HRJ's Themes in 20 Years
Andres Tang
HRJ ’s Associate Editor
HRJ’s Themes in 20 Years
The theme of HRJ’s first issue is “Character Formation and Church Ministry” while that of the fortieth issue is “Discipline of the Faith Community.” If the first issue and the fortieth one have some kind of representation, they indicate certain HRJ characteristics: HRJ is concerned about the Church and engages in serious reflections on faith. After having categorized the themes of these 40 issues, it is not hard to arrive at this conclusion (refer to the pie chart below).
HRJ is not simply an academic journal. While the journal delivers themes on biblical studies, church history and doctrine / theology, HRJ offers many more themes on pastoral ministry and lay ethics. What must be noted is that these HRJ articles within the category of shepherding and ethics take more than one approach: both biblical studies and church history, as well as doctrine or theology. Besides, even when it is dealing purely with biblical studies, church history, doctrine or theology, what is discussed is not limited to academicians who talk amongst themselves but rather is targeted to the needs of the faith community. From this perspective, over the past 20 years, HRJ has never deviated from its original goal: “Building bridges between the academic circle and the churches,” and “fostering an integration of academic research and church ministry as well as the lives of faith of the lay people.”
Why It Was Called “Hill Road”？
Since 1956, HKBTS was located at 1 Homantin Hill Road until 1999 when it was relocated to the Sai O campus. Over a period of 43 years, HKBTS’s teachers and students, one generation after another, walked up and down Homantin Hill Road. Every day as they walked, they learned to adopt the attitude of the pilgrims who sang the Songs of Ascent in the Hebrew Psalter as they made their way uphill towards Jerusalem. “Hill Road” carries the teachers’ and students’ collective memories of HKBTS’s Homantin campus and also symbolizes their quest for holiness and academic excellence. In 1998, when the seminary’s academic journal was born, it only seemed natural for the journal to adopt the name “Hill Road.”
