远藤周作) likens being a Christian to having a wife chosen by his parents. He wrote “Many times I tried to make her leave, but this foreign wife called Christianity shook her head and refused to go. So I had to make her Japanese.” This was what some conscientious Chinese Christians had tried to do before 1949 with little success. And this is what we have been laboring at since the liberation and the launching of the Three-Self Patriotic Movement in 1950. Three-Self means that the Chinese church must be self-governing, self-supporting and self-propagating. It means the church must not, as it had been before, be dominated by missionaries, supported with foreign funds, and run in patterns according to various denominational traditions, copying the culturo-theological thought-forms of the many so-called “mother churches.” We must break the image of foreignness. In so doing, it is necessary to rediscover and realize our selfhood and achieve independence, so that we can have a full status in the mutual sharing and interdependence within the Church Universal. This is not anti-foreign. To adapt Endo’s simile and dictum, “We must make her Chinese.”

Yesterday, on September 23, Protestant churches in China were commemorating the 34th anniversary of the inauguration of the Three-Self Patriotic Movement. During the past thirty-four years, thanks to the blessing and the grace of our heavenly Father and the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we, holding fast to the biblical principle of Three-Self—for we believe that this principle is not an invention of our own, but has sound biblical and theological basis and has been ever at work throughout the historical development of world Christianity—we have made some headway for which we are grateful. The road has not been straight and easy. There have been zigzags and obstacles, and misunderstandings both among ourselves and from the outside. We have committed blunders and made corrections. During the chaotic decade called “cultural revolution,” which was in reality culturally destructive and politically counterrevolutionary in nature and effect, almost all traces of organized religions, not just Christianity, seemed to be cleanly wiped out. But God works creatively even in the demonic forces. The purging turned out to be a fiery chastening process and had its educational effects. We have learned how to recognize and avoid the evils of ultra-leftism. Order was finally restored and the Party and Government returned to the right interpretation and implementation of the policy of religious freedom. The faithful and steadfast emerged afresh with rejuvenescent vitality and new visions. The year 1979 marked the beginning of a second phase of the Three-Self Movement. Since then we have been working on the holy task of rebuilding the house of the Lord. The heart-warming promise and mandate of Haggai that “the latter splendor of this house shall be greater than the former” (2:9) has been beckoning and prompting us forward.

Now, what have we done and accomplished in the last thirty-four years? Bishop K. H. Ting, Chairman of the National Three-Self Patriotic Committee and President of the China Christian Council, in his opening address before the Third Chinese National Christian Conference in September, 1980, summed up the accomplishments of the preceding phase of thirty years of endeavor in the following three points. I shall dwell but briefly on these.

First, we have accomplished in making Chinese Christians patriotic Chinese. Before and shortly after the liberation, many Chinese Christians had become victims to the alienating indoctrination and anti-communist propaganda of their Western “mentors,” and took faithfulness to God and loyalty to the Church incomparably higher over against or even incompatible with the love of one’s country. The contradiction had become more acute when they thought that the country was to be ruled by atheist communists, whom they took to be Satan, the sworn enemy of Christ. After liberation, however, innumerable undeniable facts and personal experiences convinced many honest Christians that under the leadership of the Communist Party new China is far, far better than it had ever been before; that the party was really working for the welfare of the people, with a spirit of self-sacrifice that put many a sincere Christian to shame; that the Party was advocating in theory and practice a policy of religious freedom. But some die-hard anti-communist Christians were still unreconciled and advanced theological arguments like posing “life,” by which they meant a mystical, esoteric, undefinable “union with Christ,” against the moral and rational discernment between good and evil, or right and wrong; or insisting upon the doctrine of total depravity of all men and the futility and sinfulness of any human effort towards betterment of human society; or interpreting pre-millennialism with an overtone that New China, however good and welcome by the Chinese people, was doomed to be short-lived and would soon be totally destroyed at the second coming of Christ. All these set the serious Christians to think and rethink. There arose a nation-wide mass theological movement involving both rank-and-file believers and church leaders. I shall not go into the loci theologici and arguments. Bishop Ting is making an analysis of this theological movement in one of his addresses here in Japan. The overall effect, in short, was that the contradiction or dilemma between love of the Church and love of the mother-land was resolved in a unity on a sound biblical and theological basis. Now a favorite slogan prevailing among Chinese Christians is “爱国爱教, 荣神益人.” (Love the country and love the church; glorify God and benefit men).

