Jesus Christ left a great mission to his disciples before his ascendence to Heaven after he resurrected. He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation” (Mark 16:15). For more than 2,000 years, in order to fulfill the mission of the Lord Christ, Christians have always been walking against the worldly trend, being constantly challenged by the secular world. This kind of challenge is mainly reflected in ideology. Christians of all ages are also in the conflict and game with secular ideas, setting apart as holy, forging ahead, and going upstream to preach the name of Christ and illuminate the whole world.
Evangelization is always ideological, which is closely related to one’s ideas and spiritual life. To achieve the goal of evangelization, Christians generally adopt three methods: one is to preach the gospel by word of mouth, the other aims to influence people around them by words and deeds, and the last one is targeted at spreading the gospel through culture, such as distributing leaflets, writing books and establishing studies, creating various artistic products (movies and songs), etc. Cultural communication is older and more influential than word of mouth and words and deeds, which can be passed on to future generations.
The category of culture is very broad, including history, geography, local customs, lifestyle, music, painting, sculpture, philosophy, literature, folk customs, and so on. It is in these fields that Christians in the past were struggling to “expand”. They built a rich world and a grand field where the living water of the Christian faith met, that is, “Christian culture”. It is precisely this kind of cultural torrent that has impacted and subverted the old cultural and social order, lighting the dark human world and bringing hope to mankind which is deeply mired in sin and looks forward to being redeemed by God.
Literature is an indispensable and important part of Christian culture, and literature achievements are magnificent. According to statistics, more than 90% of the world-famous or Nobel Prize winning works contain Christian elements. Moreover, there are quite a few works whose subject matter and theme are directly taken from the Bible. For example, Dante’s Divine Comedy, being famous in the history of world literature, is a literary work with biblical content as its theme. Its content links the stories in the Bible with important political events and some politicians in medieval Italy and constitutes a great epic with religious mystery. Although Dante criticized and exposed the darkness in the church in his works, he still pursued pure Christian thought.
Another example is the historical novel "Quo Vadis", by Henryk Sienkiewicz, a Polish writer who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1905. Its theme derives from the historical events of the persecution of Christians by the Roman Emperor Nero, 60 A.D. The novel portrays the tortuous and moving love story of a Christian girl, Lydia, and a young general, Nizius, reflecting the extravagant life of the Roman tyrant Nero, inhuman tyranny, and persecution of Christians. This novel also portrays the tragic image of Peter, a disciple of Christ Jesus, who was persecuted and crucified.
There are numerous Christian literary works in the West, some of which reflect characters and stories in the Bible, some reflect the lives of church believers, and some reflect the ideas and consciousness of the Bible. However, due to historical and political reasons in China, there have never been significant works in Chinese Christian literature. What is worth mentioning most is that in the history of modern literature, there have been literary works created with Christian ideas and consciousness, such as Bing Xin's poems (Evening, Gethsemane Garden, and Calvary Land), Xu Zhimo's poems (Decision, The Last Day, Inspiration of Love, and In Vain), Ai Qing's poems (The Sick Watch, and Manger), and Chen Mengjia's poems (Who am I, and Songs for Oneself).
Concerning novels, there are Xu Dishan's Businessman's Woman, and Jade Officer; Ba Jin's Death, and The Fourth Ward; Guo Moruo's Fallen Leaves; Yu Dafu's Southward Migration; and Lao She's Lao Zhang's Philosophy, and so on. Whether it is poetry or novel, its theme is about Christian confession consciousness and love, and dedication. Christian literature in that period can be described as "blossoming". However, since then, this phenomenon that flashed just once has never appeared again.
Even so, novels and poems that reflect the Christian spirit and consciousness always exist, but they are just intermittent. Mo Yan's novels, which won the Nobel Prize for Literature, have a strong Christian color. His novels such as Big Breasts and Wide Hips, The Frog, Family Stories of Red Sorghum, and Fatigue of Life and Death very obviously illustrate the consciousness of repentance and sin. His short story that was published last year, Waiting for Moses, is directly based on the Christian life. Besides Mo, a group of writers such as Bei Cun and Shi Wei are trying to create Christian literature and have made corresponding achievements, especially Shi's novel, Renegades, which has had a wide influence overseas. However, this is far from the rise of Chinese Christian literature.
