"华夏复归神学“纲要
Essentials of Cathay Restoration Theology
华复社:姜牧师
今天,每当我们实行基督教新教传统上的两大圣礼之一:洗礼,让那些决心加入教会的慕道友通过洗礼的仪式正式在众人面前,更是在神面前表明:自己要成为新造的人,耶稣基督的门徒,神家里的孩子。对于那些接受洗礼成为基督徒的弟兄姐妹,在家人亲戚朋友以及周围的环境中,也许并没有感觉到有什么不同的意见或是排斥、抵触的压力,毕竟今天已经是崭新的21世纪了,我们国家的宗教信仰已经有很大的自由,人们对于信仰基督教,加入教会已经开始慢慢的理解、认同了。但如果时间退回到100多年、50多年、20多年,哪怕是10多年前,人们习惯称基督教为“洋教”,传教士为“洋和尚”,讽刺基督徒为“假洋鬼子”,甚至几十年前的中国还流行着一种敌对的看法:"the addition of a christian to the church means the loss of citizen to China"①增加一位基督徒就意味着失去一个中国人。直到2003年的今天,我们也不能保证:在许多中国人的心里已经没有了这种思想的遗留。
一、上帝更爱中国人
造成这种思想的形成、兴盛乃至于存留有历史、社会、政治等诸多因素,但也有一个本质因素不能忽视:在没有仔细考察、研究的基础上先下结论了。如果我们仔细研读圣经,不是一遍二遍,而是许多遍之后,会发现圣经中所透露出一个隐含的宝贵信息:中国人信仰根基在世界上万国万民中是最好的;言外之意,我们中国人是最蒙上帝喜爱、恩待的一个民族。可是在圣经中,我们根本没有发现提到中国人,它着重强调的是上帝选民---以色列人的历史,以色列人应该最有理由成为上帝最喜爱的民族,他们的信仰根基也应该是最好的,因为上帝只单单拣选了一个民族,而我们凭什么说中国人信仰根基最好、最蒙上帝的喜爱呢?
的确如此,众所周知,以色列人是举世公认的上帝耶和华唯一拣选的民族,整本圣经也的的确确没有中国人影子,但如果我们站在一定高度,综合考虑,会发现:上帝拣选以色列人是有其外在因素决定的。
其一,以色列民族所处的地理位置优越,世界上还很难发现第二块地方可以取代。巴勒斯坦地处欧、亚、非三大洲的交错点上,自古以来就是兵家必争之地,如果在这里产生一种文明,可以因着地理位置优势很快的被传向世界各地。②
其二,巴勒斯坦地区虽然不是文明发源地,却是受文明直接影响最深、最广、最彻底的地区。在世界文明古国中,有三大文明古国:古埃及、古希腊、古巴比伦都分布在它的四周,它完全可以很好品味、借鉴、吸收三大文明古国最文明的成就,为自己所用。日后基督教的发展、壮大,也正得益于三大文明古国所遗留下的良好文明根基。③
其三,在巴勒斯坦、小亚西亚一带,自古以来相继生存繁衍着上百个大大小小的民族。在这些民族中,上帝之所以看重以色列人祖先亚伯拉罕,唯一原因是因着他有独一无二的信心,称他为“信心之父”是当之无愧的。或许上帝在拣选亚伯拉罕之前,曾经以相同话语临到许多民族首领的心里:“你要离开本地本族父家,往我所要指示你的地去,我必叫你成为大国,我必赐福给你,叫你的名为大,你也要叫别人得福”(创12:1-2),这些首领非常透彻的明白上帝临到的旨意,但因为亲眼见不到神,他们缺乏信心,不能仅凭着一句话、一种感动就亲自去实践,而亚伯拉罕却做到了。亚伯拉罕的信心在巴勒斯坦地区各个民族中是最好的,唯一不完美的是亚伯拉罕的道德修养。
在创12章,我们清楚的看到:亚伯拉罕因惧怕饥荒就私自改变上帝所定的路线而下到埃及;为了保存自己性命,宁愿谎称自己的妻子为妹妹,并且把妻子送给了埃及法老。只要保住自己性命,他可以不惜一切,这种道德修养实在太差了。在他之后的以色列人身上,都可以看到信神的信心是大大有的,而且是独一无二的,惟独在道德修养上却经常错误不断!
