Toward a Chinese Christianity A Protestant Response to the Anti-Imperialist Movement

Toward a Chinese Christianity A Protestant Response to the Anti-Imperialist Movement by Jonathan Chao During the period of Communist-Kuomintang collaboration, 1924-1927, antiimperialism of Leninist origin was the chief line of propaganda of the new revolutionary government headed by Sun Yat-sen, and later by Chiang Kai-shek. An integral part of this anti-imperialist attack was the anti-Christian movement, which was directed against the Christian Church as the symbol of Western ynperialistic cultural aggression.l I The attacks against the church were sustained and intensified during this period. The charges against the Chinese Christians and the church were chiefly that Christians were running dogs ofthe imperialists, and that they were unpatriotic. These attacks exerted a significant impact upon Chinese Protestant church leaders, who began to reflect on the veracity of these attacks.2 In this process of self-examination, three major issues emerged. The first was whether the church was guilty of aiding imperialism, as the anti-Christian movement propaganda alleged. Christian leaders began asking whether the church shared the attitude of the imperialists and whether the church was an integral part of the imperialists' plans for China. This quest led to an examination of the relationship between the Chinese church and foreign missions, resulting in the separation of the former from the latter and in the formation of independent churches. The second issue, whether Chinese Christians were unpatriotic, forced the leaders to discuss the relationship between Christians and China as a nation and the Chinese people as a whole. The third issue was how the church should conduct its work in light ofthe anti-Christian attacks, and how the church could remove its foreign character and assume a Chinese image. Consideration of this third issue led Chinese Christian leaders to examine the relationship between Christianity and Chinese culture and to look at ways to create a Chinese indigenous church.3 For Christianity to exist in a revolutionary China, the Christian church had to adjust itself to the new situation. Separation from imperialism through the curtailing of relations with foreign missionaries and affirmation of identification with the national interests of the Chinese people became necessary conditions for the continuation of the Christian church. Chao Tzu-ch'en, Dean of the Yen-ching School of Religion, observed that under growing pressure from the anti-imperialist movement and resulting from the spirit of nationalism, a "Chinese church consciousness" emerged among the Christian community. That consciousness, he pointed out, was mostly lacking prior to the May Thirtieth Incident, but grew in proportion to the increase in intensity of the anti-Christian pressure until it was raised "sky-high" during the Northern Expedition.4 Chao described this church consciousness as the "Chinese Christians' desire to create an authentic Christianity" that was Chinese in character--a simple Chinese church that would suit the Chinese sense of spirituality and a faith integrated with the best of the Chinese cultural heritage.s This paper will deal with 95 the Chinese Protestants' attempt to integrate Christianity with Chinese culture as a way to create a Chinese Christianity as the basis for creating a Chinese indigenous church. Integrating Christianity with Chinese culture was of special interest to Protestant intellectuals, who regarded it as the key to the creation of a Chinese indigenous church. The scope of integration was, of course, more comprehensive than just integrating Christianity with Chinese culture; in order to give Christianity a Chinese coloring, Chinese Protestant leaders sought to synthesize Christianity and Chinese politics, synthesize Christianity and Chinese economics, and participate in China's social reconstruction. In politics, for example, Chao Tzu-ch'en suggested that the government should protect the people's religious freedom and that the church ought to speak the.truth in a prophetic way on all issues related to na~ional and international concerns.6 As for economics, the National Christian Council of China held a conference in 1927 on Christianizing economic relations in order to find a Christian interpretation of industrial and rural labor problems as well as to develop a Christian attitude toward investment and property.7 In the area of Christian participation in China's social reconstruction, Hsii Shih-lien called for Christian involvement in...