Contextualization of Christianity in China: An Evaluation in Modern Perspective ed. by Peter Chen-main Wang (review)

Abstract

200 Journal of Chinese Religions small minority of Buddhists amounted to an “esoteric fever.” If a “ritual for the protection of the state” (huguo da fahui 護國大法會) conducted by a Chinese monk trained in the Japanese “esoteric” Shingon school is seen as an important instance of the “cultural practices” of Buddhist modernity (p.39), one wonders in what respects this ritual differed from the “rituals for the protection of the state” performed by other Chinese monks during the same period, which are not mentioned as relevant cultural practices in this study. In other words: How do the activities related to tantric Buddhism fit into the concept of “cultural practices” as used in other parts of the book? This book has been published too hastily: There are annoyingly numerous printing and editing errors (e.g., p. 63: “Having received an education, Lü Bicheng became an avid reader and a precocious writer received an education”) and even a non-existing reference (on p. 92, n. 61 refers to “Demiéville 1973: 1-79”, which does not appear in the bibliography). Researchers will regret that interesting facts are not always provided with references (e.g. on p. 28, no source given for the number of 149 monasteries built in Shanghai since the late Qing dynasty). Finally, the glossary of Chinese terms is only a “selected” one, lacking many important entries. This study may help to draw more attention to Buddhism as a cultural force in modern China. As a brief overview of the beginnings of modern Buddhist publishing and music it will be a valuable source for scholars of Religion in China. The book is particularly important for anyone studying the use of modern mass media by Chinese Buddhists. MARCUS GÜNZEL, Hsuan Chuang University, Taiwan Contextualization of Christianity in China: An Evaluation in Modern Perspective Edited by PETER CHEN-MAIN WANG. Collectanea Serica. Sankt Augustin: Institut Monumenta Serica, 2007. 316 pages. ISBN 978-3-8050-0547-0. €40.00 paper. During his tenure as the fifth holder of the European Chair for Chinese Studies at Leiden University (2001/2002), Peter Chen-main Wang (National Chung Cheng University, Taiwan) organized a workshop in June 2002, “Contextualization of Christianity in China: An Evaluation in Modern Perspective.” It focused on the question whether “contextualization [in a theological definition of “interaction of the text as the word of God and the context as a specific human situation”] ... will help us have a better understanding of how a foreign religion was introduced to a Chinese context, how a foreign context influenced mission Book Reviews 201 strategies, how Chinese converts faced their non-Christian folks, and how Chinese Christians tried to establish their own Churches in China.” More generally, the aim of the workshop was “to find a balance between the ‘mission approach’ and the ‘indigenization approach’” (Introduction, pp. 7-9). The present book contains papers presented at that workshop, supplemented by additional contributions. The eleven articles are arranged under four sections: (1) Early Mission (pp. 11-69); (2) Contextualization Efforts: Three Aspects (pp. 71149 ); (3) Individuals in the Light of Contextualization (pp. 151-223); (4) Church and State Relations (pp. 225-296). The book closes by introducing the contributors (pp. 297-299) and with a useful Chinese glossary (pp. 301-316). The first article, Claudia von Collani’s “From Accommodation to a Chinese Theology” (pp. 13-44), deals with the way Matteo Ricci and Giulio Aleni quote the Chinese Classics in their Chinese writings and it culminates in a description of Figurism in the writings of mainly Joachim Bouvet (especially his Tianxue benyi 天學本義). Vincent Shen in his “Generosity towards the Other: Matteo Ricci’s Strategy of Strangification in China” (pp. 47-68) understands “contextualization” in the framework of his theory of “strangification,” by which he means “an act of going outside of one’s familiarity and going towards the stranger” (a successful case of which is Chinese Buddhism). Matteo Ricci, however, missed the opportunity of a fruitful dialogue with Neo-Confucianism, Taoism, and Chinese Buddhism. This first section, on the early mission (pp. 11-69), is restricted to Catholicism. In the last section (pp. 225-296) there are another two articles dealing with Catholicism. Robert Entenmann’s article...