The Church as an Alternative Polis: Revisiting the Ecclesiology of Wang Mingdao
This article explores three different views of Wang Mingdao’s ecclesial stance and his approach to the Three-Self Patriotic Movement (TSPM): his refusal to join the TSPM as a political rather than theological approach to resisting the Chinese Communist Party; his refusal to accept the TSPM’s authori...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
ATESEA
2023
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| In: |
Asia journal of theology
Year: 2023, Volume: 37, Issue: 1, Pages: 54-73 |
| Further subjects: | B
politics of Jesus Christ
B Ecclesiology B Witness B Polis B Wang Mingdao |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (kostenfrei) Volltext (kostenfrei) |
| Summary: | This article explores three different views of Wang Mingdao’s ecclesial stance and his approach to the Three-Self Patriotic Movement (TSPM): his refusal to join the TSPM as a political rather than theological approach to resisting the Chinese Communist Party; his refusal to accept the TSPM’s authority as the Protestant church’s resistance to Chinese hegemony; and his ecclesial stance as a sectarian withdrawal from the world. Considering these diverse scholarly perspectives, I interpret Wang’s response to the TSPM as part of a necessary proclamatory action and propose that Wang’s model of radical action models the politics of Jesus. His church is political only as defined by the gospel, and it represents a new polis—a kind of community established in and through Jesus of Nazareth to stand as a political alternative to the dominant politics of the world and contribute to an alternative identity of a citizen. I, therefore, approach Wang’s faith practice from an ecclesiological standpoint and situate him and his ecclesial activities into the historical and theological context to explore his biblical-theological foundation for this new polis and its public witness. I argue that Wang’s rejection of the TSPM and his alternative way of engaging with political issues such as imperialism, nationalism, and church-state relations show that his ecclesial stance is novel and distinct from other forms of politics. |
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| ISSN: | 2815-1828 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Asia journal of theology
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.54424/ajt.v37i1.69 |