Secondly, we have succeeded in changing the countenance of Christianity in China. With the withdrawal of missionaries and cutting off of foreign funds after 1950, the Chinese church was left to the Chinese Christians, to sink or swim, willy-nilly. So in a sense the necessity of Three-Self was forced upon us by the specific political situation. But it was through the persisting enlightening and endeavours of pioneering leaders like Dr. Y. T. Wu and others that it became a conscious and organized mass movement. The convening of the First Chinese Christian Conference in 1954, which gave rise to the National Three-Self Patriotic Committee, was an important milestone. Since then we have gradually changed the countenance of Christianity from yangjiao (foreign religion) into a church self-governing, self-supporting and self-propagating with more and more Chinese characteristics.

Thirdly, these two accomplishments had led to another, namely, a gradual change of public opinion and impression of the people regarding Chinese Christians and the church. We have identified ourselves with the people and taken part in the struggle of constructing an independent new socialist China, sharing the weal and woe in the vicissitudes of national development. We are taken in by our fellow-countrymen. Many church members have done good deeds and made outstanding contributions in their jobs. More and more people have realized that Christians too are good Chinese citizens and that Christianity is a religion which Chinese citizens are fully entitled to believe and uphold by their own choice. We have won the recognition, sympathy and respect of the broad masses of people as an autonomous Chinese church. Thus new and greater opportunities have opened to us to witness our faith and for the light of the Gospel to shine forth in this country.

Now, let me relate to you some features of the present-day Chinese Protestant Church.

First, there has been a remarkable church growth since the last five years. There is no exact statistics. A conservative estimate of church members and enquirers is over three million. It means an increase of about four times over the total before 1949. In September 1979 two churches were re-opened in Ningpo (宁波) and Shanghai, the first to break the ice, about three years after the downfall of the “gang of four.” Since then according to the latest report there are more than eighteen hundred churches reopened or set up anew. This amounts to an average rate of one church a day over the whole period. By a “church” here I mean a permanent church building set apart for worship services and other religious activities, with a fairly consistent congregation administered by one or more pastors or preachers. These churches are located mostly in cities and towns. There are sixteen churches in Shanghai including the suburban counties, and three in Guangzhou. The size of the congregation varies from a couple of hundred to several thousands, about one quarter to one third being young people. In larger churches it is often necessary to hold two or more sessions of Sunday services to avoid overcrowding. If we take the average size of a congregation as one thousand, it leaves more than two million Christians to handle. So there are thousands or maybe tens of thousands of what we call “assembly points” (聚会点), i.e., meetings held in homes or other places than a conventional church building. These “points” are mostly scattered in the rural areas, but you will often find some in cities also, distributed according to geographic accessibility. The size of a “point” varies from some twenty or thirty to several hundreds. They are usually administered by lay leaders, most of them depend upon the city or county churches for guidance and assistance, such as supply of Bibles, hymnals, Christian literature, and the administering of baptism and communion services, etc. In remote places they are left to their own discretion and devices. This explains the uneven development in the level of Christian nurture, and, as in some places, susceptibility to deviations, heretical contamination and anti-China infiltrations from abroad. These we lump up as “abnormalities.” This is an understandable phenomenon when the rate of increase of believers outstrips the process of reopening churches, which involves much more than taking back and repairing church buildings.

How to account for this rapid growth? Many explanations have been advanced. I think, however, most basic of all it is due to: (1) the Three-Self Patriotic Movement with the three main accomplishments mentioned above; (2) the overall implementation of religious policy on the part of the Party and the government, though not without obstacles and problems. As to the latent and perennial spiritual yearnings and need beyond the material and mundane in man, I shall for the present leave to theologians and sociologists and psychologists of religion. The Holy Spirit is always at work and we can but offer our prayers and thanks to God for His blessings and guidance.

