Three-Self Patriotic Movement Research Articles

The Church as an Alternative Polis

This article explores three different views of Wang Mingdao’s ecclesial stance and his approach to the Three-Self Patriotic Movement (TSPM): his refusal to join the TSPM as a political rather than theological approach to resisting the Chinese Communist Party; his refusal to accept the TSPM’s authority as the Protestant church’s resistance to Chinese hegemony; and his ecclesial stance as a sectarian withdrawal from the world. Considering these diverse scholarly perspectives, I interpret Wang’s response to the TSPM as part of a necessary proclamatory action and propose that Wang’s model of radical action models the politics of Jesus. His church is political only as defined by the gospel, and it represents a new polis—a kind of community established in and through Jesus of Nazareth to stand as a political alternative to the dominant politics of the world and contribute to an alternative identity of a citizen. I, therefore, approach Wang’s faith practice from an ecclesiological standpoint and situate him and his ecclesial activities into the historical and theological context to explore his biblical-theological foundation for this new polis and its public witness. I argue that Wang’s rejection of the TSPM and his alternative way of engaging with political issues such as imperialism, nationalism, and church-state relations show that his ecclesial stance is novel and distinct from other forms of politics.

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.

Human Rights, Religion and the Rule of Law: A Response

ABSTRACTThe articles gathered here provide a range of approaches, but there are some topics that should be added to the discussion to provide a fuller picture. These topics include: a Chinese Marxist approach to human rights; socialist rule of law, which frames the revised (2018) regulation on religion; the largest Protestant church organization in the world, the Three-Self Patriotic Movement; and the 2018 Chinese-Vatican agreement. The following is predicated on the need for engagement with the full picture, upon which assessment should be based.

중국교회 삼자애국운동(三自愛國運動) 연구 : 1949~1954년을 중심으로

중국교회 삼자애국운동(三自愛國運動) 연구 : 1949~1954년을 중심으로

Chinese Christianity: An Interplay between Global and Local Perspectives by Peter Tze Ming Ng

Reviewed by: Chinese Christianity: An Interplay between Global and Local Perspectives by Peter Tze Ming Ng D. E. Mungello (bio) Peter Tze Ming Ng. Chinese Christianity: An Interplay between Global and Local Perspectives. Leiden: Brill, 2012. xiii, 258 pp. Hardcover €108.00 ($144.00). isbn 978-90-04-22574-9. The history of Christianity in China since 1949 has been marked by deep divisions in both the Protestant and Catholic churches over the question of state control. This governmental control was initially part of a campaign to eradicate Western imperialism, but it has evolved in more recent times into a reassertion of a Chinese tradition of highly centralized political control over religious expression. China is a large country with many divergent segments and a fear of national disintegration (most recently experienced in the years 1912–1949) drives this control. This struggle for political control has manifested itself in the government-initiated Three-Self Patriotic Movement (TSPM) to control Protestant churches and the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association (CCPA) to control Catholic churches. However, because of resistance to the state control of the TSPM, [End Page 349] many Protestant groups have refused to register with the government and have continued to meet as unregistered “house churches” (jiating jiaohui 家庭教會). Likewise, Catholics who have maintained an ultimate loyalty to Rome rather than Beijing in spiritual matters have formed an underground church. Writings on the subject of Christianity in China since 1949 tend to express a sympathy for one or the other of these divisions, although few authors are explicit about their sympathy. The subject of this book by Peter Tze Ming Ng 吳梓明 is the historical evolution of Protestant Christianity in China from a missionary-imposed Western Christianity, which was resisted by Chinese as alien and foreign, to the development of genuine regional/local forms of Chinese Christianity which have thrived as a more authentically Chinese experience. Ng uses the neologism “glocalization” to describe this blending of global and local forces. The term was promoted at a conference “Glocalization and Christianity” sponsored by the government think-tank the Centre for the Study of Christianity in the Research Institute of World Religions, Chinese Academy of Social Studies (CASS), Beijing, in December 2003 (p. 31-32). Although the term “glocalization” is new, the thesis is not, and it is well presented by Ng’s focus on several important figures in the idea’s evolution. The first was the evangelist Cheng Jingyi 誠靜怡 (C. Y. Cheng, 1881-1939). Ng presents Cheng as a pivotal figure in the development of an indigenous Protestant church. He was one of only three Chinese delegates to attend the 1910 Edinburgh Conference where at the youthful age of twenty-eight he gave two presentations in which he appealed for the development of indigenous Chinese churches (p. 79-80). Cheng helped to enunciate the idea that European Christianity, American Christianity and Chinese Christianity were all localized and indigenized parts of World Christianity. In 1922 the theologian Zhao Zichen 趙紫宸 (C. T. Chao, 1888-1979) echoed Cheng in calling for the removal of foreign, Western denominational divisions to create an indigenous Chinese Christianity (p. 87). Ng cites three “prophetic voices” (p. 111) to illustrate the relationship between global and local perspectives in the development of indigenous Christianity in China: Timothy Richard, David Paton, and K. H. Ting. Richard was a Baptist missionary who arrived in China in 1870 and would spend forty-five years there before retiring in 1914 (p. 114-116). He began by using the evangelistic methods of daily preaching and distribution of Bibles favored by the China Inland Mission, but over time modified these methods to a more accommodating approach. During the first decade of the twentieth century, Chinese officials charged Richard with the task of using Boxer indemnity funds returned by the United States government and several Protestant missionary boards to establish Shanxi University (p. 50-55). When he refused to use the university as a tool for evangelization, some missionaries complained. On the other hand, in the face of anti-Christian opposition from some Chinese officials and gentry, Richard insisted that teachers would [End Page 350] be free to offer Christian theology classes to students as elective rather than required courses. David...

