Editor's note: Naomi Thurston, assistant professor of the Divinity School of Chung Chi College/Cultural and Religious Studies, The Chinese University of Hong Kong and director of the China Christianity Studies Group (CCSG), talks about the diverse studies of Christianity in China, the related emerging academic field, and the sinicization of Christianity in an exclusive interview with China Christian Daily. She urges Christians in different countries to pay more attention to Asian theologians, who are often underrepresented in the seminary curricula, and to have more conversations with one another.
China Christian Daily: Can you please introduce yourself and your research field?
Naomi Thurston: I'm a scholar of Christianity based at the Divinity School of Chung Chi College, which belongs to The Chinese University of Hong Kong. I teach courses in the History of Christianity in China and World Christianity. My current research concentrations are comparative religious ethnography and theological reception history, particularly the reception of Jürgen Moltmann's theology in Chinese scholarship.
China Christian Daily: What is the current landscape of the study of Christianity in China?
Naomi Thurston: First, Christianity in China is a diverse field. There is, as is commonly stated, not one Christianity; there are many Christianities (多种基督宗教) in China. This is complicated by the official division between Catholicism (天主教) and “Christianity,” i.e., Protestant denominations, as separate religions. The diversity across Chinese Christian faith communities extends beyond the often-cited division between officially operating, registered churches and those that, for various reasons, are not registered. These include vestiges of old missionary denominations but also newly arising differences in theological commitments, denominational affiliations, and stances on social issues. That said, many believers in China, whether members of or attending TSPM or other congregations, seem to subscribe to a generally evangelical set of doctrines and practices. Progressive or “liberal” theological views (自由神学) are often, though not as a rule, eschewed. Christians can be found in almost all sectors of society and walks of life. Christian growth and indigenization have been documented among several of China’s ethnic minorities, including different Miao groups or the Lisu (傈僳) of southwest China. What is important to stress is that, as a scholar of “Christianity in China,” a person might study any of these contemporary phenomena, but a scholar of Christianity in China might also be a Sinologist specializing in Christian texts composed during the Tang dynasty (618–690 CE; 705–907 CE): this is how ancient Chinese Christianity is. The field is immense, with much fruitful ground for research.
Secondly, the “study of Christianity in China”—if we are talking about a research interest among scholars of various backgrounds (中国基督教研究, let’s say)—is a complex field of inquiry that touches on and is grounded in several different disciplines and fields that may or may not overlap: history, China/Asian studies, Sinology, translation studies, study of religion, Word Christianity, theology, etc.
If we are talking about the “study of Christianity” as a field of research driven by Chinese or China-based scholars (Sino-Christian studies 汉語基督教研究), we can see that the field is far more diverse, less centered in the discipline of history, and pioneered initially by philosophers and philosophers of religion in mainland academia in the 1980s and 1990s. Today, the field has diversified into different ideological alignments and academic disciplines, from anthropology and history to literature and comparative religion.
China Christian Daily: Can you share with us your book, Studying Christianity in China: Constructions of an Emerging Discourse? In your opinion, how will this emerging academic trend impact the development of Chinese churches?
Naomi Thurston: In the wake of Deng Xiaoping's economic reforms (改革开放), Chinese intellectuals began researching Christianity as a means of tracing the origins of Western culture and modernity so as to reconstruct its historical influence and philosophical claims, as well as to probe its relationship to Chinese modernity. Today, for example, scholars in Mainland China of diverse backgrounds study Augustine’s writings in order to formulate a specific critique of Western modernity. Such discourses, while not impacting theological developments in Chinese churches in a direct way, demonstrate the vibrancy and potential of intellectual cross-cultural inquiry. If this kind of inquiry remains open, critical, engaged beyond its own borders, and prudently sympathetic to faith concerns and theological reasoning, such discourses and the wider theological dialogue they enable might become a kind of resource for Chinese churches.
Studying Christianity in China is based on my doctoral research, conducted in cities across China between 2011 and 2015. I interviewed nearly fifty scholars related to Sino-Christian studies. Their work covers a spectrum of methodologies, positions, and humanistic concerns. Most scholars who study some aspect of Christianity at Chinese universities are not confessing Christians; they are secularists, often sympathetic to religion but committed first and foremost to academic projects. The shared commitments within this field fascinated me, and I tried to explain what these were, reconstruct the discourse, and understand its contextual meaning.