Secondly, we have entered into a post-denominational stage. This has come about gradually as a result of the Three-Self Movement and dissociation with foreign ecclesiastical organizations. We realize and respect the characteristics and particular contributions of various denominations that have evolved in the historical development since the Reformation. We have also learned the lesson of harmful dissensions and disruptive effects of denominationalism. We try to conserve the valuable heritage without being tied to the denominational structural network. So remaining true to the Apostolic faith and biblical tradition, we adopt a latitudinarian attitude and the principle of mutual respect concerning theological and liturgical variations. We take Ephesians 4 as our motto and believe that unity with variety, not uniformity, will more manifest the abundant grace of God. For instance, alternative co-existence of two ways of baptism by immersion or by sprinkling, and various forms of administering the Lord’s Supper, proves helpful in maintaining a harmonious unity and enhancing mutual understanding. This modern adiaphorism seems to be conductive to building a united church instead of arousing unnecessary controversies.

This brings us to a third characteristic. At present we are not yet a United Church of China in the ecclesiastical sense. The China Christian Council set up in 1980 is more like your N.C.C., and functions as an associating and coordinating organization of a transitionary nature, concentrating in the work of pastoral care and ecclesiastical affairs. It works together with the Three-Self Patriotic Committee like two hands serving the body whose head is Christ, and musters all Protestant believers and communities to build a well-run United Church of China. There are similar twin-organizations on various levels, national, provincial and local. We have not adopted any particular ecclesiastical polity. Ordinations are often decided upon and carried out on the local level, assisted by provincial councils. The China Christian Council, in collaboration with provincial councils, has printed one million and three hundred thousand Bibles, of the “Union Version.” In addition, there are versions in three minority nationality languages, Korean, Miao and Lisu. The printing of another edition of Chinese Bible using simplified characters arranged horizontally is in preparation. There were several hymnals published by provincial councils. Last year the C. C. C. edited and published a new hymnbook including four hundred hymns, one hundred of which written and composed by Chinese Christians.

The rapid church growth brings with it many problems. Pastoral care and Christian nurturing have lagged behind. This accounts for the poor quality and low level of religious life, especially in the rural areas. There is a gap of a whole generation between the aged ministers and the young. To meet the urgent need of providing leaders a program of pastoral and theological training is being carried out. On the bottom over a hundred short-term courses ranging from two weeks to four months are being conducted by local and provincial councils, mostly for lay leaders of the “assembly points” in rural areas. A “syllabus” published quarterly by the seminary in Nanjing is used widely for this purpose, with a total circulation of forty thousand. Then there are four centers of theological training offering two-year programs for senior middle school graduates. In addition, three or four more of this kind are being planned, to be located strategically to meet the needs of various regions. In Nanjing the Union Theological Seminary, with a four-year collegiate program and a graduate course, is open to the whole country, for training ministers, theological teachers, writers, church musicians and artists. There is an enrollment of one hundred and eighty students this year.

Before I conclude I may add that one characteristic of the theological climate in China today is that we have transcended the sharp fundamentalist-modernist contradiction through mutual respect and willingness to learn from each other. The picture drawn by Bishop Ting in “Theological Mass Movement” referred above portrays the general trends of Protestant thought endorsed or tolerated by most evangelicals and liberals, allowing some differences in emphases and exegetical treatment. In trying to sum up the theological situation in China, I think of Dr. YoshinobuKumazawa’s description of the Protestant theological construction in Japan as “biblical, missional, national and free in emphasis and orientation,”4 and I see another parallelism between the churches in our two counties. My description of the Chinese theological picture is: biblical, evangelical (in the classical sense of the word), national, but not nationalistic, keenly concerned with the church’s relation to the construction of a modern socialist China, and latitudinarian. Once I was asked by a British theological educator as to what is the theological theme that we think most important. My answer was the doctrine of Incarnation: the God who forever creates, reveals, redeems, sanctifies and leads us all into His final glory has become flesh and dwells among us in the world, “full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father.” (Jn. 1:14) Allow me to quote Kumazawa once more: “Indigenization does not mean establishing a colony of Christians in the secular or pagan world. It means identifying what God is doing in the secular world and finding out what we can do to participate in his work.”5

We are a very small and young church. We have come to share with you our experiences, understandings, aspirations and problems, and to learn from you. Now I must hold my tongue and use my ears and heart. Thank you.

4 Where Theology Seeks to Integrate Text and Context, in Asian Voices in Christian Theology, ed. By G. H. Anderson, 1976, p. 181.

5 Ibid., p. 205.