PENTECOSTAL CHRISTIANITY AND CHURCH-STATE RELATIONS IN CHINA: THE CASE OF THE TRUE JESUS CHURCH MOVEMENT

In-depth study of the True Jesus Church, a completely indigenous Pentecostal Chinese religious group that has experienced dramatic growth in recent years, reveals the complex and diverse reality of variation in church-state relationships in China. The True Jesus Church is distinct in that, in many regions, it is not a part of the overall “Three-Self Patriotic Movement” structure, nor does it belong to the “house church” movement. In China today, a society where an overarching rule-of-law system is missing, fates of religious congregations often lie in the hands of local bureaucrats. The quality of relationships—the “Guanxi”— with the local government often determines the degree of freedom for religious practices.

Engaging and Evading the Party-State: Unofficial Chinese Protestant Groups in China’s Reform Era

Despite official regulation and in some cases repression, Protestant Christianity is one of the fastest growing religions in Mainland China today. In 1949, at the time of the Communist revolution, there were only 623,000 Protestant Christians in the mission churches in China, and they made up less than one-tenth of one per cent of the entire population. (1) Today, there are at least 50 million Protestants in China, and some scholars estimate that there are as many as 100 million. (2) Roughly 20 per cent of China's Protestants worship in churches affiliated with the government's Three-Self Patriotic Movement (Zhongguo jidujiao sanzi aiguo yundong weiyuan hui or sanzi jiaohui; hereafter, TSPM). (3) The rest worship in churches that are not recognised as official Protestant groups related to the TSPM. (4) This article draws on unique and valuable new data, as well as other primary and secondary sources, to examine the challenges and open spaces for non-TSPM Protestant groups in China's post-Mao period. It finds that four important factors influence the ability of non-TSPM Protestant leaders and groups to thrive within China's post-Mao political environment: (i) the behaviour of Protestant groups in the face of official rules and restrictions; (ii) the geographic location of Protestant groups; (iii) the extent and type of their personal connections (guanxi) with Party-state authorities; and (iv) political and material pressures on the local authorities with whom Protestants interact. Overall, the data and findings presented herein offer new insights into the complexity of Protestant church-state relations in China today. DATA SOURCES Supplementing the rich data that can be found in the existing scholarly literature on Mainland Chinese Protestant groups, (5) this article taps an array of additional sources. First, it consults reports prepared by human rights groups such as Human Rights Watch and the China Aid Association. Second, it examines primary documents produced by various levels of the Chinese Party-state, as well as primary documents and autobiographical accounts produced by members of Protestant churches. Third, it references non-academic studies by foreign journalists and observers who have extensive contacts with Mainland Chinese Protestant churches. (6) Fourth, it utilises information reported in nine roughly two-hour interviews conducted in 2009 and 2010 by the authors. The respondents included former Protestant church leaders and members currently residing in the United States who are still in contact with official and unofficial churches throughout China, and human rights lawyers who have defended the leaders of unofficial churches (see Appendix for a list of the questions posed to these interview subjects). Five of the nine respondents were in leadership positions in large unofficial Protestant churches or church networks when they were in China. At the time of the interviews, all of the respondents