Tag: Contextualization

Blog Entries

Taking Another Look at the Chinese Dragon

Chinese Christians are not only receivers of traditional culture but also reformers of contemporary culture and creators of emerging culture. When reflecting on the complex relationship between the gospel and culture, we need a grand and holistic Christian worldview, capable of carrying the gospel’s tolerance of, challenge for, and renewal of culture.

Blog Entries

Dragons: Friend or Foe?

Reflections on the Year of the Dragon

The Bible presents us with good reasons both for celebrating dragons and for slaying them. Insofar as they represent those unfallen throne guardians of heaven, they should be duly revered; and insofar as they represent that fallen seraph Satan, they should be crushed underfoot.

Blog Entries

Taking Chinese Spirituality Seriously

Engaging with Confucian, Daoist, and Buddhist Spiritualities

Christians need to acknowledge a fact. We might disagree on whether Confucianism is a religion or not. But Confucianism, together with Daoism and Buddhism, are spiritual traditions that have provided “chicken soup” for Chinese souls for more than two thousand years.

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An Aesthetic Dance: When the Poet Haizi Meets with Jesus

It was a strong resonance with Haizi’s profound search for homecoming and the “violent extremeness” (冲击极限) of death that led me to walk again with this poet.... This time, however, the journey is alongside the path of Jesus on his way home in Luke’s gospel.

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Ethical Storytelling

Everyone who has been to China, or met a Christian from China, or read or heard something about Christians in China, has a story to tell. But no one has the whole story.

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Towards Authentic Contextualization

A Reader Responds

That this non-Western contextualizing will leave many of our Western theologies and “brands” diminished or transformed could encourage us to repent for the scandal of our divisions…and to redouble our efforts to fulfill one of the final earthly prayers of Jesus that “we all be one.”

Blog Entries

The Search for Home: Resonances between Heaven and Earth

A Reflective Review of Xiaoli Yang’s A Dialogue Between Haizi’s Poetry and the Gospel of Luke

In her book, Yang engages the complexities of Haizi’s personal journey and poetic influences side by side with the life and teachings of Jesus in four parts under the themes of “roots,” “vision,” “journey,” and “arrival.”

Blog Entries

6 Approaches to Contextualization in China

We know contextualization is important, but not everyone comes at it in the same way.

Blog Entries

Training Cross-Cultural Workers to Cross Honor-Shame Cultures

How might Christians from one honor-shame culture effectively serve cross-culturally in another honor-shame culture?

Blog Entries

Honor and Shame in Paul’s Message and Mission

A Book Review

Learning to read the book of Romans with a broader cultural lens.