Anti-Christian Movement Research Articles

Neither Eastern nor Western: Jia Yuming’s Support of Independent Churches in the Anti-Christian Movement

Neither Eastern nor Western: Jia Yuming’s Support of Independent Churches in the Anti-Christian Movement

Inkarnationsdeutung bei Johannes von Damaskus in Auseinandersetzung mit der „koranischen“ Bewegung

Abstract John of Damascus (ca. 650/660 – 754 AD) is one of the first contemporary witnesses to critically examine the emergence of Islam and its holy scripture, the Qur’an. John came from a distinguished Melkite family that held political offices in state finance for generations. Like his father, he was initially a civil servant under the Arab rule of Caliph ‘Abd al-Malik (685 – 705). The anti-Christian movement that began in that time forced him to withdraw from public life and enter the Mar Saba monastery near Jerusalem. While at the monastery, John grappled with the text of the “new” religion and defended the Christian position. In this milieu, the interpretation of the divine incarnation occupied a central position. By demonstrating the divine incarnation in Jesus Christ, John makes convergences with the Qur’anic movement of the new rulers. In doing so, he highlights the Qur’ans high esteem of the Virgin Mary as well as the birth and humanity of her Son, Jesus Christ. In this way, he seeks to bring Christianity into agreement with the Qur’an and to break down theological barriers.

Sessō Sōsai and the Chinese Anti-Christian Discourse

The early Tokugawa period witnessed the establishment of anti-Christian policy as a significant agenda. In 1647, Sessō Sōsai, a Zen monk, undertook the task of delivering sermons in Nagasaki, aiming to convert the local population to Buddhism. Following his preaching, Sessō authored two anti-Christian texts, with the second text reflecting a pronounced influence from Chinese Buddhist anti-Christian discourse. This article seeks to explore the correlation between Sessō’s anti-Christian writings and his engagement with the Chinese Buddhist community in Nagasaki. By delving into the analysis of personal networks, this study illustrates Sessō’s familiarity with the evolution of Buddhism in China and his incorporation of ideas from the Chinese Buddhist anti-Christian movement during his time.

Ideologies and Commitments: An Analysis of Three Typical Attitudes to the Protestant Missions in the Anti-Christian Movement

Abstract This paper presents various Chinese-Christian understandings of the Protestant missions from the U.S. and U.K. in the 1920s. By examining three typical attitudes represented by Zhao Zichen, Li Chunfan, and Zhang Yijing, the author argues that external influences from ideologies – such as nationalism – alone are insufficient to explain the differences among them. Looking closely at what Zhao, Li, and Zhang wrote about the Anti-Christian Movement, it is argued that their inner commitments should be included when accounting for their differences.

Христианские церкви и антиидентистская революция

The article analyzes the ideological contradictions of liberal democracy, or neoliberalism (antiidentism), and traditionalism (identism) on the example of Christian churches. Antiindentism considers traditional religiosity to be hostile: it should be reformed to conform to neoliberal values, and it should be banished from public space. At the same time, antiidentism does not want to eliminate religion, because it is one of the identities that have to be redone like other human identites. The article examines anti-Christian movements (like the “Black Lives Matter”) as well as conservative and liberal movements within various confessions. The authors emphasize that the antiidentist demands are based on the Christian values of respect for any person, for women and men, regardless of anything, for humane methods of raising children, mercy for any categories of people, regardless of their sexual orientation, etc. On the other hand, the demands of antiidentists go far beyond Christian principles and even common sense (not to quote inconvenient passages of the Bible, to change the rules of church life and the appointment of clergy). The article proposes a classification of confessions by direction and by territorial feature, depending on specifics of divisions based on the attitude to antiidentism (American Churches, the Catholic Church, Lutherans and Anglicans as well as diversity of Orthodox churches that are also touched by the antiidentist wave). The authors conclude that the Christian churches, despite the existence of liberal factions, are primarily a traditionalist force in modern politics. Because of fundamental ideological differences, the consolidation of diverse Christian forces is a difficult task. However, there is some progress in this direction. Evangelicals, traditional Catholics, who make up the majority of the Catholic Church, as well as the majority of Orthodox Christians, are a serious political and, what perhaps more important, ideological force.

