Interdisciplinary Studies: The End of Sino-Christian "Theology"? A Reflection on the Development of Sino-Christian Theology

Sino-Christian theology is an intellectual movement developed since late 1980s when China is struggling to become a modern nation-state. In the very beginning the Chinese intellectuals welcomed and studied western culture as a means of understanding modernity, and Christianity was appreciated even outside of the church as part of the corresponding cultural background. In the last twenty more years Chinese intellectuals have gradually gained deeper understanding of the western history of thought and have perceived its complexity and pluralistic nature. At the same time China is rising in the international arena and struggling to build up her contemporary cultural identity. Therefore the attitude of Chinese intellectuals towards Christianity and western culture as a whole has been changing and has become diversified. In this article, hot issues related to Sino-Christian theology in the past are found to have intimate relationship with the intellectual concerns in the big scene. Therefore they have to be studied in relation to topics like modernity, universal values, nationalism, and so on. Interdisciplinary studies seem to be the inevitable approach of Sino-Christian theology as it can develop dialogue with different subjects and draw the attention of a lot of scholars. Nevertheless the drawback of this convenient approach is that the research directions of Sino-Christian theology may easily be drawn by contemporary intellectual tides and lose its own position and agenda. This is also a problem shared by many human and social sciences since the Enlightenment. Thus a call for searching its own identity and attachment to its tradition should also be embraced by theologians in Chinese academia.