Xiamen!
Xiamen (厦门), meaning “door to the house,” is on the western side of the Taiwan Strait and was a treaty port ceded to the British. Today it’s the eighth largest port city in China with a thriving economy.
Articles
Latest
Messy Choices in Messy Situations
When facing situations in which right and wrong choices are not quite so black and white, we need each other more than ever to discern the right path to take. In supporting each other, I believe we should also give each other the benefit of the doubt more often than not.
A Numbers Game
I’m not the tidiest or most organized person in the world, so the expression luan qi ba zao (乱七八糟) was one I learned and took to heart early. A direct translation is “chaos seven eight in a wretched state.”
A Love Banquet Waiting for You
Following the rhythm and images in [Haizi’s] poem, my poem introduces complementary and contrasting ideas as well as tones and metaphors from a Christian perspective. The repeated lines of “Today” in contrast to Haizi’s “From tomorrow on” signify that salvation is available today (Luke 4:21).
How Christian Posters Shaped Evangelism in China, 1919–1950
The Christian community contributed a third way to imagine national salvation, an equivalent force to the two major political parties, the Nationalists (KMT) and the Communists (CCP)…. Modernist and Fundamentalists… had a common political vision. They both embraced Chinese nationalism and portrayed Christ as the only power that could overcome imperialism.
Easter and Unity
How important unity must be for Jesus, that right before he was arrested, before he faced the suffering on the cross—at that moment, he did not refer to the horrible suffering which was to come. Rather he was thinking about the issue of unity.
Lecture Video: New Civil Religion in China—Opportunity for Engagement?
Johnson talked about how China is using civil religion, which he defines as the government using religion and religious images to legitimize its rule. This has been most visible in the government’s more tolerant attitude towards what it considers to be indigenized religions.
Opening the Door to Reconciliation
Those I interviewed in China… expressed repeatedly that holding tight to these unexamined views of themselves and their positions was a big hindrance in reconciling relationships. Yet, as their mindsets shifted, a door to potential reconciliation opened.
Political Counting
An interesting feature of Chinese social and political discourse is propensity to label institutions or political campaigns using numbers… They are catchy and thus relatively easy to remember. Here are some of my favorites.
From Brush Strokes to Unicode—How China Became Modern
Official and popular attitudes towards the written language vacillate between shame (characters are too awkward, slowing China’s development) and pride (characters are China’s unique cultural heritage) …China’s place among the nations rises in tandem with the development of her language, revealing the intimate relationship between linguistic modernization and the modernization of the nation itself.
Towards the Mobilization of Chinese Cross-Cultural Workers
A new paper available in ResearchShare on calling, vocation, and spiritual formation as it relates to Chinese Christians in mission service and the churches that send them.
Calling, Vocation, and Spiritual Formation for Chinese Mission
This paper is a brief discussion of calling, vocation, and spiritual formation as it relates to Chinese Christians in mission service and the churches that send them.
Originally written as an assignment in the author’s doctoral program, the paper is based on interviews with Chinese Christians about their journey of spiritual formation, their life callings, and vocational stewardship. Other relevant research is also included.