環황해권 天主敎敎案으로 본 補儒論的 西學의 의의와 한계

로마 가톨릭교회의 동아시아 지역교회인 천주교(天主敎)는 동아시아 지역에서 일어난 교류의 결과물이다. 천주교의 탄생과 전개 과정에 대해서는 지금까지 수많은 선행연구가 있었지만, 로마 가톨릭교회 입장이냐 아니냐에 따라 아직도 많은 부분에서 연구자들의 인식차가 보인다. 박해(迫害)와 척사(斥邪)로 엇갈리는 정부 대(對) 천주교 가운데 어느 쪽을 부각시키느냐에 따라 그 책임 여부가 달라질 수 있기 때문이다. 이 연구에서는 오늘날 환황해권이라고 부르는 지역에서 일어난 천주교 교안(敎案)이 동아시아인과 천주교인 또는 천주교 세력의 교류 과정이었다는 점에 주목하고자 한다.<BR> 보유론적 서학과 그 파생물인 천주교는 유럽과 동아시아, 로마 가톨릭과 유교의 교류와 단절의 대표적인 산물이다. 특히 지식인 계층을 중심으로 전개된 수준 높은 문화교류의 결과물이다. 적어도 여기에 참여한 유럽과 동아시아 지식인들은 상호주의적 문화 태도를 표방했고, 그 결과 2차 바티칸 공의회에 이르러서야 공식적으로 허용되었던 천주 개념과 제사 문제에 대한 시대를 앞선 이해가 이루어졌다.<BR> 하지만 로마 가톨릭교회 내부의 선교 방침 혼란과 제국주의 열강에 대한 중국과 조선 정부의 배타적인 태도 때문에 이러한 교류는 단절되었다. 그리고 이미 이루어진 보유론적 서학, 그리고 중국과 조선의 천주교는 기층 민중으로 스며들었다. 이러한 상황에 선교 자유 이후의 개신교가 가세하면서, 청나라의 태평천국, 조선의 동학 등 이른바 기독교계에 직간접적으로 영향을 주고받은 신흥종교나 민족종교가 만들어지면서, 이들에 대한 지역주민의 교안이 발생했다. 이것은 한 세기 전 환황해권에서 상호주의적 태도로 시작했던 교류가 제국주의적 양상을 띠는 데 대한 민중의 반발로 볼 수 있다.

1920년대 반기독교운동 선전 텍스트 ｢예수는 어떤 자인가｣ 분석

본 연구는 1920년대 중국의 반기독교운동 선전 텍스트의 분석을 통해 역사 속 이질성 문제를 살펴보면서 현대 사회에서의 이질성 문제를 생각해 보고자 했다. 이를 위해 반기독교운동의 대표적 선전 텍스트인 주집신의 「예수는 어떤 자인가」를 분석하였다. 주집신은 예수에 대한 묘사를 ‘표리부동, 편협, 이기적, 화를 잘 내는, 복수를 좋아하는’ 우상으로 함축하였다. 이렇게 몇 개의 단어로 개념화된 예수 이미지는 1920년대 반기독교운동의 담금질을 거치면서 신문·잡지 등 여러 매체를 통해 전국에 급속히 전해져 중국 사회에서 기독교에 대한 이질성을 더욱 강화시켰다. 이런 면에서 볼 때 19세기와 20세기의 반기독교운동이 반기독교 선전 텍스트를 정치적으로 이용하는 의미에서는 실질적으로 양자가 구별되지 않는다. 그러나 이전 시대와 달리 1920년대에는 여러 지역으로 연결된 매체를 통해 기독교에 대한 잘못된 인식을 바로 잡기 위한 중국 지식인들과 기독교인들의 노력들도 나타났다. 그것은 이질적인 기독교가 중국 사회와 공존할 수 있는 모색이었고, 그 방법은 추후 연구 과제로 남겨둔다.

The Tragic Irony of a Patriotic Mission: The Indigenous Leadership of Francis Wei and T. C. Chao, Radicalized Patriotism, and the Reversal of Protestant Missions in China

Motivated by a patriotic zeal for the national salvation of China, in the 1910s, US-trained Chinese intellectuals like Francis Wei and T. C. Chao embraced a progressive version of Protestantism. While Christian colleges established by liberal missionaries during this time initially contributed greatly to nurturing a generation of intellectual elites for China, its institutionalization of progressive ideas, and its tolerance and protection of revolutionary mobilization under extraterritorial rights, also unintendedly helped invigorate indigenous revolutionary movements. Meanwhile, in the 1920s, anti-Western and anti-Christian student movements radicalized in China’s major urban centers. When the communist revolution showed more promise of granting China independence, Francis Wei and T. C. Chao became optimistic supporters. However, neither of them foresaw the reversal of China missions under the Three-Self Patriotic Movement in the 1950s.

