Papers Session Annual Meeting 2023

Chinese Theologies in Times of War

Saturday, 3:00 PM - 4:30 PM | San Antonio Convention Center-Room 214A… Session ID: A18-303
Abstract for Online Program Book (maximum 150 words)

This session explores the theologies of war and peace in the field of Chinese Christianities. These papers explore themes of just war, aggression, and peacekeeping. We have four papers in this session. They cover perspectives on war and peace including Catholic resistance, international ecumenism, the uses of a Bible House, and a philosophical reflection. This session hopes in this way to advance the scholarship of how Chinese Christianities engage and are germane to historical and contemporary geopolitics that include and exceed the bounds of 'Chineseness' and 'Christianities.'

Papers

Based on large amount of archival materials, my paper examines the ways in which Lu Zhengxiang (陸徵祥, 1871-1949) advocated on behalf of China in the aftermath of Japan’s occupation of Manchuria on September 18, 1931.  The first part of my paper traces the correspondence between Lu and the Holy See between 1931 and 1934 when Lu appealed to the pope’s spiritual authority.  The second part analyzes Lu’s 1933 brochure which judged Japan’s occupation of Manchuria in light of Cardinal Mercier’s Catholic doctrine of just resistance in time of war. The third part examines the global context in which Lu’s brochure was drafted and disseminated when St. Andrew’s Abbey became a center linking Chinese and global Catholicism. By revisiting Lu’s elaboration of Mercier’s doctrine, this paper hopes to reflect on questions that remain relevant for present-day Christians when their countries are thrusted into global conflicts.

The National Christian Council of China (NCCC) is one of the most important Protestant institutions in Republican China. While most research focuses on its founders like Cheng Ching-yi or its final years, little attention has been paid to its ministries during the Sino-Japanese War under its second General Secretary, Bishop Chen Wen-yuan, who served from 1936 to 1946. This paper studies Bishop Chen’s leadership of the NCCC, especially his international liaison efforts, focusing on his 1944-1945 tour of North America and the United Kingdom. It uncovers the significant role this “China’s No. 1 Christian” (as designated by Time magazine) played in rallying wartime spiritual, moral, financial, political and even military support for China from Christians and non-Christians worldwide. It also explores how he achieved that by utilizing his three unique roles: ecumenically as the NCCC leader, denominationally as a Methodist bishop, and politically as Chiang Kai-shek’s unofficial ambassador.

This paper aims to illustrate that war contributed to Hong Kong’s historical role as a space of facilitation in the development of Chinese Christianities through a study of the origin and early history of the Hong Kong Bible House (HKBH). After explaining why the China Bible House (CBH), the de facto national Bible society in China, decided in 1948 to establish an emergency office in Hong Kong, it will highlight that, thanks to the outbreak of the Korean War, the CBH was forced to sever its connection with the emergency office in 1951, marking the latter’s beginning as a separate agency known as the HKBH. This paper will conclude with examining the HKBH’s operation in its first year after independence, which indicates that the HKBH began to be developed into a Chinese Bible publisher and distributor serving Chinese Christian communities worldwide within the context of the Cold War geopolitical climate.

A liberal cosmopolitan and best-selling author in the United States, Lin Yutang (1895-1976) was nevertheless countercultural in his discussion of war. He irritated his western audience by protesting the imperialism of the Allies, especially British imperialism, against Asian countries during World War II. During China’s civil war, he was the first to sound a warning bell against the authoritarian practices of the Communists, countering the prevailing wisdom of the American China Hands. During the Cold War, he came to the gradual realization that the only remedy against rampant materialism and the grip of Communism was the light and power of the teachings of Christ. No other means existed that could heal the ills of modernity. My paper will discuss how Lin constructed the argument for his philosophy of peace using the resources of Confucianism, Daoism, and Christianity, and how he sheds light on an alternative path to peace.

Religious Observance
Sunday morning
Audiovisual Requirements
LCD Projector and Screen
Tags
#methodism
#church-state relations
#ecumenical movement
#modern China
#WWII
#Sino-Japanese War