At present, the Christian community is discussing the issue of the Sinicization of Christianity, trying to find a Christian path with Chinese local characteristics. This discussion is not to enclose Christianity into the framework of traditional culture and let traditional culture replace Christian culture, nor does it let Christian culture change traditional culture, but to give them an opportunity to integrate. Advocating and calling for the rise of Christian literature can complement this discussion because literature is a reflection of society and the times, which is undoubtedly beneficial to promote the progress and development of social civilization by integrating the confession consciousness, the original sin consciousness, and the spirit of love and dedication in Christian culture into Chinese traditional culture, and expressing it in the form of literature and art.
The Bible has already become a classic masterpiece with the widest spread and far-reaching influence in the world, both for Christians and non-Christians. It is also a great literary work that is universally recognized. Each volume is a different genre. There are poems, biographies, novels, plays, essays, stories, and so on. It can be said that the Bible is the source of the whole Christian culture. In addition, when a Christian is restricted by the spirit of the Christian faith, his spiritual and physical life will inevitably change, which will greatly affect his choice of survival, ideological interest, cultural mentality, value, and aesthetic orientation, thus forming a group with unique thinking and living style. When this group collides with other groups and strata in society, a series of life stories unique to Christians will inevitably occur. All these can be the source of our creation.
Christianity here includes Protestantism, the Orthodox Church, Catholicism, and many other denominations. Because of its loose religious policy and freedom of belief, the church has poured in a large number of cultured Christians. There is no shortage of talents in literary creation, but what is lacking is the understanding of church leaders and pastors on this issue. We are confined to the church in evangelism, lacking a necessary preparation for extending and expanding God's tabernacle. In fact, not all activities within the church are blessings. The so-called blessing is relative to the outside of the church. For those who have entered the church and become believers, what is needed is pastoral care and life promotion. For non-believers, the only thing is to spread the blessings to them through Christian culture. The subtle function of literature is the most powerful, and it is also a key to the souls of non-believers.
In knowing the works of Christian literature, we should be eclectic. The standard of consideration should not only be whether the author is a Christian, but whether there are Christian belief elements in the works. All works that reflect the original sin, confession, love, and dedication, should be regarded as Christian literature. Belief should avoid narrow and extreme ideas when recognizing Christian literature so as not to obstruct the development of Christian literature.