China Christian Daily: What do you think of the notion of “the sinicization of Christianity”? How should the Bible apply to Christians in the Chinese context?
Naomi Thurston: Any version of Christianity is contextualized; cultural, societal, and political contextualizations are inevitable and natural, but perhaps we can talk about the manipulation of this inevitability, which is something like an ongoing negotiation.
I would like to quote the German theologian Jürgen Moltmann. An admirer of traditional Chinese culture, Moltmann has written about his Western-Christian reading of the Taoist classic Dao De Jing (道德经) while trying to avoid subordinating the text to the full weight of Western interpretive scrutiny. Professor Moltmann has visited China on numerous occasions since the mid-1980s and has maintained academic exchanges and friendships with scholars from Beijing and Nanjing to Taipei, while his works are also well-received across Asia. At a 2018 forum in Hong Kong, Moltmann responded to one of the papers presented, stressing the universality of Christianity in contradistinction to an over-insistence on national identity or the establishment of a “state Christianity”:
“Christianity can never be a tribal religion—a Stammesreligion, as we say in German. The Karlowitz Synod of 1856 forbade the epithets “Serbian,” “Rumanian,” or “Bulgarian” for the Orthodox Church, maintaining that there was only one Church shared between these countries. Likewise, the term “Russian Orthodox Church” is a product of the early twentieth century. In 1964, I argued in favor of an “Exodus Church” over a German state church or “people’s church” (Volkskirche) and other forms of culturally adapted Christianity.”¹
If Sinicization means acknowledging the full agency of Chinese culture, Chinese Christians, and Chinese institutions in setting the agenda for the development of Chinese Christianity, then Sinicization has already largely been achieved. If Sinicization is about going a step further and digging much deeper into the meanings of culturally contextualizing Christian ideas and practices, this is an ongoing effort that will never be completed because cultures are in flux all the time. This is always an important task—a task that belongs to the church—and it begins with cultural translation. If Sinicization means adapting Christian communities to national agendas, this notion has nothing to do with Christianity as such. In addition, the ambiguity of the terminology further complicates the situation. The term “Sinicization” is not necessarily the best rendering of 中国化, which means “Chinafication.” Should the religious practices of China’s ethnic minorities be Sinicized? If so, what does this mean since their cultures are distinct from contemporary mainstream Han culture? Yet contextualization is natural, important, and inevitable. It cannot be avoided. How should the Bible apply to Christians in the Chinese context? I think this is a question for Chinese Christians to answer.
China Christian Daily: What does the study of Chinese Christianity contribute to world Christianity?
Naomi Thurston: I'd say that the study of Chinese Christianity today is integral to the study of World Christianity. This is not only due to the sheer size of the Chinese Christian populations taken together but also because the history of Christianity in China is instructive on so many levels. The diverse Christian groups that developed independently—not just the indigenous Protestant sects of the early 20th century but much earlier Catholic congregations who formed their own unique communities when foreign priests were absent—their struggles for survival as well as their contributions to the Christian faith and religious culture warrant our attention as scholars and Christians. Chinese theologians, as others have already called for, should be on the reading lists of any World Christianity course and should, ideally, play some role in systematic theological education in other parts of the world. As far as I know, even in Asia, Asian theologians are underrepresented in the seminary curricula.
China Christian Daily: During your teaching period in Hong Kong and mainland China, can you share with us your experience of interacting with Chinese students? Is there any way to promote cooperation between academics in China and other countries?
Naomi Thurston: Like many westerners teaching in China, my experiences have been overwhelmingly positive. I learn so much from my students, and this is the aspect of teaching I find most rewarding. I don’t like giving grades, but students in Asia tend to be very focused on high marks, especially here in Hong Kong, so you are always asked to give precise instructions and offer ever more advice on how students can improve their grades. Otherwise, I’ve enjoyed my interactions with our students here at CUHK considerably. The only drawback is that I don’t speak Cantonese. Although my Mandarin is not great, I can hold a conversation, which tends to break the ice much quicker when I talk to students on the Chinese mainland.
How can we improve cooperation? We need to talk and listen to each other—especially listen. We might start by reading each other’s works when we have the time. This is one reason I’ve helped translate articles by contemporary Chinese scholars into English. I find translation extremely time-consuming work, but it is important and should not be treated as a banal technical job. Translation is important and can bring people closer together. We should make fewer assumptions about each other and spend more time sharing meals and interesting conversations with each other.