were active in Chinese Protestant churches in the US that minister to unofficial Protestant churches throughout China. Fifth, it draws on the personal experience of one of this article's co-authors, who was a member for 30 years (1978-2008) of an unofficial Protestant church that has been illegal in China since 1952. She was employed and later volunteered as a translator in the church's publishing companies in Taipei and the US from 1983 to 2001. Since 2002, she has helped nearly 100 Mainland Chinese members of her church and other unofficial churches to obtain asylum and settle in the US. She has also done freelance translation and interpretation work for the China Aid Association. Sixth, this article is based on the content of a random sample of 800 letters written by listeners in China to the Hong Kong-based Far East Broadcasting Company (hereafter FEBC) and its Voice of Friendship Seminary. The FEBC is a nondenominational, international Christian radio network that broadcasts the Good News in more than 130 languages from 128 transmitters located throughout the world. …

Protestant Worship with Chinese Characteristics: Reflections on a Chinese Worship Service

Abstract The article explores the latent impact of traditional Chinese culture on worship in one Three-Self Patriotic Movement Protestant church in a mid-sized, provincial city in central China. Employing a case study approach, the author visited the church under consideration numerous times over a several-year period and interviewed pastors, evangelists, and members about their worship services. The author’s conclusion is that subtle aspects of the Chinese tradition, and above all Confucianism, can be seen in the worship services of this church. Additionally, the author suggests that these influences can be seen in worship in provincial urban churches around the country and considers the probability and process of change taking place in their worship services.

Protestantism in China: A Dilemma for the Party-State

This paper examines the relationship between the Chinese state and Protestantism. It demonstrates that it varies widely from place to place; moreover, the actual relationship between individual churches and the local authorities that are supposed to govern them paints a quite different picture from that implied by the laws and regulations. The paper also argues that the state faces a dilemma: On one hand it feels threatened by the appearance of autonomous organizations such as unregistered churches, while on the other it values the contributions they make to society and recognizes that subjecting them to the Three-Self Patriotic Movement and China Christian Council would require a good deal of force and be very socially disruptive.

Global Christianity and Local Contexts: the Case of K.H. Ting and the Three-Self Church in China

Abstract‘Local Contexts’ is the qualifier of ‘Global Christianity’ as ‘the global must become localized’ in the process of globalization of Christianity. The case of Bishop Ting, together with the Three-Self Patriotic Movement and the National Christian Council in China will be studied for illustration. Ting was well aware of his socio-political realities and his mission to work out ways to keep alive Christian faith in the Communist state of China. He was committed to serve the Church and the Christians in China and to work out ‘Christianity with Chinese socialist characteristics’. It was found that Chinese Christianity must fulfil its bi-characteristic functions, namely the ‘Chinese’ and ‘Christian’ functions. Regarding the mission of Chinese theology, Chinese theologians must address to the socio-political and cultural contexts, to the needs of Chinese Christians, as well as to bear witness to the Christian faith within the living contexts of the Church in China.

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.

