Chapter 21 Tradition, Language, and Christian-Chinese Comparative Theology
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Abstract
Some current comparative theological pursuits in conversation with Chinese religions are studies by Protestant Christians. Some liberal theologies want to de-Hellenize the Christian tradition in a post-colonial effort to reinterpret Christianity without the baggage of philosophical categories foreign to Chinese influence. One can honor Christian tradition without making an idol of it. Proposed here is the challenge to develop theological insight in a global society through comparative theology while guarding against the entrenchment of equating Hellenization with revelation, on the one hand, and against scrapping the tradition of the church in favor of some pure, non-Hellenized Christianity on the other. The revelation of God through Jesus Christ happened in a particular cultural and religious environment as part God’s providential plan of salvation. Comparative theologians can cherish the Hellenization of the tradition because it provides the creative contrast with language outside this cultural sphere, such as Chinese. When new language fits, it can expand Christian theological scope to arrive at a greater knowledge of God without discarding the richness and truth of tradition as it has been transmitted from generation to generation (2 Thess. 2:15). One language, one symbol system, is insufficient to capture the grandeur of God.