China Christian Daily: Do you have any words for the Chinese church?
Naomi Thurston: The western church has too long exported its theology to the majority of the world. I would love to be involved in facilitating translations of Chinese theology into English or German if I have the chance. Chloë Starr, Professor of Asian Christianity and Theology at Yale University, has just published a wonderful work based on the two-volume Chinese Theology Reader (汉语神学读本) by He Guanghu and Yeung Hee Nam (Daniel Yeung): A Reader in Chinese Theology (Baylor, 2023). This text is an invaluable resource for western Christians and theologians who want to know more about Chinese theology. What I would like to say is that the western church has already greatly benefited and will continue to benefit from the ideas and life stories of Chinese theologians and Chinese lay Christians. I hope that the Chinese church will be ever more actively involved in the export of its theology abroad.
China Christian Daily: Do you expect any help from China to benefit your research work?
Naomi Thurston: I have lived in this part of the world for nearly a decade. I have learned and been given so much. I have no expectations but am always curious to learn more.
[1] Jürgen Moltmann, “Response to ‘The Chinese Church,’” in Jürgen Moltmann in China: Theological Encounters from Hong Kong to Beijing, edited by Jason Lam and Naomi Thurston (Leiden: Brill, 2023), 87.
编辑按：
China Christian Daily就中国基督教的多元研究、相关新兴学术领域以及基督教中国化等问题，对香港中文大学崇基学院神学系/文化宗教研究助理教授、中国基督宗教研究学会（CCSG）主任德诗婷（Naomi Thurston，娜奥米·瑟斯顿）进行了专访。在这次独家访谈中，她呼吁来自不同国家的基督徒更多关注亚洲神学家，因为他们在神学院的课程中地位往往不高，同时也鼓励他们展开更多的交流对话。
CCD：您能介绍一下您自己和您的研究领域吗？
德诗婷：我是一名基督教研究学者，隶属于香港中文大学崇基学院神学院。我的教学领域包括中国基督教历史和世界基督教等课程。目前，我的研究专注于宗教比较民族学和神学接受史学（theological reception history），尤其关注中国学者对于尤尔根·莫尔特曼（Jürgen Moltmann’）神学的理解与接受。
CCD：目前中国基督教研究的现状如何？
德诗婷：首先，中国的基督教领域表现出多元性。众所周知，中国不仅拥有一个基督宗教，而是涵盖了多个基督宗教流派。在官方将天主教与“基督教”（即新教派别）划分为不同宗教之后，情况变得更加复杂。中国基督信仰的多样性超越了仅仅提及官方注册合法教会（officially operating, registered churches）与未注册教会之间的区分。这些未注册教会包括旧传教士派别的遗存，也包括在神学信仰、教派隶属和社会立场等方面出现的新的差异性群体。
尽管如此，许多中国信徒，无论是基督教三自爱国运动团体的成员还是其他教会的参与者，似乎都奉行普遍的福音派教义和实践。他们通常不太接受先进或“自由开放”的神学观点，虽然这并非绝对。基督徒遍布社会各个领域和行业。一些少数民族社群记录了基督教在中国的发展和本土化，其中包括中国西南地区不同的苗族和傈僳族群体。值得强调的是，研究“中国基督教”的学者可以研究当代存在的上述多种现象，但他们也可能是汉学家，专攻研究中国唐代（618年至690年；705年至907年）创作的基督教文本。这构成了古老的中国基督教领域，涵盖了广泛而丰富的研究方向。