Christianity and Women in Contemporary China

In May 2005, Chong Yi Church, the biggest church in China, which sits about 5,000 people, was completed and dedicated in Hangzhou, in Zhejiang Province in China. The ceiling above the spacious choir loft of this impressive church soars to more than two hundred feet, and the prominent white cross at the center measures sixty feet tall. During the dedication ceremony, Yang Lufu, at 90, conducted the choir of several hundred members with joyfulness and gratitude. The widow of the Rev. Cai Wenhao, a prominent Christian leader in Hangzhou, Yang has lived through the ups and downs of the Chinese churches: the adaptation to the founding of the People’s Republic of China; the closure of churches during the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976); the reopening of churches in the late 1970s; and the phenomenal growth of churches in recent years. When the People’s Republic of China was founded in 1949, there were about 2.7 million Catholics, 700,000 Protestants, and 300,000 Orthodox Christians.1 In the 1950s, when foreign missions were attacked as cultural imperialism, the Chinese churches severed their ties with foreign missions and launched the China Christian Council and ThreeSelf Patriotic Movement: self-governing, self-supporting, and selfpropagating. The Three-Self Patriotic Movement of the Protestant churches was formed in 1954;2 in 1957, the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association was established and the Chinese Catholic Church began to elect and consecrate its own bishops. However, many Chinese Christians remained suspicious of the Three-Self Movement and fearful of government control in religious affairs. Instead of joining the Three-Self The Journal of World Christianity 2010, Volume3:1 #1-17

Theological Reconstruction in China: Ecumenical Accompaniment in the Self‐Theologizing Effort in Theological Education

AbstractIn 2007 Protestants in China celebrated the 200th anniversary of their journey of faith. The continuing concern of Chinese Christian theological educators is to rejuvenate Christianity in China by critically adapting to the contemporary socialist order and the best religio‐cultural tradition of Chinese society. Chinese Christians have been challenged by the socialist order of society particularly because of the political and social changes that have taken place in China since the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949 and the changes brought about within Chinese society. With the end of the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976) and the change of political atmosphere in 1978 there has been once again an opening for public Christian activities within the confines of certain state regulations. This change has provided scope for pursuing the reconstruction in China of Christianity initiated in the 1950s under the Three Self Patriotic Movement (TSPM). Besides the revival of TSPM, the Chinese leaders have set up another instrument, the China Christian Council (CCC) especially to cater to the surging pastoral and congregational needs. This article briefly surveys the development of the vision of reconstructing Christianity through “theological reconstruction” and the need for ecumenical accompaniment.

Watchman Nee and the Little Flock Movement in Maoist China

The experience of Watchman Nee (Ni Tuosheng) and the Christian Assembly (Jidutu juhuichuorJidutu juhuisuo) in Mainland China after the Communist Revolution of 1949 reveals the complexity of church and state relations in the early 1950s. Widely known in the West as the Little Flock (Xiaoqun), the Christian Assembly, founded by Watchman Nee, was one of the fastest growing native Protestant movements in China during the early twentieth century. It was not created by a foreign missionary enterprise. Nor was it based on the Anglo-American Protestant denominational model. And its rapid development fitted well with an indigenous development called the Three-Self Movement, in which Chinese Christians created self-supporting, selfgoverning, and self-propagating churches. But it did not share the highly politicized anti-imperialist rhetoric of another Three-Self Movement, the Communist-initiated “Three-Self Patriotic Movement” (sanzi aiguo yundong): self-rule autonomous from foreign missionary and imperialist control, financial self-support without foreign donations, and self-preaching independent of any Christian missionary influences. As the overarching organization of the one-party state, the Three-Self Patriotic Movement sought to ensure that all Chinese Protestant congregations would submit to the socialist ideology.

Les Associations Des Cinq Religions Officiellement Reconnues En République Populaire De Chine

In the People’s Republic of China seven religious organizations are officially recognized: the China Islamic Association, the China Buddhist Association, the China Protestant Three-Self Patriotic Movement, the China Christian Council, the China Taoist Association, the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association and the Chinese Catholic Bishops College. The author analyses structures and functions of these organizations within the framework of the political system in the People’s Republic. The thesis is that the present situation depends not only on the influence of Marxist-Maoist theories and practical problems of the Communist State but also on the long Chinese traditions of regulating the state–religion relationship. The theoretical reflections end with a comparison between China and the former German Democratic Republic.

