山道期刊

How History Demonstrates that Incarnational Discipleship is Solid Ground

Glen H. STASSEN

According to the author, we live in “the Age of Interaction.” Many perspectives and ideologies that were once thought of as universal have been shown to be particular and, even, narrow. Therefore, people are searching for what Bonhoeffer called, “ground to stand on.” Christians, like everyone else, need to find a solid ethical ground to stand on. Some would base this ground on the teachings of the Bible. Although this is correct, it still faces the problem of verifying different ways of reading the Bible. The solution advocated in this essay is to test an interpretation against the way Jesus Christ read the Bible. More specifically, interpretations are tested by their fruits (Matt. 7: 15-20) in concrete historical situation. The author calls this principle, “Incarnational Discipleship.”

Four historical situations are cited to illustrate how incarnational discipleship works out in practice. The first historical example cited is the opposition to the Third Reich by the Barmen Declaration, which upholds a Trinitarian understanding of incarnational discipleship. The author also argues that Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who spoke out against Hitler’s war spirit and injustice to Jews, and André Trocmé, who led the small village of Le Chambon to hide 2,500 Jews from the Nazis, passed the historical test. The second historical situation cited is the U.S. Civil Rights Movement. Martin Luther King, Jr., following Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, led a non-violent movement against segregation and racism while Clarence Jordan, following the same teachings, started a cooperative farm where everyone, Whites as well as Blacks, was a co-owner that shared in the work and proceeds of the farm. The third historical situation concerns the ministries to the poor by Muriel Lester in London and Dorothy Day in New York. Finally, the Revolution of the Candles that led to the toppling of East German dictator Eric Honecker and the Berlin Wall in a nonviolent manner is also cited. The Christ centered interpretations of these people are validated in concrete historical situations, thus validating, in turn, incarnational discipleship as a solid principle of interpretation.

Incarnational Discipleship: Jesus and Just Peacemaking Theory

Glen H. STASSEN

This essay summarizes pertinent points from the book Just Peacemaking: Ten Practices for Abolishing War that the author edited. The ten practices are divided into three clusters: initiatives, justice, and community.

The first cluster entitled, “Transforming Initiatives”, deals with the issues of nonviolent direct action, independent initiatives, cooperative conflict resolution and acknowledgement of responsibility and repentance. Nonviolent direct action is based on Matthew 5:38-42; it advocates the use of nonviolent demonstrations, civil disobedience, strikes and boycotts to overcome injustice and avoid war. The second practice of just peacemaking, “independent initiatives”, is the practice of negotiating with the opposition in such a way as to decrease distrust and move towards a resolution. Cooperative conflict resolution, the third of this cluster, means keeping the channel of communication going in the midst of a crisis. The final practice of peacemaking in this cluster means exactly what the names say, “Acknowledge responsibility for conflict and injustice, and seek repentance and forgiveness.”

The second cluster of just peacemaking practice is called “Justice: Human Rights and Sustainable Economic Development.” It includes promoting values of democracy, human rights and religious liberty rather than intervening by means of war. It also focuses on building sustainable economic development as an aid to peacemaking since terrorism and violent rebellion tend to come from disenfranchised and economically desperate people.

The third cluster of just peacemaking practice is called “Strengthen Cooperative Forces.” The need for cooperative forces is due to human’s proclivity to sin (Rom. 3:23). Thus this cluster includes the practice of developing international networks of cooperation (e.g., via treaties, trades, and immigration) and strengthening the United Nations as well as multilateral peacemaking, peacekeeping and peace building efforts. It also includes the effort to reduce offensive weapons and weapons trade. Finally, just peacemaking encourages grassroots peacemaking groups and voluntary associations.

Caring for the Creation as Incarnational Discipleship

Glen H. STASSEN

This essay states that incarnational discipleship involves caring for God’s creation. Based on Matthew 6:19-33, the author argues that God is actively and deeply involved in his creation (“your heavenly Father feeds them.…God so clothes the grass of the field”); the point of telling us this fact is for us to do the same, i.e., to be actively and deeply involved in God’s creation. Incarnational discipleship takes Jesus’ admonishing to invest our money and life in things that have eternal values very seriously; it is our investment in worldly, temporary things (e.g., cars, factories that produce more goods) that are causing problems like global warming and pollution. More specifically, incarnational discipleship would have us renounce using much plastic, avoid using as much gasoline as possible, conserve heat and electricity, and devise policies that would conserve our world’s natural resources. For example, Europe and Japan have initiated policies that would discourage the use of gasoline by taxing gasoline more than other commodities. Based on the Sermon on the Mount (e.g., Matt. 6:5-15, 6:19-34), incarnational discipleship places major emphasis on prayer and economic justice. According to the author, as we invest our lives in God’s reign, in justice, and in charity, our hearts will be invested there as well.

Doing Greater Things: Discipleship in John’s Gospel and Letters

Poling J. SUN

The clause “those who believe in me would do the works I have been doing; they would even do greater things” in John 14:12 has intrigued exegetes for centuries. While the meaning of the text seems evident and clear upon first reading, further consideration cautions and calls for a probe into how “greater things” should be related to the Gospel’s coherent presentation of Jesus’ identity and ministry, the role of the Holy Spirit and the ethics of the community. Contrary to the view that the saying is Jesus’ promise to the succeeding disciples to perform more spectacular and miraculous acts, after a close reading of the motif in relation to the entire narrative and in particular to John 13-17 (the Farewell Discourse), this paper argues that the saying should be understood as a formulation of discipleship in John’s Gospel and Letters.