At present, there are many media platforms for publishing Christian literature. As long as we work hard and pray for God to give us wisdom and ability, the rise of Christian literature is bound to come.
- Translated by Charlie Li
耶稣基督在复活升天前给门徒留下一个伟大的使命，就是“你们往普天下去，传福音给万民听。（可16:15）”两千多年来，为了完成这一主基督的使命，基督徒始终处在一种逆水行舟的环境中，每时每刻都在接受着来自世俗的挑战。这种挑战主要体现在意识形态上，历代的基督徒也正是在与世俗观念的冲突和博弈中，分别为圣，砥砺前行，逆流而上，将基督的名传遍和光照了整个世界。
福音传播从来都是意识形态上的，与一个人的思想观念和灵性生命是密切相关的。而要实现福传目的，基督徒大体采用这么三种方法，一个是通过口传福音，一个是通过言传身教来影响周围的人，另一个则是通过文化传播福音，比如发单张、著书立说、各类艺术创作、影视歌曲等。文化传播比口传与言传身教更为久远，影响力更大，并可以承前启后，传之于后世。
文化的范畴是非常广阔的，包括历史、地理、风土人情、习俗、生活方式、音乐、绘画、雕塑、哲学、文学、民俗等等。历代基督徒正是在这些领域进行着艰难的“开疆拓土”，构筑了一个丰富的世界与基督信仰的活水相遇的宏大场域，也就是“基督教文化”。恰是这种文化洪流冲击和颠覆了旧有的文化和社会秩序，让黑暗的人类世界进入光明，让深陷罪恶中的人类有了被神救赎的期盼。
文学艺术是基督教文化中一个不可或缺的重要内容，它的成就恢弘壮丽。无论是在世界名著中，还是在获得诺贝尔文学奖的作品中，据统计，百分之九十以上的作品都含有基督教元素，在题材与主题上直接取自《圣经》的作品，也不在少数。比如世界文学史上著名的但丁的《神曲》，就是一部以圣经内容为题材的文学作品。其内容把圣经中的故事与中世纪意大利的重大政治事件及一些政界人物联系起来，构成了富有宗教神秘色彩的伟大史诗。诗人但丁虽然在作品中抨击揭露了教会里的黑暗，但他追求的依然是纯洁的基督教思想。
再比如1905年获诺贝尔文学奖的波兰作家显克微支的历史小说《你往何处去》，其题材来自于主后六十年罗马皇帝尼禄迫害基督徒的历史事件。小说塑造了基督徒少女莉吉亚和青年将领尼兹尤斯曲折动人的爱情故事，反映了罗马暴君尼禄荒淫骄奢的生活，以及惨无人道的暴政和对基督徒的迫害。这部小说同时也塑造了基督耶稣的门徒彼得被迫害，倒钉十字架的悲壮形象。
有关基督教文学作品在西方是浩如烟海的，有的反映的是圣经中的人物和故事，有的反映的是教会信徒生活的，有的是反映圣经理念和意识的。但在中国因其历史和政治的原因，基督教文学一直没有出现可观的场面。最值得提起的就是现代文学史上，曾出现过以基督教理念和意识创作的文学作品。如冰心的诗《傍晚》、《客西马尼园》、《髑髅地》，徐志摩的诗《决断》、《最后的那一天》、《爱的灵感》、《枉然》，艾青的诗《病监》、《马槽》，陈梦家的诗《我是谁》、《自己的歌》等等。
在小说创作上，许地山的《商人妇》、《玉官》，巴金的《灭亡》、《第四病室》，郭沫若的《落叶》，郁达夫的《南迁》，老舍的《老张的哲学》等等。无论诗歌还是小说的创作，其主题都来自于基督教的忏悔意识及爱与奉献精神。这个时期的基督教文学，完全可以用“星空灿烂”这个词来形容。但此后，这一现象只是像流星那样，一闪即逝，再也没有出现过。
虽然如此，但反映基督教精神与意识的小说和诗歌也始终存在着，只不过是蜻蜓点水似的，时断时续而已。获诺贝尔文学奖的作家莫言的小说，便带有浓厚的基督教色彩。他的《丰乳肥臀》、《蛙》、《红高粱家族》、《生死疲劳》等小说中的忏悔和原罪意识是非常明显的，去年发表的短篇小说《等待摩西》，更是直接取材于基督徒的生活。除莫言外，北村、施纬等一批作家都在尝试着基督教文学的创作，并取得了相应的成就，尤其是施纬的小说《叛教者》，在海外已经拥有广泛的影响。可是，这与基督教文学的兴起毕竟还有着天壤之别。
当下，基督教界正在探讨基督教中国化的议题，试图走出一条中国本土特色的基督教路径。这种探讨并不是要把基督教圈在传统文化的框框里，让传统文化替代基督教文化，也不是让基督教文化来改变传统文化，而是给以二者融合的一个契机。而倡导和呼唤基督教文学的兴起，正可以与这种探讨相辅相成。因为，文学是社会与时代的反映，把基督教文化中的忏悔意识，原罪意识以及爱与奉献的精神融合进中国传统文化中，用文学艺术的形式表现出来，无疑对推动社会文明的进步和发展是大为有益的。
无论是对基督信仰者，还是对没有信仰的大众，《圣经》早已经成为享誉世界的传播最广影响最深远的一部经典巨著，更是举世公认的一部伟大的文学作品，各卷书体裁各异，这里有诗歌、传记、小说、剧本、散文、故事等等。可以说，圣经是整个基督教文化的源头活水。此外，一个基督徒在接受基督信仰精神的制约时，其灵性生命与生活势必会发生转变，极大地影响着个人生存的选择，思想情趣、文化心态，价值和审美取向，从而构成一个具有独特思维和生存方式的群体。当这个群体在社会上与其他群体和各阶层摩擦碰撞与融合的时候，必然会发生一系列的只有基督徒独有的生活故事。这些，都可以成为我们创作的源泉。
这里所言的基督教包括新教、东正教和天主教及其他众多派系。因其国家宗教政策的宽松与信仰上的自由，教会已经涌入大量的文化基督徒，文学创作上的人才并不缺乏，缺乏的却是教会领袖和牧者对这个问题的认识。我们在福传上仅仅局限在教会内部，对延伸和扩大神的帐幕缺乏一种必要的准备。其实，教会内部的一切活动都不是福传。所谓福传，是相对教会外部来说的。对已经进入教会成为信徒的人来说，需要的是牧养和生命的提升。对外部非信徒而言，唯一的就是透过基督教文化向其进行福传工作。而文学潜移默化的功能是最为强大的，也是通向非信徒灵魂深处的一把钥匙。
在认知基督教文学的作品上，我们应不拘一格，考量的标准不能只看作者是不是基督徒，而是要看作品中有没有基督教信仰元素。对那些反映原罪与忏悔意识以及爱与奉献精神的作品都应该视为基督教文学。信在认知基督教文学作品上，也应该避免狭隘和偏激的观念，以免阻挠基督教文学的发展。
当下，发表基督教文学作品的各类媒体平台很多，只要我们努力，祈祷神给以我们智慧与能力，基督教文学的兴起必将为期不远。
探讨丨基督教文学在中国本土的发展路径