其次，当我们谈论不同背景的学者的研究兴趣，例如“中国基督教研究”，这实际上是一个复杂的研究领域，它跨足并融合了多个不同的学科和领域，可能存在重叠，也可能没有重叠：历史、中国/亚洲研究、汉学、翻译研究、宗教研究、世界基督教、神学等等。
如果我们讨论由中国学者或在中国的学者主导的“基督教研究”领域（即汉语基督教研究），我们会发现这个领域变得更加多元化，不再局限于历史学科。最初，这一研究领域是由中国大陆的哲学家和宗教哲学家在20世纪80年代和90年代首先开创的。如今，这个领域已经呈现出多元性，包括了不同的意识形态取向和学术学科，涵盖从人类学和历史学到文学和比较宗教学等各个方面。
CCD：您能与我们分享一下您的书《研究中国基督教：新兴话语的构建》（暂译，Studying Christianity in China: Constructions of an Emerging Discourse）吗？您认为，这种新兴的学术趋势会如何影响中国教会的发展？
德诗婷：改革开放后，中国的知识分子开始研究基督教，以追溯西方文化和现代性的起源，进而重新构建其历史影响和哲学观点，并探讨其与中国现代性之间的关系。举例来说，如今，中国大陆不同背景的学者正在研究奥古斯丁的著作，以便对西方现代性提出具体的批判。虽然这些论述不会直接影响中国教会的神学发展，但它们展现了跨文化知识探索的活力和潜力。如果这种探索能够保持开放、批判性、跨越边界，并谨慎地关注信仰问题和神学推理，那么这些学者的论述以及由此引发的更广泛的神学对话可能会成为中国教会的一项重要资源。
《研究中国基督教：新兴话语的构建》（暂译，Studying Christianity in China: Constructions of an Emerging Discourse）是基于我在2011年至2015年期间在中国各地城市进行的博士研究而撰写的。在研究过程中，我采访了近50位与汉语基督教研究相关的学者。他们的工作范围涵盖了各种不同的方法论、立场和人文关怀。大多数在中国大学从事基督教相关研究的学者并非虔诚的基督徒；他们更多地属于宗教与教育分离的观点（secularists），虽然通常对宗教持有同情态度，但他们首要关注的是学术项目。这个领域内的共同承诺引起了我的兴趣，我试图对这些共同点进行解释，重构这些共识，并理解它们的语境和意义。
CCD：您对“基督教中国化”（the sinicization of Christianity）的概念有何看法？在中国背景下，基督徒应当如何应用圣经？
德诗婷：任何形式的基督教都是处境化的；文化、社会和政治背景上的影响是不可避免和自然的，但或许我们可以探讨这种必然性的运作过程，它类似于一个持续的协商过程。
我愿意引用德国神学家尤尔根·莫尔特曼的观点。作为中国传统文化的尊重者，莫尔特曼曾以西方基督教的角度阅读道教经典《道德经》，同时试图避免将这个文本完全从西方的解释框架中隔离出来。自20世纪80年代中期以来，莫尔特曼教授多次访问中国，并与来自北京、南京、台北等地的学者保持学术交流和友谊，同时他的作品在亚洲也受到了广泛的赞誉。在2018年于香港举办的一个论坛上，莫尔特曼就其中一篇论文发表了回应，强调了基督教的普遍性，以及这种普遍性与对民族身份的过度强调或倡导“国家基督教”的立场相对立：
“基督教永远不可能成为一个部落宗教（tribal religion），正如我们在德语中所称的‘Stammesreligion’。1856年的卡尔洛维茨大公会议（The Karlowitz Synod）禁止使用‘塞尔维亚的’（Serbian）、‘罗马尼亚的’（Rumanian）或‘保加利亚的’（Bulgarian）这样的词来描述东正教会，并坚称在这些国家之间只存在一个共同的教会。同样，‘俄罗斯东正教会’（Russian Orthodox Church）这个术语是20世纪初才开始使用的。在1964年，我提议使用‘出埃及教会’（Exodus Church），而非德国国教（German state church）或‘人民教会’（Volkskirche），或者其他形式的文化改变后（culturally adapted）的基督教。”[1]
如果“中国化”意味着充分承认中国文化、中国基督徒以及中国机构在制定中国基督教发展议程方面的主体性，那么目前在很大程度上已经实现了“中国化”。如果“中国化”意味着更深入地探讨在文化背景下赋予基督教思想和实践以意义，那么这将是一个持续的努力，因为文化一直在不断变化。这始终是教会所应承担的重要任务，始于文化转译。如果“中国化”意味着将基督教群体适应国家议程，那么这种观点与基督教本身无关。此外，术语的模糊性使情况更加复杂。“Sinicization”这个词并不一定是对“中国化”这个词的最佳翻译，“中国化”意味着Chinafication[2]。在中国少数民族的宗教实践中，是否应该进行“汉化”（Sinicized）？如果是这样，考虑到他们的文化与当代主流汉族文化有所不同，这会意味着什么？然而，处境化是自然且重要的，也是不可避免的。如何在中国的背景下应用圣经？我认为这是一个由中国基督徒来回答的问题。
CCD：中国基督教的研究对世界基督教有何贡献？