雅各以“一碗红豆汤”骗到了长子名分;摩西因着后来居功自傲而不相信上帝的话;扫罗王严重的、变态般的嫉妒之心;大卫强占拔示巴并且阴谋害死了其丈夫乌利亚;所罗门王后来贪恋女色,违背上帝的诫命,公开迎娶外邦女子;到了新约时代,撒都该人、法利塞人和文士都毫不怀疑的相信上帝,也都大有信心,但却因着嫉妒,把耶稣送上了十字架;彼得和犹大也都有信心,因为他们亲眼目睹过耶稣所行的一切,也知道耶稣是上帝的独生儿子,可到了关键时刻却依然不认甚至是出卖了耶稣;保罗原来对神也有信心,却积极参与迫害基督徒的行动。我们可以看到:无论哪一个以色列人,都相信自己是耶和华上帝的选民,从自己、从民族历史上,他们都完全相信这位耶和华上帝的大能大力,从不怀疑他的真实性,唯一遗憾的就是道德修养----行为上的丧失、不完全,明知是对的、是真实的,也知道应该当走之路,但就是行不出来!
我们中国人自古以来就有独特的文明,这种文明使得古代的中国被称为“世界四大文明古国”之一。不同于其他文明古国的是:古代中国文明的独特性表现在这个国家的人民恪守道德修养论,不仅从一开始,很早的时候,就产生了从简单到复杂的“道德修养理论体系”,并藉着“敬天”“从天子”的观念,在日常生活的行为上渐渐遵守并且得以实行传承下来。所以,世界只有四大文明古国,而在其中,也只有中国被称为:“礼仪之邦”。④在汉代,外来宗教佛教进入中国之前,人们普遍的思想很单一又很纯洁:敬天。而作为统治者的皇帝更是相信自己的权利就是上天赋予并许可的,以“天子”自居。可以说,皇帝自称为“天子”是篡夺了上天的权利,以强权压制人们必须在精神、信仰上听命于皇帝,因为皇帝代表了上天。
经过几千年的历史长河,我们会发现:我们民族最大的不足、不完美之处在于没有对神的信心,我们只相信人而不相信神,甚至根本被“天子”蒙在鼓里,不知晓到底谁是真神,真神又在哪里?假如关羽对刘备的“义”,岳飞、宋江、文天祥等对朝廷的“忠”⑤不用在人身上,而是用在了信仰真神上,该是多么伟大呀!如果真是这样,中国有史以来会出现多少类似于圣经、教会史中的义人和殉教士!神没有给我们真正的信,却赐给我们以好的道德修养论,以色列人做不出来,我们中国人却能行出来。中国人自古以来形成的道德修养是对人行为上的最好教育和约束,是最完美的实践体系,只不过我们唯一缺乏的是:没有信心寻求、认识到真神,相信神而不是人!