Jesus Christ left a great mission to his disciples before his ascendence to Heaven after he resurrected. He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation” (Mark 16:15). For more than 2,000 years, in order to fulfill the mission of the Lord Christ, Christians have always been walking against the worldly trend, being constantly challenged by the secular world. This kind of challenge is mainly reflected in ideology. Christians of all ages are also in the conflict and game with secular ideas, setting apart as holy, forging ahead, and going upstream to preach the name of Christ and illuminate the whole world.
Evangelization is always ideological, which is closely related to one’s ideas and spiritual life. To achieve the goal of evangelization, Christians generally adopt three methods: one is to preach the gospel by word of mouth, the other aims to influence people around them by words and deeds, and the last one is targeted at spreading the gospel through culture, such as distributing leaflets, writing books and establishing studies, creating various artistic products (movies and songs), etc. Cultural communication is older and more influential than word of mouth and words and deeds, which can be passed on to future generations.
The category of culture is very broad, including history, geography, local customs, lifestyle, music, painting, sculpture, philosophy, literature, folk customs, and so on. It is in these fields that Christians in the past were struggling to “expand”. They built a rich world and a grand field where the living water of the Christian faith met, that is, “Christian culture”. It is precisely this kind of cultural torrent that has impacted and subverted the old cultural and social order, lighting the dark human world and bringing hope to mankind which is deeply mired in sin and looks forward to being redeemed by God.
Literature is an indispensable and important part of Christian culture, and literature achievements are magnificent. According to statistics, more than 90% of the world-famous or Nobel Prize winning works contain Christian elements. Moreover, there are quite a few works whose subject matter and theme are directly taken from the Bible. For example, Dante’s Divine Comedy, being famous in the history of world literature, is a literary work with biblical content as its theme. Its content links the stories in the Bible with important political events and some politicians in medieval Italy and constitutes a great epic with religious mystery. Although Dante criticized and exposed the darkness in the church in his works, he still pursued pure Christian thought.
Another example is the historical novel "Quo Vadis", by Henryk Sienkiewicz, a Polish writer who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1905. Its theme derives from the historical events of the persecution of Christians by the Roman Emperor Nero, 60 A.D. The novel portrays the tortuous and moving love story of a Christian girl, Lydia, and a young general, Nizius, reflecting the extravagant life of the Roman tyrant Nero, inhuman tyranny, and persecution of Christians. This novel also portrays the tragic image of Peter, a disciple of Christ Jesus, who was persecuted and crucified.