德诗婷：我认为，目前中国基督教的研究对于全球基督教研究具有重要意义。这不仅因为中国基督徒的数量庞大，还因为中国基督教的历史在许多方面都具有启发性。不同的基督教群体在相对独立的情况下发展壮大。早在20世纪初，本土新教派别开始兴起；而在外国神父不在的时候形成的独特社群则构成了早期天主教会众。它们所经历的生存斗争，以及对基督教信仰和宗教文化所作出的贡献，都值得学者和基督徒去关注。正如许多人呼吁的，理想的情况是，中国神学家的作品应该被纳入世界基督教课程的阅读列表中，并在系统神学教育中发挥一定的作用。据我了解，甚至在亚洲，亚洲神学家也未在神学院的课程中得到充分的关注。
CCD：在香港和中国大陆的教学经历中，您是否可以与我们分享一些与中国学生互动的经验？此外，您认为有哪些方法可以促进中国与其他国家的学者之间的合作？
德诗婷：和许多在中国教学的西方人一样，我的经验总体来说是非常积极的。我从学生们身上学到了许多，这是我认为教学最有意义的方面。我个人不太喜欢给分数，但亚洲的学生往往非常注重高分，尤其是在香港，所以总是被要求提供明确的指导，并为如何提高成绩提供更多建议。此外，我在香港中文大学与学生们的互动非常愉快。唯一的遗憾是我不会说粤语。尽管我的普通话不是很好，但我能进行一些对话，在与中国大陆的学生交谈时，这通常能让沟通更加顺畅。
那么，我们该如何促进合作呢？我们需要展开对话，相互倾听，特别是要注重倾听。我们可以从抽出空闲时间开始，彼此阅读对方的作品。这也是我协助将当代中国学者的文章翻译为英文的原因之一。我认为翻译工作虽然耗费时间，但它非常重要，不能仅仅被看作是一项平庸的技术任务。实际上，翻译的重要性不可忽视，因为它可以缩小人与人之间的距离。我们应该减少对彼此的假设，花更多时间一起共进美食，进行有趣的对话。这些做法都能够促进合作的深化。
CCD：您有没有一些话要对中国教会说？
德诗婷：长期以来，西方教会一直在将自己的神学思想传播到世界的许多角落。如果有机会，我很愿意参与推动将中国的神学翻译成英语或德语。耶鲁大学的亚洲基督教与神学教授Chloë Starr最近出版了一本非常出色的书，这本书基于何光沪和杨熙楠（Daniel Yeung）编辑的两卷本《汉语神学读本》，书名为《A Reader in Chinese Theology》（贝勒大学出版社，2023年）。对于那些希望更深入了解中国神学的西方基督徒和神学家来说，这本书是一个宝贵的资源。我想要强调的是，西方教会已经在很大程度上从中国神学家和中国信徒的思想和生命故事中受益，并将继续受益。我希望中国教会能更加积极地参与，将自己的神学思想输出到国外。
CCD：您是否期待中国方面的帮助来促进您的研究工作？
德诗婷：我已经在这里生活了将近十年。我学到了很多，也得到了很多。我没有期待，但我总是充满好奇，愿意学习更多。
美国宗教学者德诗婷访谈:研究中国基督教的多样性
Editor's note: Naomi Thurston, assistant professor of the Divinity School of Chung Chi College/Cultural and Religious Studies, The Chinese University of Hong Kong and director of the China Christianity Studies Group (CCSG), talks about the diverse studies of Christianity in China, the related emerging academic field, and the sinicization of Christianity in an exclusive interview with China Christian Daily. She urges Christians in different countries to pay more attention to Asian theologians, who are often underrepresented in the seminary curricula, and to have more conversations with one another.
China Christian Daily: Can you please introduce yourself and your research field?
Naomi Thurston: I'm a scholar of Christianity based at the Divinity School of Chung Chi College, which belongs to The Chinese University of Hong Kong. I teach courses in the History of Christianity in China and World Christianity. My current research concentrations are comparative religious ethnography and theological reception history, particularly the reception of Jürgen Moltmann's theology in Chinese scholarship.
China Christian Daily: What is the current landscape of the study of Christianity in China?