远在中国早期的统治者尧、舜、禹身上,就可以看到他们对道德修养是极为重视的。“慎厥身,修思永”(尚书)⑥是说谨慎自己的行为是长久之道,这是他们所持守的。到了西周时期,周成王认识到:“皇天无亲,惟德是辅”,道德修养是一个国王、一个朝代存在下去的关键之所在。商朝之所以灭亡,就在于上从商纣王下到当时的百姓缺乏、行不出来,甚至违背了道德修养才造成了灭国之大祸。所以,周朝统治者认为“敬德保民”,只有有了自身的良好道德修养,才能使人民安定,国家长治久安。
在圣经的旧约中,耶和华上帝一次次严厉的惩罚以色列人,正是因为他们缺乏神所教导的良好道德修养,信神是信,但就是行不出来。耶稣是神的儿子,在神儿子身上,我们看到了神要我们效法的榜样:耶稣不仅能说会道,更能够在实际生活中,无论身处的环境怎么样,他的道德修养,也就是在行为上是无可挑剔、毫无瑕疵的,是完美的。虽然他是神的儿子,但不是神儿子的彼得、保罗以及教会史上无数的圣徒们,既有信心又有行为,他们效法耶稣也都行出来了。他们相信、持守耶稣亲自教导的一句话:“你们的光也当这样照在人前,叫他们看见你们的好行为,便将荣耀归给你们在天上的父”(太5:16)。因着以色列人道德修养上的缺乏,他们经常的行不出来,作为亲自拣选他们为选民的上帝自然而然要管教甚至是惩罚,这在圣经以及以色列人历史上已经多次的表现出来,从圣殿多次被毁到多次被掳到外邦直至最后分散到世界各地达1千多年。
很明显,从神选民身上,我们看到:只有信心没有行为不仅是不行的,而且很可能的结局就是“死”,这正是新约《雅各书》所反复教导的真理。同样,如果只有好的行为而没有信心,也就如我们中国人,自古以来蒙神的喜爱,使中国人在行为方面的道德修养上独树一帜,远超其他的国家民族,因为我们相信上帝既然能赐给所罗门王以智慧,也能赐给我们所有的道德修养论上的智慧。我们的失败乃在于自古以来没有信心超越人为设置的障碍去选择、认识、明辨。所以,希伯来民族有信心没有行为,而中国人却有行为而失去认识真神之信心!
二、华夏复归神学的提出
今天,我们称我们自己是中国人,“中国”这个词有两层含义:它原指古代汉族生活的黄河中游地区,到了19世纪中叶,指的是全部领土,是地理意义上的名称;另一层含义是“中华人民共和国”的简称,凡是“中华人民共和国”境内的居民都可以称自己为中国人。⑦可中国以外的在各个国家中生活的海外华侨,在国外生活了几十年,甚至后代子孙都出生在当地国,称他们不能是中国人,但不管他们承不承认,身在海外的他们从渊源、血脉上讲都是永远不能更改的华夏儿女、华夏子孙。中国人以及全世界各地的华人都要承认自己是五千年华夏文明的继承者、受益者,更是责无旁贷的保护者。
何谓“华夏”?华夏是中国主要民族汉族的发源地---中原的称谓。在中原黄河流域发源的这个民族,这块地方被称为“华夏”。古代常以“夏”与“蛮”对称,“华”与“夷”对称,含义为“华夏”是最文明的。⑧早在公元前221年,秦始皇统一中国,华夏已经不单指一个民族,而包含了:羌、夷、戎、狄、苗、蛮在内的各少数民族。所以,华夏是渊源、文明的象征。在中国朝代疆域最广,影响力最强的元朝时期,意大利人马可波罗在其《游记》中,向西方介绍元朝帝国时,用“CATHAY”来称谓中国,这个词代表了强盛、自豪、宽容时期的中国。⑨
中国人要有自己的神学,这个本色化神学的名称应该是“华夏复归神学”(CATHAY Restoration Theology)。它的中心论点:神在万民万族中更爱中国人,是耶和华上帝感动、启发了中国古代的诸子百家、古圣先贤们,使他们为中国人制订出了独一而又完美的道德修养论体系;也是神许可中国古代的统治者们,藉着他们使中国人在行为上完全行出了所有的道德修养,而不单是停留在理论、口头上。所以,上帝更爱中国人---世界各地所有的华夏子孙,我们要肩负起来的使命就是弥补美中不足的华夏子孙最缺乏的“信”,当我们有了对基督的信又加上我们自古就遗传下来的美好德行,上帝一定会复归我们的位置,大大的重用华夏子孙,中国必将成为宣教的国度,蒙神大大之赐福与使用。
要成为合格、符合神心意的基督徒,就要先成为合格的中国人,准确的说,应该是华夏子孙。在历史上,我们华夏民族拥有最独特、近乎完美的道德修养体系,时至今日,随着时代的发展,必然会有一些古代道德修养不适合这个新时代的要求,我们要研究、知道并了解,“取其精华,去其糟粕”,但决不能说,完全、决大多数或是全盘的否定。如果成为基督徒了,就要否定、不要了我们华夏民族最优良、最文明、最引以为自豪的道德修养,真的就成为了洋教、洋和尚、假洋鬼子,甚至是失去了一个中国人!