1920년대 중국의 ‘非基督敎運動’ 재평가 -反基督敎에 대한 이성적 비판의 관점에서-

1920년대 중국의 ‘非基督敎運動’ 재평가 -反基督敎에 대한 이성적 비판의 관점에서-

Western Establishment or Chinese Sovereignty? The Tientsin Anglo-Chinese College during the Restore Educational Rights Movement, 1924–7

The 1920s were a vital period for the evolution of Christianity in China, during which the Anti-Christian Movement of 1922–7 brought Christianity under serious attack. A new conception of nationalism, influenced by Lenin's theory of imperialism, dramatically changed the way in which Christianity (and especially mission schools) was regarded, from being viewed as a positive factor in China's modernization to being seen as a hated cultural imperialist invasion. The period from 1924 to 1927 featured the demand for the restoration of educational rights, during which the identity of mission schools was used to stir up nationalist hatred. This article takes Tientsin Anglo-Chinese College (TACC) of the London Missionary Society (LMS) as a case study. It examines how the TACC missionary authorities responded to nationalistic sentiments emerging within the college and in society, and how they reacted towards the compulsory registration and consequent abolition of compulsory school religious education. It explores key issues behind the interaction between mission schools and the socio-political context, such as how TACC reconstructed its identity during the process of school registration, and how it negotiated with the Ministry of Education under the tension between two divergent approaches of Christianizing and nationalizing mission schools, a tension which became acute as a consequence of the application of regulations making school religious education and practice optional.

Scientism, Nationalism, and Christianity: The Spread and Influence of Kotoku Shusui’s On the Obliteration of Christ in China

Owing to Zhu Zhixin’s introduction and Liu Wendian’s translation, Japanese anarchist Kotoku Shusui’s On the Obliteration of Christ came to have a great impact on China’s Anti-Christian Movement following the May Fourth Movement. What these three texts oppose is not only Christian authority, but also political power. In a continuous line, these writings lay the basic framework for Chinese anti-Christian speech in the 1920s, as the combination of scientism and nationalism began to shape people’s perception of Christianity.

1920년대 ‘非基督敎運動’과 중국 공산당

1920년대 ‘非基督敎運動’과 중국 공산당

Divergent Paths of Protestantism and Asian Nationalism: A Comparison of Two Social Movements in Korea and China in 1919

In Korea, the March First Movement in 1919 fused Christian identity with nationalistic rituals, making Korean Protestants respectable patriots in the eyes of their countrymen. In China, however, the fledgling nationalism nurtured by the May Fourth Movement in the same year soon gave rise to strong anti-Christian sentiments, culminating in major waves of anti-Christian movements in the 1920s. How do we explain these different outcomes? We argue that the encounters between two different types of Protestantism and two variant forms of nationalism led Korea and China on divergent paths.

Toward a Social-Ecological Methodology for Theological-Structural Analysis: Comparing Responses to Anti-Christian Sentiment at Yanjing and St. John’s Universities in Republican China (1920–1935)

ABSTRACT This article examines how two prominent Chinese Christian universities, Yanjing (Yenching) and St. John’s, responded to the anti-Christian movements of the 1920s. I argue that China’s Christian universities became places of vocational and institutional praxis during this period when the implicit theologies of culture undergirding each university’s sense of Christian mission were tested by central government policy and student activism. Despite their common theological worldviews, Yanjing’s and St. John’s responses reflect different views toward Chinese culture and nationalism. Whereas Yanjing University leaders actively reformed administrative structure and curriculum, St. John’s put forth sustained resistance. To conduct this analysis, this article presents a three-step method for theological-structural analysis that includes (1) identifying the ways implicit theologies of culture are structurally institutionalized, (2) critical observation of the way these structures respond to conflicting sociopolitical pressures, and (3) analysis of these responses in the context of the organizations’ institutional and environmental patterns.