There are numerous Christian literary works in the West, some of which reflect characters and stories in the Bible, some reflect the lives of church believers, and some reflect the ideas and consciousness of the Bible. However, due to historical and political reasons in China, there have never been significant works in Chinese Christian literature. What is worth mentioning most is that in the history of modern literature, there have been literary works created with Christian ideas and consciousness, such as Bing Xin's poems (Evening, Gethsemane Garden, and Calvary Land), Xu Zhimo's poems (Decision, The Last Day, Inspiration of Love, and In Vain), Ai Qing's poems (The Sick Watch, and Manger), and Chen Mengjia's poems (Who am I, and Songs for Oneself).
Concerning novels, there are Xu Dishan's Businessman's Woman, and Jade Officer; Ba Jin's Death, and The Fourth Ward; Guo Moruo's Fallen Leaves; Yu Dafu's Southward Migration; and Lao She's Lao Zhang's Philosophy, and so on. Whether it is poetry or novel, its theme is about Christian confession consciousness and love, and dedication. Christian literature in that period can be described as "blossoming". However, since then, this phenomenon that flashed just once has never appeared again.
Even so, novels and poems that reflect the Christian spirit and consciousness always exist, but they are just intermittent. Mo Yan's novels, which won the Nobel Prize for Literature, have a strong Christian color. His novels such as Big Breasts and Wide Hips, The Frog, Family Stories of Red Sorghum, and Fatigue of Life and Death very obviously illustrate the consciousness of repentance and sin. His short story that was published last year, Waiting for Moses, is directly based on the Christian life. Besides Mo, a group of writers such as Bei Cun and Shi Wei are trying to create Christian literature and have made corresponding achievements, especially Shi's novel, Renegades, which has had a wide influence overseas. However, this is far from the rise of Chinese Christian literature.
At present, the Christian community is discussing the issue of the Sinicization of Christianity, trying to find a Christian path with Chinese local characteristics. This discussion is not to enclose Christianity into the framework of traditional culture and let traditional culture replace Christian culture, nor does it let Christian culture change traditional culture, but to give them an opportunity to integrate. Advocating and calling for the rise of Christian literature can complement this discussion because literature is a reflection of society and the times, which is undoubtedly beneficial to promote the progress and development of social civilization by integrating the confession consciousness, the original sin consciousness, and the spirit of love and dedication in Christian culture into Chinese traditional culture, and expressing it in the form of literature and art.
The Bible has already become a classic masterpiece with the widest spread and far-reaching influence in the world, both for Christians and non-Christians. It is also a great literary work that is universally recognized. Each volume is a different genre. There are poems, biographies, novels, plays, essays, stories, and so on. It can be said that the Bible is the source of the whole Christian culture. In addition, when a Christian is restricted by the spirit of the Christian faith, his spiritual and physical life will inevitably change, which will greatly affect his choice of survival, ideological interest, cultural mentality, value, and aesthetic orientation, thus forming a group with unique thinking and living style. When this group collides with other groups and strata in society, a series of life stories unique to Christians will inevitably occur. All these can be the source of our creation.
Christianity here includes Protestantism, the Orthodox Church, Catholicism, and many other denominations. Because of its loose religious policy and freedom of belief, the church has poured in a large number of cultured Christians. There is no shortage of talents in literary creation, but what is lacking is the understanding of church leaders and pastors on this issue. We are confined to the church in evangelism, lacking a necessary preparation for extending and expanding God's tabernacle. In fact, not all activities within the church are blessings. The so-called blessing is relative to the outside of the church. For those who have entered the church and become believers, what is needed is pastoral care and life promotion. For non-believers, the only thing is to spread the blessings to them through Christian culture. The subtle function of literature is the most powerful, and it is also a key to the souls of non-believers.
In knowing the works of Christian literature, we should be eclectic. The standard of consideration should not only be whether the author is a Christian, but whether there are Christian belief elements in the works. All works that reflect the original sin, confession, love, and dedication, should be regarded as Christian literature. Belief should avoid narrow and extreme ideas when recognizing Christian literature so as not to obstruct the development of Christian literature.
At present, there are many media platforms for publishing Christian literature. As long as we work hard and pray for God to give us wisdom and ability, the rise of Christian literature is bound to come.
- Translated by Charlie Li
Reflection on a Developing Path of Christian Literature in China