所以,华夏复归神学---中国人自己的神学、全世界华夏子孙的神学基础应该是:成为基督徒之前,先要成为一个具有一定道德修养的中国人,有好的基础、好的行为,再加上存正的信仰---选择了真正的神,二者合为一体,信与行并行,就会超过以色列人,弥补以色列人的不足,更加符合神的心意,被神重用,使华夏民族长久屹立于世界民族之林!
参考书籍:
①“Chinese Christians Speak Out” New World Press 1984
②“世界地图册”中国地图出版社 1992
③“基督教史”中国社会出版社 1993
④“辞海”商务印书馆 1988
⑤“中国历史”东北师大 1990
⑥“中国古代道德修养论”南京大学 1993
⑦“辞海”商务印书馆 1988
⑧“辞海”商务印书馆 1988
⑨“金山词霸”2000
A Preliminary Discussion on A New Perspective of Preaching Christianism to Chinese-----
God Loves Chinese More: Cathay Restoration Theology
Today, on every occasion when one of the two major traditional sacraments of Protestantism of Christianism: baptism is performed by the Chinese church, to make those fellows determined to join the church to swear formally before the people and more importantly the God through the ceremony of baptism: they are going to be newly-created men, disciples of Lord Jesus Christ and children of God, those brothers and sisters converted to Christians after baptism maybe don’t feel any different opinions or exclusive and contradictive pressures from their relatives, friends and surrounding environments, after all nowadays is the brand-new 21st century, the religion is free in China, and the Chinese people have started to understand and recognize the belief in Christianism and the joining of church. However, if turns back to more than 100 years, 50 years, 20 years and even 10 years, the people used to call the Christianism “foreign religion” and call the Christians “foreign monks” and satirize the Christians as “pseudo-foreigners”, and even a hostile opinion against the Christianism was popular in China several decades ago, “the addition of a Christian to the church means the loss of a citizen to China”① Up to now, we still cannot guarantee: if this thought has been eradicated from the minds of many Chinese. To preach the Christian gospel to Chinese, first of all, we have to make them know that the Christian God is always together with the Chinese people.
I. Understanding the Mission of CATHAY RESTORATION THEOLOGY from the Linguistic Perspective
The core of theological content is the infinite and transcending ultimate, the God; the basis of the theological form is the finite and changing non-ultimate, language. How does such a subject with so incommensurate content and form exist? This old problem has been put on the stage of theology in this century under interrogations from the Local Positivism, however, it has been convincingly solved after the excavation of the mediaeval “Analogy” theory and the development of the “Game” Theory in this century and other discussions on various theological linguistic theories.
The issues to be discussed hereinafter are not the basic theoretical problems of the relationship between the theological theme and common language, but the basic historical fact of relationship between the theological tasks and specific languages. And the basic historical fact is: any theological task and even any theological thinking are performed with a specific and unique language. The specific and unique language (usually is an ethnic language in the first place) is a carrier of theology.
As a systematic study or explicit illustration of “Religious Belief” or “Sacred Revelation”, the theme or content of theology has the universality, and its expressions or explanations have the universality, to be brief, it’s determined by the universality of “God” and the uniqueness of “Word”. On one hand, the “God” must be expressed with “Word” to be known by people (even the “Bible” must be written with certain specific languages as Hebrew and Greek, and only after being translated into other ethnic languages, could it be understood by the people knowing no Hebrew and Greek); on the other hand, although the “Word” is impotent sometime to some extent, it could denote the “God” itself to various degrees (the degree depends both on the richness and appropriateness of a specific language and on the accuracy and appropriateness of the expresser’s application method). As far as the case of Christianism is concerned, after its basis, that is, the Christ Event, from the “New Testament” witnessed the Christ Event, to all the subsequent epistles, doctrines and theologies must be expressed with a certain specific language. Although some languages as Greek, Latin and English have become the international (inter-ethnic) general language within a considerable scope, originally they are ethnic languages of specific ethnics as well.
