Chapter 17 A Sociological Commentary on the Phenomena of "Cultural" Christians

one Since the middle of this century, the legal rumors of Christianity have actually been interrupted on the mainland, and atheist ideology has gained substantial social legal power, so that Christian beliefs and social life can only arouse people's awareness of political vigilance.However, in the past ten years, social awareness of Christianity’s political vigilance has weakened significantly, at least in urban areas, and Christian beliefs have spontaneously grown in the context of atheism that has become the basic consciousness of society.Particularly striking is the emergence of religious dispositions and interest in Christianity among cultural intellectuals.This tendency towards spiritual awareness, though in fact not only not universal at all, but also appears fragile and isolated in the fields of literature, art, philosophy and human sciences, has a tendency to increase, so that some church authorities claim that Christianity will Get greater development outside the church.

Church authorities call these literati and scholars with a tendency to confess Christ "cultural Christians."According to this naming, does it also mean that there will be a "cultural" Christianity form in the mainland? If theologians only use the crisis of faith consciousness to explain this phenomenon, or if they are too optimistic about this "Christian fever" which is actually still quite weak, they will simplify the problem.If it is said that "cultural Christianity" has appeared, or there will be a form of "cultural Christianity", this only shows that Sino-Theological Theology is already facing some new theological issues.For example: What is the meaning and theological nature of so-called "cultural Christianity"?What is its future meaning in the development history of Chinese Christian theology? How does "cultural Christianity" relate to the church as an extra-church form of Christian confession?And from the perspective of the future development of the entire Chinese culture, what is the role of "cultural Christians"?

two Strictly speaking, there is no so-called "cultural Christianity" in contemporary mainland China.In fact, it can only be said that in the intellectual world, Christianity and theology have become one of the important concerns of intellectuals (not the only one).In connection with this, certain intellectuals (literati scholars) have at least adopted a certain Christian ideological position-it must be admitted that there is not only one unified theological ideological position in Christianity.Therefore, what kind of theology will be developed by those intellectuals who have adopted a certain Christian theological position is a meaningful theological issue; , which orientation has affinity with many theological trends in the West is also an eye-catching sociology of knowledge topic.

Church authorities call these intellectuals who have adopted a Christian theological position "cultural Christians", which seems to mean that they are not real Christians, but accept and defend Christianity as a cultural thought , or engaged in a kind of Christian cultural research. The meaning of this name is quite ambiguous: First, if someone only adopts the confession of Christ as a cultural thought, he cannot yet have the name "Christian". The existence of a "Christian" must be rooted in faith-belief in Jesus Christ and God the Father, faith in Christ's death and resurrection, having the experience of rebirth of faith, and taking the teachings of Jesus Christ as the basis for behavior. Quality of personal life.In fact, among those Chinese people who have adopted some kind of Christian theology, only a very small number of people have the experience of rebirth of this kind of belief.

On the other hand, even those intellectuals who have obtained the confession of the Christian faith have no relationship with large churches or small churches (small denominations or house churches) due to their forms of existence (this is due to both the political situation and the size of the church). Because of the situational constraints of the way of existence of the church itself), and because they don’t even have the most basic fellowship life (this is also due to political and geographical reasons), the “Christian” identity of these intellectuals is extremely unclear.Maybe we have to distinguish between the titles of "Christian" and "Christian", and we can even find the form of confession of "Christian" instead of "Christian" in the history of early Christianity. Can those who profess Christ outside of the church organization and have nothing to do with the sectarian form of the church be recognized by the church as Christians?