Naomi Thurston: First, Christianity in China is a diverse field. There is, as is commonly stated, not one Christianity; there are many Christianities (多种基督宗教) in China. This is complicated by the official division between Catholicism (天主教) and “Christianity,” i.e., Protestant denominations, as separate religions. The diversity across Chinese Christian faith communities extends beyond the often-cited division between officially operating, registered churches and those that, for various reasons, are not registered. These include vestiges of old missionary denominations but also newly arising differences in theological commitments, denominational affiliations, and stances on social issues. That said, many believers in China, whether members of or attending TSPM or other congregations, seem to subscribe to a generally evangelical set of doctrines and practices. Progressive or “liberal” theological views (自由神学) are often, though not as a rule, eschewed. Christians can be found in almost all sectors of society and walks of life. Christian growth and indigenization have been documented among several of China’s ethnic minorities, including different Miao groups or the Lisu (傈僳) of southwest China. What is important to stress is that, as a scholar of “Christianity in China,” a person might study any of these contemporary phenomena, but a scholar of Christianity in China might also be a Sinologist specializing in Christian texts composed during the Tang dynasty (618–690 CE; 705–907 CE): this is how ancient Chinese Christianity is. The field is immense, with much fruitful ground for research.
Secondly, the “study of Christianity in China”—if we are talking about a research interest among scholars of various backgrounds (中国基督教研究, let’s say)—is a complex field of inquiry that touches on and is grounded in several different disciplines and fields that may or may not overlap: history, China/Asian studies, Sinology, translation studies, study of religion, Word Christianity, theology, etc.
If we are talking about the “study of Christianity” as a field of research driven by Chinese or China-based scholars (Sino-Christian studies 汉語基督教研究), we can see that the field is far more diverse, less centered in the discipline of history, and pioneered initially by philosophers and philosophers of religion in mainland academia in the 1980s and 1990s. Today, the field has diversified into different ideological alignments and academic disciplines, from anthropology and history to literature and comparative religion.
China Christian Daily: Can you share with us your book, Studying Christianity in China: Constructions of an Emerging Discourse? In your opinion, how will this emerging academic trend impact the development of Chinese churches?
Naomi Thurston: In the wake of Deng Xiaoping's economic reforms (改革开放), Chinese intellectuals began researching Christianity as a means of tracing the origins of Western culture and modernity so as to reconstruct its historical influence and philosophical claims, as well as to probe its relationship to Chinese modernity. Today, for example, scholars in Mainland China of diverse backgrounds study Augustine’s writings in order to formulate a specific critique of Western modernity. Such discourses, while not impacting theological developments in Chinese churches in a direct way, demonstrate the vibrancy and potential of intellectual cross-cultural inquiry. If this kind of inquiry remains open, critical, engaged beyond its own borders, and prudently sympathetic to faith concerns and theological reasoning, such discourses and the wider theological dialogue they enable might become a kind of resource for Chinese churches.
Studying Christianity in China is based on my doctoral research, conducted in cities across China between 2011 and 2015. I interviewed nearly fifty scholars related to Sino-Christian studies. Their work covers a spectrum of methodologies, positions, and humanistic concerns. Most scholars who study some aspect of Christianity at Chinese universities are not confessing Christians; they are secularists, often sympathetic to religion but committed first and foremost to academic projects. The shared commitments within this field fascinated me, and I tried to explain what these were, reconstruct the discourse, and understand its contextual meaning.
China Christian Daily: What do you think of the notion of “the sinicization of Christianity”? How should the Bible apply to Christians in the Chinese context?
Naomi Thurston: Any version of Christianity is contextualized; cultural, societal, and political contextualizations are inevitable and natural, but perhaps we can talk about the manipulation of this inevitability, which is something like an ongoing negotiation.