Rising Nationalism and the Diminishing Role of the Christian Institutions in Chinese National Physical Education and Sport, 1919–1928

The May Fourth and Anti-Christian Movements represented rising tides of national in China had a significant influence on Christian institutions and the programs of physical education and sport they promoted. From 1919 to 1928, Chinese nationalists gradually took over physical education programs from the foreign Christian missionaries and YMCA directors through an indigenization process that took place through a complex negotiation between the Western and Chinese values. During this period, Christian influence was severely affected by these movements that incited the Chinese people to claim their sport sovereign rights from foreigners’ hands. The role of missionary educational institutions and the YMCA in physical education and sport declined dramatically, and Western physical education and sport in China underwent a nationalizing purification. This indigenous purification process illuminates how Chinese nationalists responded to Western imperialism and the influence of the Christian institutions during the early twentieth century.

The Sage of Sages: T. C. Chao's Christology in Yesu Zhuan

T. C. Chao (Zhao Zichen, 1888–1979) was a leading Chinese theologian of the twentieth century. His Yesu Zhuan is a well-known book in China and accepted by many Chinese people as a way to know who Jesus is. Given this, this article will examine Chao's Christology in Yesu Zhuan. It will first introduce the historical context of Yesu Zhuan, including national crisis, cultural crisis and anti-Christian movements. Then, Chao's purpose and the methodology of writing Yesu Zhuan will be elaborated, which will be followed by a theological appraisal of Chao's methodology and Christology in Yesu Zhuan. By so doing, the article will demonstrate that under the influence of Western liberal theology and with the effort to indigenise Christianity in China, Chao actually portrays a ‘Jesus’ who is the most prominent Sage, the Sage of sages. That means he delineates a possible way in which Christian faith may be understood in Chinese culture. However, the ‘Jesus’ in Yesu Zhuan is a mere human being without divine nature. In the end, the Christology in Yesu Zhuan diametrically contradicts Chalcedonian Christology.

Chinese Communism and the Anti-Christian Movement:

Chinese Communism and the Anti-Christian Movement:

Yangjiao or the “Other”? Christianity and Chinese Society in the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century

This article explores the relationship between Christianity and Chinese society in the second half of the nineteenth century by re-examining the primary sources of anti-Christian movements. The first part shows how Christian churches broke the dominance of the Qing government over local society. Conflicts between Christianity and Chinese religion were often transformed into political confrontations between churches and the Qing bureaucracy. The second part analyzes how Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism interpreted Christianity, with an emphasis on how to understand the perception of Christianity in Chinese society. Exploring broader societal perceptions of Christianity—and not just those expressed in the writings of the Confucian literati—allows for a more nuanced understanding of Chinese interpretations of Christianity. The third part studies the relationship between churches and Chinese religious sects. On the one hand, in the language of anti-Christian movements such as those of the Zaili and Cai sects, Christianity was the hateful “Other.” On the other hand, in the process of preaching Christianity, churches themselves experienced a period of transmutation: they recruited into the church not only non-religious civilians but also the followers of popular religions. For a long period, Christianity was called yangjiao, the “foreign religion,” making it the “Other.” Missionaries started to feel an urgency to reject their identity as the “Other” after the harrowing experience of the Boxer Movement.

From Christian Aliens to Chinese Citizens: The National Identity of Chinese Christians in the Twentieth Century

Christianity used to be an alien affair in China, both culturally and politically. Since the Boxer Movement in 1900, Chinese Christians began to reflect on their own national identity. The Anti-Christian Movement in the 1920s accelerated this process, with the indigenisation movement as a key programme. It was due to the Three-Self Patriotic Movement in the 1950s that Chinese Christians finally became part of the Chinese People. This achievement was consolidated with the accommodation and reform in the 1980s: the greatest change in Christianity in twentieth-century China. In the global context, Chinese Christians not only need consider how to adapt to Chinese culture and society, but also how they will contribute to the world Christian movement.

Cultural Mixture: Yenching Students and Missionary Christianity

AbstractYenching University, one of the most influential institutions in Chinese education in the first half of the twentieth century, also was emblematic of Sino-American cultural interchanges. Its development in the late 1910s and the 1920s coincided with a strong upsurge in national sentiment and anti-Christian movements in China. When the Communist victory and the Korean War brought patriotic anti-American feelings to a peak, the university was deeply shaken and was forced to close its doors. Forty years after its closure, Yenching’s name still arouses memories and fierce unresolved controversies. Both strong critics and defenders of the school need to include the Yenching experience in any discussion of cultural activities between the United States and China in the twentieth century. Yenching is more than a historical interlude, for the Yenching experience sheds light on issues that may influence the future of educational and cultural interactions in Sino-American relations.