This question is not trivial.With the gradual diversification of the social and cultural context in mainland China, more intellectuals will know Christ.As a result, there may be more "cultural Christians" outside the church, so that a "cultural" form of Christian thought will emerge.A theological explanation for this phenomenon may not be easily accepted by the established church—just think about the controversy caused by some theological claims of D. Bonhoeffer. The meaning of the word "culture" is equally misleading.If we want to properly understand or explain the so-called "cultural" Christians or "cultural" Christian thought, we must pay attention to the tortuous meaning of the word "cultural" in the ideological context of the mainland.The actual usage of the word "culture" can only be fully understood in the context of China's specific ideological discourse.

three The development of Chinese Christianity has always been related to Western missionary activities, so that Christianity has always been regarded as a foreign religion in China, which has led to the unfinished dispute between Chinese cultural concepts and Christian thought.For this historical reason, the existential relationship between Christ and humanity has been obscured in Chinese theological thought. However, the emergence of the phenomenon of "cultural Christians" has nothing to do with the missionary activity of the West, or even with the missionary activity of the indigenous churches - which is of course subject to substantial limitations.The significance of this phenomenon in the sociology of knowledge is striking.At least some sociology of knowledge issues can be mentioned as follows.

First, the relationship between Han culture and Christianity must be considered from a new perspective.In fact, the problem of national culture theory has been transformed into the problem of survival ontology.The relationship between Han culture and Christianity is no longer a question of dialogue between Chinese and Western cultures, but a question of dialogue on the ontology of existence.The development of Christian thought in Chinese is transformed from external transmission to internal self-generation, which will not only change the traditional relationship between the entire Chinese culture and Christian thought, but also change the developing Chinese culture itself. Chinese Christian theology should also have a new perspective.

Since the phenomenon of "cultural Christians" took place against the background of basically no missionary activities in China, the "Three-Self" program proposed by some Chinese church figures during the "May 4th" period seems to have lost its relevance to the times.Continental church theology is facing another challenge: what new form will it have?Related to this, because this phenomenon has nothing to do with Western missionary activities, the so-called naturalized theology that was put forward during the May 4th Movement and is still being discussed today has lost its relevance to the times, and the phenomenon of "cultural Christians" It is obviously not a Christian phenomenon of Chinese culture, but a Christian Chinese cultural phenomenon.As for claims such as the national church and nationalized Christianity, whether from the perspective of history—"German Christianity" during the Nazi period—or reality, they are worthy of vigilance by theologians.

Traditional schisms in Christianity—especially what Hans Kung calls “classical conflicts”—have nothing to do with China.However, the missionaries (especially Protestants) brought the denominations of the church to China, so that the development of Christianity in the Chinese environment was greatly damaged.For example, in the West, regardless of Catholicism or Protestantism, there is only one name of God, but in China there are two names of God (Tianzhu and Shenshen)—so that there are three names of God (plus one "God"). The emergence of the phenomenon of "cultural Christians" is universal, at least in theological orientation, and thus naturally coincides with the universal trend of this century.

