What's old is new again.
Posted on 08/06/2014 10:02:25 PM PDT by Citizen Zed
China will construct a "Chinese Christian theology" suitable for the country, state media reported on Thursday, as both the number of believers and tensions with the authorities are on the rise.
China has between 23 million and 40 million Protestants, accounting for 1.7 to 2.9 per cent of the total population, the state-run China Daily said, citing figures given at a seminar in Shanghai.
About 500,000 people are baptised as Protestants every year, it added.
"Over the past decades, the Protestant churches in China have developed very quickly with the implementation of the country's religious policy," the paper quoted Wang Zuoan, director of the State Administration for Religious Affairs, as saying.
"The construction of Chinese Christian theology should adapt to China's national condition and integrate with Chinese culture."
China's ruling Communist Party is officially atheistic and keeps a tight grip on religion for fear it could challenge its grip on power. It requires believers to worship in places approved by the state and under government supervision.
It did not include a number for Catholics in China, who must also worship only in officially sanctioned churches which reject the Vatican's authority, though an "underground" church loyal to the Holy See also exists.
(Excerpt) Read more at m.scmp.com ...
In other words, it won’t be a Christian church
Maybe they’ll be fake churches run by intelligence services to fool foreigners, like in North Korea.
Bishop Romney beat everyone to it.
What's old is new again.
This is somewhat good news. If they didn’t consider Christianity a threat, they would not be doing this.
[cue the old lady in the Esurance commercial]
“It doesn’t work like that. None of this works like that.”
Actually the official numbers are low.
There are more Christians in China than that. Many just do not declare it as it would put them at odds with Buddhist/Communist friends and family
The central government is not as afraid of religion as it used to be because they can see that, at least with the Protestant groups they are not beholding to any organization outside the country. (i.e a Pope)
There is as much potential for good as bad in this new policy as it could very well lead to a relaxation of the problems faced by non-official Christian groups
Unregistered churches teach what they want and choose their own leaders. However, if caught by the State then the leaders are often jailed and the followers are persecuted.
The only new thing with China is that they will now create their own brand of theology.
I have been to China and could see a lot of Christian symbols all over the country, in the open.
They may try to create an unorthodox “cult”, but China can never hope to change Christian beliefs or create a new Christian “ideology” which will take root in the actual church.
Render unto Mao.... You know the rest..
Henry VIII did it before him - the desire to create a “church” more in accordance with a national government is a perennial among dictators.
And it does affect theology, since the newly created “church” has to drop things that might imply that its “faith” had some independent or even prior existence elsewhere (hence the way Anglicanism abandoned things like Transubstantiation and anything that relied on a more supernatural view of Christianity).
Christianity then becomes just a system for reinforcing the civic values of the national government and controlling all aspects of the churchgoers’ lives.
How is this different from the “Three-Self Patriotic Movement” they already have?
Might just work, who knows. The Roman Empire did it, and we still have Catholicism with us to this day.
Greek, Latin, and Germanic societies all created forms of Christianity amenable to with their own culture. Why shouldn’t non-western churches follow the same path?
To be developed under the guidance of Zum Ting Wong, no doubt. (That joke never gets old.)
For Asians Christianity is Western.
Not true. Registered churches pick their own leaders, pastors, etc.
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