The Hebrew religious concept, the Greek philosophic concept and the Roman legal concept have all covered the spirit of Christianism to a certain degree, and at the same time, they have contributed to the inheritance and development of the Christian spirit to a large extent. This historical fact indicates if different ethnic languages and their specific accompanying existential experiences and cultural resources have to be the carrier of theology, on one hand, some unavoidable impotences and even distortions may appear, and on the other hand, some appropriate expressions and even shining points may appear, for the coexistence of their functions and limitations.
The origin of all lies in the people is a symbolic (emblem) animal from a certain perspective. As the most important symbol or emblem, the language not only determines the logic thinking and reasoning modes, but also even constitutes the existence scope of human beings. A large majority of human beings have to understand and express the revelations through language, which certainly shows the limitations of human beings. However, from another perspective, As a being, the language has the characters of being itself and poses a special relationship with “God” or “Bible”, therefore, the capability of human beings in understanding and expressing revelations through language has justified why human beings are “Spirit of Everything”.
There are numerous specific languages for human beings, but which one could serve as the carrier for theology? The answer could only be all ethnic languages. It’s the “Certainty” determined by the universality of theology. Since Jesus demands his disciples “and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem” (LUKE, 24:27); “Go into all the world and proclaim the good news to the whole creation.” (MARK, 16: 15); “And teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.” (MATTHEW, 28: 20) and the result of the befalling of Holy Spirit is “speaking in the native language of each” and “began to speak in other languages” (ACTS, 2:1-11), which have explicitly indicated the Christian theology should be expressed in all ethnic languages. It doesn’t reject any language, and on the contrary it requires taking each ethnic language as the carrier.
However, as for the individuals of the Christian theologists over two thousand years, most of them are performing the theological tasks with one language or even several limited languages. It’s the “Certainty” determined by the limitations of languages of human beings. It certainly demands no further explanations. But it’s worth of mentioning that generally speaking, the theologists mostly use their native languages or at least use their mostly employed languages in particular environments to make theological expressions. To be concise, we call the “language of our own nation” and the “languages mostly employed by us in particular environments” as the “Native Language”, and based on this meaning, we could say that almost all theological works are performed by the theologists in their native languages, and in other words, the theology is basically the “Theology of Native Language”.
The so-called “CATHAY RESTORATION THOLOGY” is just as the English Theology, the German Theology and the Spanish Theology, and it’s a member of the big family of “Native Language Theology”. How to proclaim the Christianism with the native language of the Chinese people will be the mission proposed by CATHAY RESTORATION THEOLOGY, and this mission is to make the Chinese people understand the relationship between the Christian God and the Chinese people---the Christianism is not an exotic religion, and the salvation from the God for the foreigners must be for the Chinese as well.
II. God Loves Chinese More
The formation, flourishing and even survival of the above-mentioned thought is contributed to many factors as history, society, politics and so on, however, an essential factor cannot be neglected: the conclusion is made without elaborate investigation and research. If we read the Bible carefully, for not only one or two times but many times, we could find a connotative precious information disclosed by the Bible: the religion foundation of the Chinese people is the best among the countries and peoples in the world, that is to say, the Chinese people is a nation most favored and cherished by God. However, we know the Chinese people are not mentioned in the Bible at all, what the Bible concentrates is only the history of Israelites-God’s chosen people, the Israelites should most certainly be the people most favored by God, and their religion foundation should be the best, for God only chose one nation, whereby should we say the Chinese people is the nation with the best religion foundation and most favored by God?
Certainly, it’s well-known that the Israelites are the only nation chosen by the Lord recognized in the world, and it’s for sure that the Chinese are not mentioned in the entire Bible at all, however, we could discover God’s choice of the Israelites is determined by its external factors after comprehensive consideration standing at a certain height.