Four Ernst Troeltsch pointed out that there have been three forms of Christianity since the beginning: the big church (Kirche), the small sect (Sekte) and the mysticism (Mystik).Large churches often think that they are the kingdom of God and the institution of salvation in this world, showing an attitude of actively adapting to this world, wanting to become a church for the masses, and repeatedly showing a tendency to be in harmony with state power; small sects focus on " A small group of believers based on the experience of "rebirth" values ​​the law and despises grace, and has a strong desire to leave this world. Most of its believers are from the lower class and firmly reject the cultural form of Christianity. Therefore, the small sect has no theology at all. And it is very exclusive; although the mystics also pay attention to personal spiritual experience, they tend to exist in the form of individual religions, which tends to weaken the form of the institutional church. Even if the mystics also have individual-based fellowship, there is no permanent And fixed institutional forms, and regard religious piety as the creative driving force of cultural activities, pay attention to the cultural form of Christianity and the humanities, reflective theology, the mystics generally belong to the intellectual class. It may be inspiring to use this definition of Troeltsch to analyze the various forms of contemporary continental Christianity.I do not intend to make an argument for Troeltsch's Christian sociology, but take it as an analytical schema of the sociology of religion, effectively describing the characteristics of various forms of existence of contemporary continental Christianity. The "Three-Self" organizations or the Patriotic Association can be regarded as the "big churches" in the contemporary mainland. Their attitudes towards society, the state, and the nation, as well as their tendency to harmonize with state power, all indicate their identity characteristics; house churches—especially Protestant churches House churches and small sects formed in history, both in form and in essence, are in the form of small sects—the Catholic house church may be an exception, which deserves a case study; while the "cultural Christians" that are gradually forming, It tends towards the mystical form in form and substance, if the term "mysticism" is understood in Troeltsch's usage, rather than associating it with medieval European mysticism or the so-called "charismatics" of today.There are three points worth emphasizing: a. The obvious ratio of individual religious forms; b. Emphasis on the cultural and cultural Christianity of Christianity, expanding in the cultural and intellectual class; c. Spontaneously tending to scientific and reflective theology. The "big churches" in the contemporary mainland recognize the "mystics" with some reservations, while the "small sects" basically hold a negative attitude towards the "mystics", and the "mystics" also regard the belief forms of the "small sects" as "unacceptable". Understanding”——a literati once told me that shortly after he joined a house church, he finally couldn’t bear the form of belief that in his opinion contained too much Chinese folk religion, so he stole a Bible and left the church. Chinese Christianity has been extremely poor in basic theology or systematic theology so far, and it has been so for a hundred years. If "Cultural Christians" really come into being, it will promote the establishment of basic-systematic theology, Christian philosophy and cultural studies in the Chinese domain based on the orientation of humanities and reflective theology.This can at least complement the form of Chinese Christianity in form.The mutual exclusion between the three forms of existence in the Troeltsch sense in Christianity is inappropriate.Regardless of theology or sociology, the free and harmonious relationship between the three forms can be demonstrated, although mutual criticism is also necessary. Fives J. Moltmann, speaking of his own theological conception, said that his confession was not at first awakened by the Bible and the catechism, and that he therefore felt that he had to discover in theology what was true for himself. Brand new everything.This kind of experience is not new to mainland "cultural Christians".If a humanistic and reflective theology emerges with the formation of the "mysticism", its appearance will inevitably be different from traditional church theology. What does it mean to "discover everything new to us in theology"?What Moltmann means is that theological issues arise from the existential situation of one's own time, rather than from past theological thought systems and conclusions.Similarly, the Chinese "mystic" theology also derives its own theological problems from its own existence. The formation of this kind of theology, its theological situation has at least two dimensions: one is the relationship with atheist ideology, and the other is the relationship with church theology.Both aspects are uniquely situational. During the "May 4th" period, there were fierce debates between Christianity and various humanistic and scientific worldviews of atheism.The debate was later discontinued.Atheistic, but at the same time a quasi-religious and religious discourse of the people's ideology, is the primary theological situation of "cultural Christians".This is by no means a question of dialogue between theism and atheism. A remarkable phenomenon fully illustrates this point: Christian thought is emerging in the contemporary cultural world, and the strongest intolerance reaction does not first come from the state ideology, but from the state ideology. Rather, it comes from the humanistic Marxist faction that is also limited by state ideology.The critique of ideology of the theory of faith and the critique of the theory of faith of ideology are the primary topics of cultural theology. From the perspective of ecclesiastical theology, extreme liberalism and extreme fundamentalism were and still are the basic conditions of another dimension of theology.On the one hand, the extreme liberals (Wu Yaozong) made Christianity close to historical rationalism, and on the other hand, the extreme fundamentalists (Wang Mingdao, Watchman Nee) made Christianity an overly exclusive legal religion from the other extreme.The