This paper begins with an examination of Jesus’ ministry and maintains that miracles in John’s Gospel are strictly confined to revealing Jesus’ identity and ministry (i.e. signs). It further examines the motif of “Greater” in the Gospel and suggests along with contemporary scholars that the motif is best understood within the Johannine eschatological framework ushered by Jesus’ Hour of Glory. The third part of this paper focuses on chapters 13-17 in which 14:12 is located, suggesting that scholars’ opinion of an eschatological framework is still unsatisfying because it is too broad to clarify the meaning of the issue at stake. This paper demonstrates that this eschatological framework is further substantiated with Jesus’ own example and his Commandment of Love and the role of the Holy Spirit. These various aspects and motifs link coherently together to illuminate the neglected side of “Doing Greater Things” –– discipleship. The paper ends with a discussion of how Jesus’ identity and ministry, Commandment of Love, and the role of the Holy Spirit are further articulated in I and II John, confirming the significance of Johannine formulation of discipleship.

Discipleship: A Perspective of John Howard Yoder

Vincent C. P. LAU

Discipleship and faithfulness can be regarded as a twin-core of Yoder’s theology. Yoder argues that discipleship is a practice of Christian faith, which is an embodiment of the church’s faithfulness. Simply speaking, the church’s obedience to discipleship is an expression of faithfulness. Since the church is the prefiguration of the divine order, a concept derived from Karl Barth, discipleship is the required training for the church whose mission is to reveal the divine order to the world. Yoder spells out the five practices of the church that breed tremendous impact on the world socially, economically and politically. The aim of the essay is an attempt to examine the meanings of discipleship in Yoder’s theology. Firstly, an overview of Anabaptist tradition that shapes Yoder’s discipleship is introduced. Secondly, an analysis of Yoder’s church-world relations in light of discipleship is surveyed. Finally, the meanings of discipleship expounded by Yoder and its influence on the world are elucidated.

The Ecclesiology of Stanley Hauerwas

LI Chun Hong

Stanley Hauerwas is one of the most influential theologians in America today. This paper aims at introducing and analyzing his ecclesiology from three dimensions. First, the church is a narrative community. Hauerwas follows the postliberal narrative theology of Hans Frei and George Lindbeck. He emphasizes that the church is a storied community, which is shaped by the stories of Jesus and also proclaims the stories of Jesus. Second, the church is a polis. Hauerwas believes that the church is different from the world, and Christians are “resident aliens” in the world. The church is out of the world’s control, but contributes peace and justice for the world. And the mission of the church is to be church, to make the Kingdom of God visible. Finally, the church is a servant of the world. Hauerwas suggests two possible ways for the church to serve the world: peacemaking and education. The world can hear and learn the stories of God by the service of the church. For Hauerwas, this is not something the church does, but is the church itself.

Religious Studies, Theology and Sino-Christian Studies

LAI Pan-chiu

The recent publication of Paulus Huang (Huang Baoluo)’s Sino-Christian Academic Theology: The Study of Christianity as an Academic Discipline (in Chinese: Hanyu Xueshu Shenxue: Zuowei Xueke Tixi De Jidujiao Yanjiu; Beijing: Religious Culture Publishing House, 2008) signifies an important and ambitious attempt to establish “Sino-Christian Studies”, which refers to the study of Christianity in the Chinese academia, as a formal academic discipline in Mainland China. Through a brief survey of the major models of academic theology or Christian Studies prevalent in Western universities, this paper attempts to show that the model of academic theology advocated by Huang tends to assume that the academic study of Christianity is some sort of professional training and that Religious Studies is part of Theology. This model is derived from the particular situation of European Continent and represents merely one of the possible models for academic theology. This paper further argues that given the concrete situations of the universities in Mainland China, including the academic as well as religious orientations of the students and teachers, the social and political environments, the relationship between the academic and ecclesiastical circles, the model advocated by Huang may not be so suitable for the universities in Mainland China, though it is adopted by many independent theological seminaries and universities in the Western world. A more appropriate model for the universities in Mainland China is to take the academic study of Christianity as a sort of liberal education rather than professional training, assume its institutional affiliation to Religious Studies as the starting point, and seek for creative interaction with other branches of Religious Studies. This model is not merely more practical in and appropriate to the context of Mainland China, but also more beneficial to the development of the Christian churches, the universities and Sino-Christian Studies itself.

Saving God outside of the Text

Jason T. S. LAM

This article is divided into two major parts. In the first part a comparison is conducted between post-structuralism (taking Derrida as an example) and hermeneutics (taking Ricoeur as an example) in dealing with the transformation of meaning in reading a text. It is to show that although both sides exhibit some inner tensions in their handling of the reading process, they can construe coherent renderings. The second part tries to show that, however, if the purpose is to develop a theology from interpreting the biblical text, then Ricoeurian type of hermeneutics may offer some advantages over Derridian deconstruction. It is because hermeneutics scholars, like Ricoeur, understand that there is always an impulse of totalization in human interpreters, while in reality one can only examine concrete and limited events as texts. Thus there exist an outside and an inside of a text and different disciplines of the human sciences may join hands to investigate the temporality and historicity of human beings through analyzing texts. Narrative in this way is a means to connect the seemingly unbridgeable fragments of history for the sake of building up a meaningful and coherent imaginative unity (of a universal history). But then it is obvious that no one single narrative can be truly totalizing and all narratives can always be refigured to generate new meanings in different contexts. The Christian Bible is the example Ricoeur used to illustrate this effect. Different generations of believing communities have demonstrated in the Bible how they (re)figure their own selves or images in the mirror of this imaginative unity being supposed to be inspired by the God who is the holy other outside of this text.