The Diplomat writer Mercy Kuo frequently engages subject-matter consultants, coverage practitioners, and strategic thinkers throughout the globe for his or her numerous insights into U.S. Asia coverage. This dialog with Dr. Paul H. B. Chang – affiliate professor within the Division of Non secular Research on the College of California at Riverside and writer of “The Non secular Individual: An Mental Biography of Watchman Nee” (Oxford 2026) – is the 519th in “The Trans-Pacific View Perception Collection.”
Determine the highest three developments of Christianity in China.
I might say that most likely the highest three developments are the continued development and vibrancy of Christianity in China, the rising scrutiny and stress positioned on Christian organizations and their actions by the CCP [Chinese Community Party], and Chinese language Christians’ theological and sensible responses to their altering political and social environments.
Though I take advantage of the phrase Christian, right here and for the remainder of the interview I’m actually talking primarily of Protestants. In China, each legally and linguistically, Protestants and Catholics function virtually as two separate religions. Virtually talking, there may be important interplay and overlap however an skilled on Chinese language Catholicism can be higher positioned to speak about how a lot of this interview applies to Chinese language Catholic circles.
I additionally need to make clear that my work largely facilities on what one may take into account extra summary, strictly theological developments. Thus, the highest three developments I personally discover most fascinating relate to Chinese language Christian views on the character and position of the church, differing doctrines on salvation, and contrasting views on human nature.
So far as the church is anxious, like all Christians, Chinese language Christians have a longstanding curiosity in balancing the wants of the native and the common church. They’ve thought rather a lot about how authority and administration could be each regionally responsive and universally coherent. There’s additionally a associated, ongoing debate amongst Chinese language Christians about how a lot the church ought to interact with secular society, each when it comes to the federal government and when it comes to wider cultural developments.
Then, when it comes to salvation, I feel Chinese language Christians as soon as once more have their very own fascinating, inside debate that roughly corresponds to theological developments outdoors of China. Whereas Reformed Christians have centered on extra forensic, systematic views on salvation, Watchman Nee is consultant of another prepare of thought that sees salvation as one thing extra natural, seated within the union between the human and the divine.
This leads into my third perspective – that’s, contrasting views on human nature. As soon as once more, I see the 2 major mental choices as being one thing like a Reformed custom, the place the divine and human are extra strictly delineated and saved aside, and a extra mystical perspective, which sees some kind of ontological union as not solely as doable however elementary.
Look at Western misconceptions about Chinese language Christians.
Particularly for Chinese language Christians who observe or are influenced by Watchman Nee, their major concern will not be with political repression nor with asking for political assist from outdoors China. Their theological mission is basically orthogonal to political adjustments and continues whether or not there may be widespread assist or disapprobation. And but, they’re very involved in speaking their common imaginative and prescient with the world.
They’ve a message for Western Christianity, certainly, for the Western secular world at massive – particularly that Jesus is coming and that sadly, most Christians and church buildings haven’t met his commonplace and could also be discovered missing on Jesus’s return. Few Westerners have heard their instructing that human beings ought to put together for the tip by being united in pure, native church buildings. In such native congregations, particular person members can observe self-denial in self-sacrificing love for each other. This stands in stark distinction to this contemporary age of self-indulgence and self-promotion, which, they might argue, brings solely distress.
Describe the scope of Watchman Nee’s religion and mental management past China.
Nee’s message is kind of legible and even engaging to Westerners, particularly to these of an evangelical Christian heritage. In the course of the later years of his imprisonment, particularly in the course of the Nineteen Sixties and Seventies, he turned one thing of a trigger célèbre amongst readers all through the world, as a residing instance of a Christian struggling for his religion. He’s fairly readable in Chinese language and he wrote a number of key books in eloquent English as nicely, akin to “The Regular Christian Life.” His writings have bought thousands and thousands of copies and have been translated into dozens of languages.
