A Worldly Kingdom of Heaven in T. C. Chao’s Early Theology

Abstract

Abstract This paper discusses the conception of an ideal world present in T.C. Chao’s (Tsu Chen Chao) (1888–1979) early theological works, based mainly on the text Jesus’ Philosophy of Life (or, A New Interpretation of the Sermon on the Mount, written in late 1925). It concludes by pointing out that Chao’s view of a kingdom of heaven that ultimately eradicates the otherworld and does not transcend this world unconsciously echoes the Anti-Christian Μovement within Chinese churches during the same period. This is, indeed, a tragedy in the development of T. C. Chao’s personal theological thought in the 1920s and 1930s.