limitation of the former lies in the convergence of Christianity and the atheistic quasi-religious ideology of the people, while the limitation of the latter lies in the loss of the love priority and universality of Christianity.Therefore, the theological criticism of Christian socialist thought and the social critical orientation of extended theology are important topics of Chinese Christian theology. Chinese Christianity still only has the form of church theology, and lacks a humanistic and reflective theology, which is extremely detrimental to the development of Christian culture in the Chinese environment, especially when considering that atheism is a historical and realistic basic situation. , the situation becomes clearer.The result is nothing more than: Christianity is either dissolved by other worldviews or belief theories in the actual social and cultural situation, or is divided into the holy and the secular, so that Christianity is isolated from the world and forced to divide. The ground is a prison. The "mysticism" of Christianity in the contemporary mainland originated from the existence of atheism, is rooted in this situation, and must still be in this situation and expand in this situation, rather than "becoming holy and extraordinary" and entering the people's ideology within the walls built for the Church. If it wants to develop a situational theology, then its form is not unique, but in many respects is related to the modern and contemporary orientation of European and American theology. This is because, from the perspective of modernity, the basic ideological situation The ontology of existence is the same.Thus, situational theology should also be: 1. Critical theology, this kind of critique is a two-way critique: it points (outward) to various modern humanistic ideologies and beliefs, and (inward) to theology and the church itself; it is both a social critique and an ideological critique , is also a kind of theological and religious self-criticism (Hans King, JBMetz), the standard of criticism comes from the cross of Christ, from the word of God in the Bible, the crucified God is the basis and criticism of theology (J.Moltmann). 2. Free theology, not dogmatic theology: theology is essentially a dialogue between man and God, and between man and man; theological discourse is human, not divine; there is no man-made divine authority or self-proclaimed orthodoxy in theology , theology is always on the way to the Word (KarI Barth). 3. Theology of science, which not only refers to the dialogue between theology and social science and other humanities, but also refers to the humanization of theology itself (TF Torrance, G. Ebeling, W. Pannenberg). 4.The theology of existential interpretation and transcendentalism, theology should penetrate into the level of existentialism and transcendentalism, and move toward the fact itself (zur Sachen selbst) of the transcendental ontological relationship between the holy word and Dasein, breaking through the Chinese theological circles, which are still entangled The dualistic opposition between Chinese and Western landscapes makes Chinese theology not stand on the landscape of cultural nationalism, but on the existential relationship between man and God (R.Bultmann, K.Rahner). 5. Speaking of the theology of the incarnation, the so-called "flesh" here refers to the living conditions of the times, and also refers to the traditional and developing national culture itself; therefore, Chinese Christian theology is contextualized, so how does the spirit of Christ become in the context of the times? The theology of De Bonhoeffer (DE Bonhoeffer) is also the theology developed in culture: culture is the body and form, the word of God is the soul and substance, and the spirit of Christ is also manifested in the form of culture (R.Guardini, HUvon Balthasar, P.Tillich). Chinese Christian theology is not a Chinese theology, but a theology generated in the Chinese language.There is no distinction between Chinese and Western theology in essence. six It is meaningful to compare the development of Christian culture in China with the historical development of Buddhism in China. First of all, the translation of classic works of Christian thought is not the same as the translation of Buddhist scriptures. This is one of the major problems in the development of Chinese Christian culture.The Chinese church has not yet paid attention to the systematic and comprehensive translation of Christian thought classics.The only systematic translation project that ever existed, "A Collection of Classical Christian Works", is not only still incomplete, but the modern and contemporary parts are quite weak, and the translation quality (especially Chinese expression) is also quite problematic.Even so, this translation plan was mainly promoted and hosted by Western missionaries at first.If Chinese theologians still do not pay attention to the systematic translation of Christian classics, the prospects for the development of Christian culture in the Chinese environment will not be clear. ——Would like to take a look at the development of Christian culture in Korea and the grand occasion of translation of Christian literature. After Buddhism was introduced to China, multi-dimensional Chinese Buddhism developed, including the Pure Land sect, which is popular among the people and does not study Buddhist principles, Zen Buddhism, which is both practical and Buddhist, and the Consciousness-only sect, which emphasizes speculative theory, and has formed its own tradition.In contrast, the development of Christianity in China is almost disproportionate.It is particularly worth noting that the development of Christianity in the Chinese environment is quite similar to the orientation of Pure Land Buddhism. This orientation combined with folk religion, if there is no cultural oracle that emphasizes doctrine and rational theology as supplementary factors, it will eventually Difficult to meet the challenges of modern society. The history of Chinese Christian theology is still young, and the significance of the phenomenon of "cultural Christians" that has emerged in the past ten years is that the confession of Christ has changed from external preaching to spontaneous seeking, which will be a turning point in the history of the development of Chinese theology. Hong Kong in 1991