Firstly, Israel has the superiority in geographical position, and it’s impossible to find the second place as its substitute. Palestine is located at the interfaced point between the three continents of Europe, Asia and Africa, which has always been a place of conflicts since ancient times, and provided if a civilization is produced here, with its superiority in geographical position, the “gospel” could be spread throughout the world very quickly. ②
Secondly, although Palestine is not a cradle of civilization, it’s the area under the deepest, broadest and most complete influences from civilization. Among the ancient civilized countries in the world, there are three major ancient civilized countries, as Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece and Ancient Babylon, distributed in its surroundings, so that Palestine could completely taste, learn and absorb the most civilized achievements of the three major civilized countries for their own purposes. The development and flourishing of Christianism afterwards is largely contributed to the good civilization foundations left behind by the three major ancient civilized countries. ③
Thirdly, nearly hundred nations of various sizes are successively inhibiting and multiplying in Palestine and Asia Minor areas since the ancient times. And the only reason that God has chosen Abraham, the ancestor of the Israelites among these nations is because his unique faith, and he deserves to be called “Father of Faith”. Maybe before choosing Abraham, God has spoken out the same words to the minds of many nation chiefs, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.”(GENESIS 12:1-2),maybe, these people understand the order given by God, however, they lack faith for they cannot see the God by themselves, they cannot go for personal practices only by some words, and Abraham does so. Abraham’s faith is the best among various nations of the Palestine area, but the only defect is Abraham’s moral cultivation.
In [GENESIS 12], we clearly see that Abraham changed the route made by God and went down to Egypt for fear of famine in the land, in order to save his life, he would rather to lie that his wife was his sister, and he sent his wife to Pharaoh of Egypt. He could spare no costs to save his life, and such a moral cultivation is really too bad. We could see large and unique faith from the Israelites after Abraham to believe God, but only too many errors in moral cultivation.
Jacob buys the birthright from Esau with the “lentil stew”; Moses doesn’t believe in God’s words for his pride afterwards; the serious jealousness of Saul; David commits adultery with Bathsheba and has her husband Uriah killed; Solomon’s addiction to beauty and violates the God’s imperative and publicly marries a foreign woman; in the New Testament times, all the Sadducees, Pharisees and the scribes believe in God undoubtedly and have large faith in God, but send the Lord Jesus to the cross; Both Peter and Judas have faith in God, for they have witnessed the Lord’s behaviors and they know the Lord is the only son of God, but they still dare not to recognize their Lord Jesus at the critical moment and Judas even betrays his Lord Jesus; Paul has faith in God at the beginning, but actively participates the activity in persecuting the Christians; we could see that all every Israelite believes he or she is the chosen people of the Lord God, they believe in the omnipotence of the Lord God no matter from their own perspective or the perspective of history of their nation, and they never doubt his authenticity, but the only regret is their moral cultivation-loss and impotency in behaviors, they surely know the rightness and truth and know the right way, but they cannot make it.
The Chinese people have our own unique civilization since the ancient times, and China is called one of the “Four Major Ancient Civilized Countries in the World” for such a civilization. The difference from other ancient civilized countries is: the uniqueness of the ancient Chinese civilization is reflected on the obedience to moral cultivation theory from the citizens of the country, not only from the very beginning, the “moral cultivation theoretical system” from simple to complicated is established very long time ago, and this system is gradually abided by in daily life and is implemented and carried forward with the carrier of the concept “worshiping Heaven” and “Obedient to Son of Heaven”.
Therefore, there are only four major ancient civilized countries in the world, and among them only China is called as “State of Courtesy”. ④ In Han Dynasty, before the entry of the foreign religion Buddhism in China, the thought of the people is generally very single and pure: worshiping Heaven. And the emperor as ruler firmly believes his right is endowed and permitted by Heaven, and calls himself as “Son of Heaven”. We could say that the pretence of “Son of Heaven” from the emperor is the usurpation of Heaven’s right, it’s the suppression of people’s spirit by power to make the people be obedient to the emperor from their beliefs, and the deceived people take the emperor as their Heaven (God).