I would like to quote the German theologian Jürgen Moltmann. An admirer of traditional Chinese culture, Moltmann has written about his Western-Christian reading of the Taoist classic Dao De Jing (道德经) while trying to avoid subordinating the text to the full weight of Western interpretive scrutiny. Professor Moltmann has visited China on numerous occasions since the mid-1980s and has maintained academic exchanges and friendships with scholars from Beijing and Nanjing to Taipei, while his works are also well-received across Asia. At a 2018 forum in Hong Kong, Moltmann responded to one of the papers presented, stressing the universality of Christianity in contradistinction to an over-insistence on national identity or the establishment of a “state Christianity”:
“Christianity can never be a tribal religion—a Stammesreligion, as we say in German. The Karlowitz Synod of 1856 forbade the epithets “Serbian,” “Rumanian,” or “Bulgarian” for the Orthodox Church, maintaining that there was only one Church shared between these countries. Likewise, the term “Russian Orthodox Church” is a product of the early twentieth century. In 1964, I argued in favor of an “Exodus Church” over a German state church or “people’s church” (Volkskirche) and other forms of culturally adapted Christianity.”¹
If Sinicization means acknowledging the full agency of Chinese culture, Chinese Christians, and Chinese institutions in setting the agenda for the development of Chinese Christianity, then Sinicization has already largely been achieved. If Sinicization is about going a step further and digging much deeper into the meanings of culturally contextualizing Christian ideas and practices, this is an ongoing effort that will never be completed because cultures are in flux all the time. This is always an important task—a task that belongs to the church—and it begins with cultural translation. If Sinicization means adapting Christian communities to national agendas, this notion has nothing to do with Christianity as such. In addition, the ambiguity of the terminology further complicates the situation. The term “Sinicization” is not necessarily the best rendering of 中国化, which means “Chinafication.” Should the religious practices of China’s ethnic minorities be Sinicized? If so, what does this mean since their cultures are distinct from contemporary mainstream Han culture? Yet contextualization is natural, important, and inevitable. It cannot be avoided. How should the Bible apply to Christians in the Chinese context? I think this is a question for Chinese Christians to answer.
China Christian Daily: What does the study of Chinese Christianity contribute to world Christianity?
Naomi Thurston: I'd say that the study of Chinese Christianity today is integral to the study of World Christianity. This is not only due to the sheer size of the Chinese Christian populations taken together but also because the history of Christianity in China is instructive on so many levels. The diverse Christian groups that developed independently—not just the indigenous Protestant sects of the early 20th century but much earlier Catholic congregations who formed their own unique communities when foreign priests were absent—their struggles for survival as well as their contributions to the Christian faith and religious culture warrant our attention as scholars and Christians. Chinese theologians, as others have already called for, should be on the reading lists of any World Christianity course and should, ideally, play some role in systematic theological education in other parts of the world. As far as I know, even in Asia, Asian theologians are underrepresented in the seminary curricula.
China Christian Daily: During your teaching period in Hong Kong and mainland China, can you share with us your experience of interacting with Chinese students? Is there any way to promote cooperation between academics in China and other countries?
Naomi Thurston: Like many westerners teaching in China, my experiences have been overwhelmingly positive. I learn so much from my students, and this is the aspect of teaching I find most rewarding. I don’t like giving grades, but students in Asia tend to be very focused on high marks, especially here in Hong Kong, so you are always asked to give precise instructions and offer ever more advice on how students can improve their grades. Otherwise, I’ve enjoyed my interactions with our students here at CUHK considerably. The only drawback is that I don’t speak Cantonese. Although my Mandarin is not great, I can hold a conversation, which tends to break the ice much quicker when I talk to students on the Chinese mainland.
How can we improve cooperation? We need to talk and listen to each other—especially listen. We might start by reading each other’s works when we have the time. This is one reason I’ve helped translate articles by contemporary Chinese scholars into English. I find translation extremely time-consuming work, but it is important and should not be treated as a banal technical job. Translation is important and can bring people closer together. We should make fewer assumptions about each other and spend more time sharing meals and interesting conversations with each other.
China Christian Daily: Do you have any words for the Chinese church?
Naomi Thurston: The western church has too long exported its theology to the majority of the world. I would love to be involved in facilitating translations of Chinese theology into English or German if I have the chance. Chloë Starr, Professor of Asian Christianity and Theology at Yale University, has just published a wonderful work based on the two-volume Chinese Theology Reader (汉语神学读本) by He Guanghu and Yeung Hee Nam (Daniel Yeung): A Reader in Chinese Theology (Baylor, 2023). This text is an invaluable resource for western Christians and theologians who want to know more about Chinese theology. What I would like to say is that the western church has already greatly benefited and will continue to benefit from the ideas and life stories of Chinese theologians and Chinese lay Christians. I hope that the Chinese church will be ever more actively involved in the export of its theology abroad.
China Christian Daily: Do you expect any help from China to benefit your research work?
Naomi Thurston: I have lived in this part of the world for nearly a decade. I have learned and been given so much. I have no expectations but am always curious to learn more.
[1] Jürgen Moltmann, “Response to ‘The Chinese Church,’” in Jürgen Moltmann in China: Theological Encounters from Hong Kong to Beijing, edited by Jason Lam and Naomi Thurston (Leiden: Brill, 2023), 87.
Interview With American Scholar of Religion Naomi Thurston: Studying the Diversity of Christianity in China
