Political theology in China

After 1949, the founding of the People's Republic of China, the Chinese Protestant leaders encountered new challenges – the new regime of the communist government is based on atheistic ideology of Marxism. They had to decide how to deal with the relationship with the atheistic government. There were different attitudes and theologies among Chinese Christians. Some of them, such as Y. T. Wu, who were willing to support the new government, helped to pen the Christian Manifesto and initiated the Three-Self movement (TSPM) in 1950s; they reconstructed theology in terms of cooperation. Others, such as Wang Mingdao, were unwilling to endorse the radical TSPM and refused to support the new government, are regarded as the forerunners of the present-day house church.[7]

In the 1950s Denunciation Campaigns, some Christian leaders, such as Wang Mingdao, Watchman Nee, from the opposing camp were arrested and sentenced in the name of counter-revolutionaries. During the ten years of Cultural Revolution (1966–1976), all the religious activities were banned and many Christians met and worshiped in the Christians' houses.

In 1980s, religious activities recovered and churches gradually opened. However, Christians who were unwilling to joined the TSPM churches and chose to gather in unregistered house churches which gather in personal houses or apartments.[8] K. H. Ting and Wang Weifan were leaders and representatives of the TSPM church. Wang Mingdao and Wang Yi would be representatives of the house church; the latter Wang is the pastor in the urban church in Chengdu which is not a traditional house church, but who still claims the link to the house church.[9]

In the 1950s, after Zhou Enlai saw the possibilities in Protestantism with the TSPM, a similar approach was taken with Catholicism leading to the formation in 1957 of the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association (CPCA), severing ties with the Vatican. Those who chose not to affiliate with the CPCA and remain loyal to the Pope and the Vatican are often considered part of the underground church.[10]

Ignatius Kung Pin-Mei, the Catholic bishop of Shanghai, opposed the formation of the CPCA and, along with several hundred bishops and church leaders, was arrested on 8 September 1955.[11] He viewed the CPCA as being schismatic and, therefore, not in union with the universal Roman Catholic Church.[12] Kung criticized China's lack of religious freedom and reckoned that Chinese Catholics "do not have the freedom to worship."[13] When he was interviewed by the Soul Magazine in 1993, Kung expressed his sympathy for the underground Catholics and Bishops under the Communist government and claimed that, "The government should understand from history that every time the Church was persecuted, the Church has always survived and grown out of the persecution."[14]

Another significant figure was Aloysius Jin Luxian, who was arrested alongside Kung on 8 September 1955. However, after being released from prison in 1982, he took several leadership roles within the CPCA, including becoming founding rector of the Sheshan Seminary and bishop of Shanghai in 1988, without Vatican approval.[15]

Despite the Anti-Confucius developments of the Cultural Revolution, since the 1980s, there has been a restored interest in Confucianism as offering a renewed political ideology for mainland China. Part of this has included the introduction of New Confucianism from Taiwan and North America. Some have advocated for the building of new Confucian churches in the country.[16] Others, such as Jiang Qing have advocated for a new form of constitutional Confucianism.[17]

Since the late 1980s there has been a growing interest in Christianity among academics in China's secular universities. Often described as Cultural Christians, many of whom are not self-identified Christians, these scholars have been drawn to Christianity as a source for the modernization of China. One of the key figures of this movement, Liu Xiaofeng at Renmin University of China, in the 2000s began to draw on the political theology of Carl Schmitt for engaging the Chinese political arena.[18] Others, such as Xie Zhibin from Tongji University in Shanghai, has attempted to offer a public theological engagement based on the theology of Max Stackhouse.[19][20] Most recently, Zhuo Xinping of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences has advocated for the sinicization or Chinization (Chinese: 中国化; pinyin: Zhongguo hua) of Christianity both politically and culturally.[21]

"The Christian Manifesto" was published in July 1950 and its original title was "Direction of Endeavor for Chinese Christianity in the Construction of New China." The founding group of the Three-Self Patriotic Movement, including Y. T. Wu, drafted the document in consultation with Premier Zhou Enlai. During the 1950s, 400,000 Protestant Christians publicly endorsed and signed this document.[22]

In August 2015 Wang Yi posted a document titled "Reaffirming Our Stance on the House Churches: 95 Theses" in an attempt to reaffirm the Chinese house church's position in the relationship between government and society. Echoing Martin Luther's 95 theses, these Chinese 95 theses demonstrate his opinion of the church-state relationship from the perspective of the house church.[23]