Moreover, his affect reveals no signal of slowing down, much more than 50 years after his demise. In actual fact, given his reputation in non-Western Christian circles, akin to in Africa and Latin America, it’s fairly doable that he has extra readers than ever in 2026.
All of which means that Watchman Nee belongs to a really choose group of Chinese language thinkers whose concepts and writings have unfold past China and the Sinosphere and may really be thought-about a part of a worldwide mental dialog. This small circle consists of figures akin to Confucius, Lao Zi, and Mao Zedong. Like them, Nee’s affect will not be solely broad but additionally deep. Whereas many have casually learn or appreciated Nee’s work, for some individuals, it has develop into a central ethical compass and a information to their human lives. In hundreds of congregations on all six continents, there are lots of of hundreds of avid readers of Nee’s work who actively promote his views on the Bible and on the perfect form of Christian life.
In these arenas, Nee’s clear message is that conventional or nominal Christianity alone can’t accomplish God’s objective and objective for humanity. What God seeks will not be adherents who donate cash, defend orthodox doctrines, or carry out sure rituals faithfully, however true worshippers whose complete lives come out of a radical root of self-denial. This self-denial is neither asceticism nor harsh self-treatment, however the spontaneous forgetting of the self that comes out of a deep love for Christ and the church.
Clarify the importance of recognition by the 111th (2009-2011) and 113th (2013-2015) U.S. Congress of Watchman Nee’s contributions to Christian thought in China.
In each the 111th and 113th U.S. Congress, Watchman Nee was formally acknowledged by members of the USA Congress. These are extra formal, political manifestations of the bigger grassroots assist Nee has typically obtained over the many years. In Christian circles, Nee has been lauded by influential figures throughout the Protestant spectrum starting from Jerry Falwell and Carl Henry to Kenneth Hagin and Benny Hinn. Nee has even discovered followers in well-liked tradition, together with Bono and different members of the Irish rock band, U2, who severely thought-about giving up their profession in well-liked music due to Nee’s teachings on the self.
All of those level to the slightly simple information that I consider are tacitly acknowledged even inside Chinese language authorities circles, particularly that Watchman Nee, and his most vital follower Witness Lee, are necessary figures of world historical past. Because the 113th U.S. Congress assertion identified, it’s ironic that with China’s rising presence on the worldwide stage, a few of its biggest thinkers can’t even be legally learn inside its personal borders and their affect overseas can’t be brazenly acknowledged.
Assess the affect of Watchman Nee’s Christian thought on non secular freedom in China-U.S. people-to-people relations.
Nee’s relationship with non secular freedom is fascinating. He held to a core set of non-negotiable beliefs for which he was keen to struggling imprisonment and even martyrdom, like many Christians earlier than him. Moreover these core, slightly theological values, he was keen to compromise and work with the federal government quite a bit. He felt that obedience to human authority as an extension of God’s authority was a key Christian advantage, and whereas he was imprisoned, he appears to have behaved himself as an exemplary inmate, besides in his unwillingness to recant his religion.
The people-to-people relationships between Nee’s followers inside and outdoors of China are a key take a look at case for the boundaries and prospects for non secular speech in civic and political areas. Particular person followers of Nee might and do maintain a spread of political beliefs. However, as a company physique – that’s, because the church – they’re categorically against direct involvement in politics, besides to obey any specific instructions that don’t contradict the gospel. It’s laborious to think about a extra politically quietist Protestant group.
And but, regardless of their quiescent nature, the actual fact of their constituting an ethical group does create an impartial authority inside the bigger physique politic. I suppose that from a very paranoid perspective, even a very subservient church could seem to pose a menace due to its impartial existence. Nonetheless, members of congregations that observe Nee have struck me as mannequin residents wherever I’ve met them, whether or not within the U.S. or China. They are typically scrupulously trustworthy of their private {and professional} lives and see a law-abiding, respectful perspective towards authorities as a significant a part of their private piety and Christian witness.
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