Faith Horizon of Taiwanese Lay Catholics

Abstract

During the Year of Faith, a concreted invitation has been launched to Catholics, calling them to study and deepen aspects of the Catholic doctrine and faith. In order to be effective and meaningful, this call needs to take into account the peculiarities of the context in which the study and deepening are carried out. Context fuels questions pertaining to self-understanding; it shapes ways of living faith. Though universal, the Catholic faith is made visible in concrete, localized and contextualized faith communities. In Taiwan, Catholics are a tiny minority faced with multifaceted challenges emanating from surrounding and deeply rooted religious traditions. To be a Catholic studying and deepening one's faith in Taiwan, it is necessary to face-in theoretical and practical ways-(unspoken) requests for justification of one's religious choices and convictions in the concert of many other existing lived faith expressions. From tradition, the Catholic faith was formulated and handed down through articles synthesizing both the doctrine and faith convictions of believers. Patterned in a concise way, creeds have been held as ＂official summaries＂ of Christian convictions and doctrines. In fact, as in early church, creeds are used throughout the universal church for preaching, teaching, defending and defining Christian doctrine, as concise ways of confessing the faith. The present reflection aims at a contextualized interpretation of the creed with an emphasis on the last four articles of the Apostles' Creed. This is done in the light and awareness of challenges emanating from the context of cultural and religious plurality of Taiwan-challenges which define the cadre in which Taiwanese lay Catholics live and proclaim their faith.