Jianshe Theology: Reflections about the Process of Theological Reconstruction in China

AbstractThe article introduced the process of theological reconstruction (jianshe) which has been at the centre of the theological reflection of the Chinese church in the past five years, and continues to be do. The article also describes the historical context of an extraordinary church growth in which this reflection has taken and is taking place. The author analyses how this process links ecumenical and hermeneutical interests: theological reconstruction in China today tries to overcome traditional theology which was shaped by Western missionaries, and to find a framework for a genuinely contextual theology that is relevant to society.The goal of the process of theological reconstruction is to identify a contextual theology which builds bridges between Christian faith and the world. Accordingly, those elements of Christian faith are emphasized which facilitate an openness to the world. Contextual theology as encountered in the process of theological reconstruction reflects the importance that harmony has in the context and historical experience of China. The introduction of hermeneutical categories in the theological reflection makes it possible to overcome a narrow biblicism as well as a non‐historical application of one's own principles of biblical interpretation.The article contains a discussion about the possible misunderstandings that the term “theological reconstruction”can evoke, and suggests leaving the term untranslated. It also critically examines the challenges that the enormous speed of modernization in China poses.

What to Preach? Christian Witness in China, with Reference to the Party's Policy of Mutual Accommodation

Christians are called to be God’s witnesses wherever they live and work. This is not something optional, but is rather the identity of Christians. Put theologically, a withdrawal from witness signifies a withdrawal from grace rather than from duty. Nevertheless, witness has to be contextualised in order that the Christian witness is a reality instead of a ‘virtual reality’. Therefore, any truthful and relevant account of Christian witness has to be faithful both to its tradition (faith) and to its social context. But we have to admit that being faithful to one’s tradition and to one’s social context is always in tension, and thereby, Christian witness is always a process of discernment and struggle rather than simply a matter of application. This paper is a study about Christian (or more precisely, Protestant) witness in China during the 1990s and thereafter. The purpose of the paper is not to argue whether the history of Christian witness in China has to be interpreted as a history of imperialism and colonialism or a history written in flesh and blood, whether the ‘Three-Self Patriotic Movement’ is a Christian movement or a government agency, but rather to examine how Christians in China search for their identity and mission in terms of theological construction in responding to the policy of mutual accommodation of the Communist Party (hereafter, the Party). In other words, the question of ‘what to preach’ is the fundamental concern of this paper. Mutual accommodation is a religious policy first proposed by some government officials in the early 1980s, and finally endorsed on 11 November 1993 by President Jiang Zemin’s speech. In his speech, he said,

What We Can Learn from Y. T. Wu Today

Wu Yaozong (1893–1979), or Y. T. Wu as he was known in Western circles, rose from his work in the Shanghai branch of the YMCA to become the leader of those Chinese Christians who determined to support the new regime after the communist victory over Nationalist forces in 1949. Earlier, in 1945, he had founded Tian Feng but wasforced to resign its editorship on account of an article he wrote attacking the association of Christianity in China with capitalism and American policies. In the spirit of the principles of self-support, self-government, and self-propagation, Wu incorporated the slogan ai quo ai jiao (love country, love church) in the Three-Self Patriotic Movement. Around him gathered a circle of younger men and women who shared his determination to end Western domination of the Chinese churches. Best known of these today is Bishop K. H. Ting, author of the following article. He followed Wu as Chair of the National Three-Self Patriotic Movement and also founded the China Christian Council. Bishop Ting's address was presented in Shanghai in September 1989, at a gathering called by the China Christian Council and the National Three-Self Movement Committee in Shanghai. Sister Theresa Chu, R.S.C.]., of the Canada China Project, provided the English translation from which this article is adapted.