After a long history covering hundreds of years, we may discover that the utmost disadvantage and defect of our nation is the lack of faith in God from the people. The people are even deceived by the “Son of Heaven” and don’t know who is the real God, then where is the real God? Provided if the “brotherhood” from Guan Yu to Liu Bei and the “loyalty” from Yue Fei, Song Jiang and Wen Tianxiang, etc to the court is used on the belief in real God instead of the people, how great will they be! If it’s in this case, we can imagine how many upright people and martyrs as described in the Bible and Church History will appear in the Chinese history. The God doesn’t offer us with true faith but endows us good moral cultivation theory, so that our Chinese could do what the Israelites could not. The moral cultivation formed by the Chinese since the ancient times is the best education and restriction on the people’s behaviors and is a very perfect practical system, but the only thing that we are lack of is: no faith to seek for and to know the God, and belief in the God rather than those people who call themselves as God.
We could see that the rulers as Yao, Shun and Yu in the ancient China have paid great attentions to the moral cultivation. “Be careful with improving your own morality and think of the eternal”. (SHANG SHU) ⑥, which means be careful with your own behaviors is a perpetual morality, which is abided by them. In the Western Zhou Dynasty’s period, Emperor Cheng realizes “The only assistant to the emperor is morality rather than Heaven”, and the moral cultivation is the key for the survival of a king and a dynasty. The perdition of Shang Dynasty is attributed to the lack of moral cultivation and actions from the Emperor Zhou at the top and the common people at the bottom, and the perdition disaster is caused by their violations to moral cultivation. Therefore, the ruler of Zhou Dynasty advocates “moral cultivation and civilian protection”, and only with the good self moral cultivation from the ruler, could the people live in safety and harmony and could the country last permanent safety and stability.
In the Old Testament of the Bible, the repeated punishments inflicted by the Lord God on the Israelites are attributed to their lacking of good moral cultivation as instructed by God, although they believe in God, they cannot make it. Jesus is the God’s son, and we see the example God makes us to imitate from the only son of God; Jesus is not only eloquent, but also no matter under whatever circumstances, his moral cultivation, that is his behaviors are free from fault and flaw and are perfect. Although he is the only son of God, Peter, Paul and numerous saints in the Church History have also made it by imitating Jesus, with both faith and actions. The believe and abide by the words personally imparted by Jesus, “In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.”(MATTHEW 5:16). The Israelites often fail to make it for their lacking of moral cultivation, as the master personally choosing them as chosen people, of course the God has to discipline and even punish those insubordinate people, which has been repeatedly depicted in Bible concerning the history of the Israelites, from the repeated destructions of their sanctuaries and their captures to the foreign countries for many times and until to their final exile throughout the world for above thousand years.
It’s evident for us to see from the chosen people of God that it’s impossible to have faith only but no actions, and very likely the consequence is “death”, which is a truth repeatedly instructed by the Jacob Section of the New Testament. Similarly, if only have good virtues but without faith, just like our Chinese, have been favored by God since the ancient times, the moral cultivation of the Chinese people is endowed with the uniqueness and superiority greatly surpassing the other countries and nations, for we believe since God could endow wisdom to Solomon, the same wisdom could be endowed to us on all moral cultivation theories. Our failure lies in we fail to surpass the man-made barriers since the ancient times, and to choose, recognize and identify. Therefore, the Israel people have faith but no actions, and the Chinese people have actions but no faith to recognize the God.
II. Putting-forward of Cathay Restoration Theology
Today, we call ourselves Chinese, and the word “China” has two layers of meanings. It originally refers to the middle reach areas of the Yellow River, where the ancient Han nationality inhabits, and it refers to the entire territory in the middle of the 19th century, and is a geographical name. The other layer of meaning is the short name of “The People’s Republic of China”, and all residents in “The People’s Republic of China” could call themselves Chinese.⑦ However, some overseas Chinese living in various countries other than China absurdly refuse to admit they are Chinese after living overseas for several decades and even their descendants are born overseas, regardless of their denies in admitting themselves as Chinese, although they are living overseas, the fact that they are Cathay children and descendants of Chinese can never be changed no matter from the aspect of origin or blood. The Chinese and overseas Chinese throughout the world have to admit ourselves as the successors, beneficiaries and even protectors of the five thousand years of civilization.
