It is well known that the Chinese church (and therefore Chinese theology) has been divided in the People's Republic of China into "registered" and "unregistered" churches, and that while the state-approved church offers theologies that align with the nation's socialist values, the unregistered or house churches have tended toward an evangelical theology that is now divaricating with the resurgence of denominations in China. What is less well known is that there has been a vibrant third field of Chinese theology: Sino-Christian theology, a contested, academic discourse that makes no claims to be a confessional theology. This theology, fostered by academics in secular Chinese universities, developed in the 1990s and has grown and diversified with the increasing number of scholars researching Christianity in China. This volume offers essays on the message of Chinese Christian art, for example, alongside textual and Christological studies. The phenomenon of Sino-Christian theology, along with debates on its right to exist (if not authored by professing Christians), overlaps with broader debates on the nature of a "Chinese theology" and its unifying features. The second part of the volume draws together nine essays on theological concerns in the Chinese diaspora. These range from the nature of diasporic experience itself to studies of individual writers, and from fundamentalist beliefs in Singapore to a queer theology academy in Hong Kong. Although Hong Kong is part of mainland China, given its history and the "one country, two systems" policy still in place, several essays on Hong Kong theologians are included here among diasporic writings. Three essays focusing on Taiwanese subjects include reflections on the role of Christian philosophy in the legal thought of John C. H. Wu, a reassessment of homeland theology in light of the nationalist resurgence, and the creative "theology of Yi" based on the Book of Changes, Yijing.
Chloe Starr is professor of Asian Christianity at Yale Divinity School. She has published widely on Chinese literature and Chinese theology. Her works include?Chinese Theology: Text and Context?(2016); a coedited textbook, Documenting China (2011); a monograph,?Red-Light Novels of the Late Qing?(2007);?a coedited volume,?The Quest for Gentility in China?(Routledge, 2007, 2009); and an edited volume,?Reading Christian Scriptures in China?(2008). She holds honorary posts at Renmin University of China, where she teaches regularly, and at the Institute of Sino-Christian Studies, Hong Kong.
Part I: Sino-Christian Theology in Practice 1. Li Quan, Liu Xiaofeng's Transcendent Christ and the Predicament of Chinese Public Theology 2. Chen Jiushuang, Metaphors and Controversy: The Cross in Modern Chinese Art 3. Naomi Thurston, Scholar, Critic, Scribe: Zha Changping's Humanist Criticism 4. Lauren Pfister, Shi Hengtan's Comparative Cultural Readings of the Confucian Analects and the Chinese Union Bible 5. He Guanghu, What Should Theology Do While Lives are Engulfed in Mud and Fire? Part II: Sino-Christian Theology as Mode and Method 6. Jason Lam, Sino-Christian Theology: A Peek into the Future 7. Liang Chia-Yu, Sino-Christian Theology and the Veil of Politics: Revisiting Liu Xiaofeng 8. Easten Law, Decentering China in Chinese Christianity: Reconsidering Sino-Christian Theology and the Prospect of Sinophone Theology Part III: Hong Kong and Diasporic Theologies 9. Hing-Cheong Ho, Diasporic Theology in the Making: The Identity and Experience of Princeton Hsu and N. Z. Zia 10. Wenjuan Zhao, Holy Spirit, Mission, and Formation: Exploring Philip Teng's Pneumatology 11. Hung Shin-Fung, The Queer Theology Academy: A Praxis Community for Chinese Queer Theologies 12. Han Siyi, The "Lifescape Theology" of Thomas In-Sing Leung Part IV: Theological Inquiry in Taiwan and Singapore 13. Mao Cheng, Natural Law as the Fulfillment of Chinese Law: John C. H. Wu's Critical Reading of Chinese Legal Thought 14. Liu Ya-chun, A New "Homeland" Theology?: Remembering George Leslie Mackay amid the Continued Surge of Nationalism in Taiwan 15. Cindy S. Lu, The Theology of Yi: The Diasporic and Indigenous Theology of Chow Lien-Hwa 16. Joshua Dao-wei Sim, Localising Chinese and American Fundamentalism: Timothy Tow and His Construction of a Separatist Biographical Theology in Singapore
