The Christ-human and Jia Yuming's Doctrine of Sanctification: A Case Study in the Confucianisation of Chinese Fundamentalist Christianity

Abstract

Cai Renhou, a prominent New Confucian scholar, has challenged the notion that Christianity can affirm that ‘everyone can be Christ’. This article will, however, explore the doctrine of sanctification of Jia Yuming (1880–1964), a Chinese fundamentalist theologian who constructed a Chinese Christian teaching of the self-cultivation of heart and mind with the objective of encouraging people to become ‘Christ-human’, thus having a life which is Christ. It argues that Jia's training and background, his natural theology and his belief in the possibility of a collaboration between Confucianism and Christianity on moral issues made him affirm a convergence between Christianity and Confucianism and to assert that Christianity and Confucianism could learn from each other – a surprising move in the light of the impression we commonly have of fundamentalist theology. The article examines Jia's strategy of connecting Christianity with Chinese culture and points out that Jia's fundamentalism seems to provide a protection against heretical teachings, a feature which might gain the acceptance of conservative Christians for incorporating ‘heathen’ thought into the Christian faith. Taken together, these points suggest a remarkably multifaceted confrontation, interaction, assimilation and mutual transformation between Christianity and Chinese culture.