What is “Cathay” (Hua Xia)? Cathay is an appellation of the cradle of the major nationality-Han of China, Central China. This nationality and this place in the cradle of the Yellow River in Central China is called “Cathay”. In the ancient times, “Hua” is often compared with “Savage Nationality”(Man) and “Xia” is often compared with “Barbarians”(Yi), which means “Cathay” is the most civilized. ⑧ As early as 221 B.C., after the unification of China by Emperor Qin Shi Huang, Cathay refers to not only one nationality, and also refers to Qiang, Yi (Barbarians), Rong, Di, Miao, Man (Savages) and other minorities. Therefore, Cathay is a symbol of origin and civilization. In Yuan Dynasty, a Dynasty with the largest territory and the greatest influence among all ancient Chinese Dynasties, the Italian Marco Polo used the term “CATHAY” to refer to China, when he introduced the Yuan Dynasty to the western countries in his “TRAVELS”, and this term represented the China in a prosperous, proud and tolerant period. ⑨
The Chinese people shall have our own theology, and the name to the indigenized theology shall be “CATHAY RESTORATION THEOLOGY”. Its central issues are: God loves the Chinese more among the various countries and various nations in the world, the unique and remarkable Chinese characters with profound connotative meanings are created by various schools of thought and ancient saints and sages in the Chinese ancient times, under the inspiration and enlightenment from the Lord God, and God makes them to establish a perfect moral cultivation theory system, and under the permission form God, the Chinese ancient rulers make the Chinese people completely bring all moral cultivations into actions, rather than staying simply on theories and words. Therefore, God loves Chinese more---the mission has to be shouldered by all Cathaysian descendents all over the world is to make up the “faith”, which is a defect mostly lack in the Cathaysian descents.
To become a qualified Christian favored by God, we shall first become the qualified Chinese, more exactly, we shall be the Cathaysian descendants first. In history, our Cathaysian nation has the most unique and nearly perfect moral cultivation system, and up to now, with the development of times, there must be some ancient moral cultivations become outdated toward the requirements from current times, we shall study, know and understand, we shall “select the essence and discard the dross”, and by no means shall we completely or mostly or entirely deny. If we deny and discard the most excellent, most civilized and proudest moral cultivation of the Cathay nation after becoming a Christian, then we will really make the Christianism to be considered as a foreign religion, foreign monk and pseudo-foreigner, which is not liked by God.
Therefore, CATHAY RESTORATION THEOLOGY is the theology of Chinese people, and the theology foundation of the Cathaysian descendants all over the world shall be: the Christianism preaching God has been together with the Chinese people since the ancient times, you must be a Chinese with a certain moral cultivation before becoming a Christian, with a solid foundation and good behaviors, and plus the righteous belief---choose the real God, combine the two elements, and combine faith with actions, and then we could surpass the Israelites and make up the defects of the Israelites, and we will be much more favored and highly thought of by God, and make the Cathaysian nation permanently standing towering in the nation forest of the world.
References:
① “Chinese Christians Speak Out”, New World Press, RETROSPECT AND PROSEPECT BY K.H.Ting,1984,p4
②“World Atlas”, SINOMAPS PRESS, 1992,p11
③ Coauthor by Zhijun Wang and Aili He, “History of Christianity”, China Society Press, 1993,p66
④“CIHAI”, Commercial Press, Beijing,1988,p997
⑤ Dezhong Wang, “Chinese History”, Northeast Normal University, 1990,p56
⑥Prof.Zhang, “Theory of Chinese Ancient Moral Cultivation”, Nanjing University, 1993,p124
⑦“CIHAI”, Commercial Press, Beijing,1988,p1124
⑧“CAIHAI”, Commercial Press,Beijing, 1988,p652
⑨“PowerWord”,Powerword Ltd Company, Beijing,2000