Abstract
Eastern Orthodox Christianity and Chinese evangelicals have rarely interacted. Even if it seems that Eastern Orthodox Christianity and its theology have hardly influenced Chinese evangelicals in the past, this article demonstrates the possibility that Orthodox theology can still indirectly transform Confucian-influenced Chinese evangelicals. Moltmann, a great contemporary Protestant theologian, is influenced deeply by Stăniloae, a great modern Eastern Orthodox theologian, particularly in the development of social trinitarian theology in Eastern Orthodox heritage. Moltmann argues that social trinitarian anthropology can prevent the social and individual problems appeared in the societies shaped by either individualism or collectivism. Selfhood is one academic language used to discuss this relationship between the self and society. Despite modernization and westernization, contemporary Chinese people are still deeply influenced by Confucian models of relational selfhood. Even for Chinese evangelicals who had converted years ago, their way of thinking and behavior might be as much Confucian as biblical. The Confucian-influenced collectivist mindset may lead to problematic selfhood and more challenging interpersonal relationships. This article uses Orthodox theology via Moltmann’s social trinitarian, Stăniloae-inspired approach to develop an alternative relational selfhood for contemporary Chinese Christians.
Highlights
The Orthodox Christian church is the third-largest Christian faith in the world
This proposal is about how social trinitarian theology, in the Eastern Orthodox heritage (Mosser 2009, p. 132), is transmitted from Dumitru Stăniloae (1903–1993), through Jürgen Moltmann (1926–), and can be applied to transform the Confucian/Ruinfluenced selfhood of Chinese evangelical Christians
Jürgen Moltmann is a world-famous and influential German Reformed theologian who is currently a professor emeritus at the University of Tübingen. He was once the pastor of the Evangelical Church of Bremen-Wasserhorst (Neal 2009, p. 368), the editor of the periodical Evangelische Theologie (Moltmann 2009, p. 201), and the president of the Society for Evangelical Theology in Germany (Moltmann 2009, p. 254), and was conferred the first honorary doctorate by the Nicaraguan Evangelical University (Moltmann 2009, p. 370). He is not viewed as an evangelical theologian by all evangelical theologians, mainly Anglophonic ones (Chung 2012a), due to his “ecumenical”, “revisionist”, and “liberationist” theological position (Chung 2012b, p. 1; Buxton 2012, p. 65). (Confusing things further is the fact that the German term Evangelical is often used generically to describe Protestants.) Undoubtedly, as indicated in his autobiography, A Broad Place (Moltmann 2009), and his Experiences in Theology (Moltmann 2000)—the summary of his journey of theology—Moltmann does not confine his theological discussion to the area of evangelical theology
Summary
The Orthodox Christian church is the third-largest Christian faith in the world. it Orthodox Christians are an exceedingly small minority among Chinese Christians, living in Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, or Taiwan. (Confusing things further is the fact that the German term Evangelical is often used generically to describe Protestants.) Undoubtedly, as indicated in his autobiography, A Broad Place (Moltmann 2009), and his Experiences in Theology (Moltmann 2000)—the summary of his journey of theology—Moltmann does not confine his theological discussion to the area of evangelical theology He is open to engaging ecumenically with traditional theologies from both Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches but is willing to discuss questions from a great variety of contemporary theologies, including charismatic theology, liberation theology, and public theology. Moltmann might be the only social trinitarian theologian who engages himself in understanding Chinese culture and dialoguing with Daoism and Ruism in his works (Moltmann 1989, pp. 87–101, 1998, 2008b)
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