중국특색의 사회주의 신학을 통한 복음과 선교 제21집 9-44 현장최적화(Contextualization) 신학의 모색

Abstract

For investigating the theology of Chinese socialism in effective, I would like to divide the modern era of China in three parts. First of all, it is from 1807 to 1949. In 1807 Protestant has been introduced to China and Christianity as a Western religion had directly formulated churches in China. During this time, there were many significant events in China, including Xinhai Revolution, New Wave Movement, Anti Japanese War, Civil War in China, and so on. Especially Anti-Christian Movement (1922-1927) among the Chinese intelligent and students had challenged a lot to Chinese churches. As a result, they have seriously considered the contextualization of Christianity in China. After China became the People’s Republic of China in 1949, the era of socialism has been begun in China. This is the second of era of Christianity in China. The political situation was a huge challenge to Chinese Christianity because the system or theory of the foundation of China is atheism. In such a harsh situation, some open-minded people cooperated with the religious policy of Chinese government and have developed the political theology in China. With the leadership of Yaozong Wu, the Three-Self Innovation Movement became a popular theology of Chinese churches. Yet this type of connection had to be encountered with the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution in China and consequently it had been almost disappeared in Chinese Christianity. Chinese churches and theology had been losing their position in Marxism and theory of Religious Extinction of China. In the third era, the theology of China has been recovered their position since the Chinese government reevaluated socialism and took the reform and openness policy. This new policy has focused on the expansion of productive capacity. In that situation Chinese churches reinterpreted the theory of Yaozong Wu and has developed the theology of Chinese Christianity. Yet, this theology is only related to the Three-Self Churches in China, not with House Churches, so there are many criticisms for this theology. In conclusion, I would like to emphasize the fact that the reinterpretation of Chinese government to socialism is not only about the expansion of economic capacity, but also a significant opportunity of Chinese churches to develop and improve their own contextual theology in appropriate ways.