Dennis T.W. Ng: A Faith that Enables People to be the Ambassador of Harmony Under Globalization – a Theology in the Context of Contemporary China

This lecture will be delivered in English. 

Regent College’s Chinese Studies Program is pleased to host this lunchtime lecture by Prof. Dr. Dennis T.W. Ng.

Dr. Ng is currently a Senior Fellow at the Andrew Walls Centre for the Study of African and Asian Christianity at Liverpool Hope University, Editor-in-Chief of International Journal of Harmony and Humanity, Chairman of the Selection Committee for The International Harmony Theologian Prize, President of the Institute of International Harmony and Sustainable Development, an Adjunct Professor of Theology & Sacred Music at East China Theological Seminary of Shanghai, a Professor of Systematic Theology and the Dean of the School of Sacred Music at China Victory Theological Seminary of Hong Kong, and a Research Fellow of the Center for Study of Religion and Chinese Society at Shanghai University. Prof. Ng is a prolific author who has published 17 books. His latest book is Theology of Harmony: In Search of the Roots and Development of Chinese Theology (Hong Kong: Joint Publishing Company, Jan 2018).

Paper Abstract:

Some Western scholars are concerned that in some places in China the crosses were removed from the church spires. Most people may have a question in their mind: Will Christianity in China be removed? Not only some leaders of house church and institutional church were arrested, and even some senior government officials such as Guo Boxiong, Bo Xilai, Zhou Yongkang, were also arrested sequentially, and recently the State Council of the PRC released the revised Ordinance of Religious Affairs. What happening in China do these instances reflect? While the reform leading the entire China, Christianity as a component of the culture, its development in China cannot be divorced from the atmosphere of political, social, economic and international situation. This paper explores the relationship between the direction of China and Chinese Christianity through: (1) the different versions of economic reforms in Washington Consensus and in Beijing Consensus; (2) an international diversity, removing the American foreign policy of unilateralism, and establishing a harmonious global village; (3) China’s experience of the moderate reform in Beijing Consensus, from the economy to law, “getting on track with the world”; (4) a value system developed by the economy, the law and diplomacy, such system has an excellent communication skills, establishing a Chinese nationality, so that China’s identity will not be disintegrated, and become a nation stressing diversity, equity and mutual respect; (5) from different perspectives, we may learn about the development of Chinese Christianity today: the churches in China had cut the relationship with the West in the 1950s until K.H. Ting rebuilt a reconciled relationship in the 1980s, developing to the theology of harmony today. This kind of Chinese theology enables us to be an ambassador of harmony for the gospel of Christ in the changing context of globalization.

伍德榮教授現為英國利物浦希望大學沃爾斯非洲及亞洲基督教研究中心高級研究員、《和諧與人文國際期刊》主編、國際和諧神學家獎遴選委員會主席、國際和諧可持續發展研究所所長、國際得勝生命差傳基金會主席、上海中國基督教華東神學院神學及聖樂教授、香港中國得勝神學院系統神學教授及聖樂學院院長、上海大學宗教與中國社會研究中心研究員。其宣教工作遍及北美、南亞和非洲，並且先後在美國耶魯大學、美國普林斯頓大學、英國愛丁堡大學、中國北京大學、德國慕尼黑大學、英國曼徹斯特大學、中國福建師範大學、美國福樂神學院、中國燕京神學院等著名大學及神學院主領神學講座及發表論文。其著作甚豐，包括神學專著十七本及學術論文數十篇，主要研究領域包括：文化神學、系統神學、聖樂與神學、中國基督教、政治神學，分別獲國際著名之出版社及學術期刊出版及刊登。最新著作《和諧神學：尋索中國基督教神學思想的根源與發展》(香港：三聯，2018)在中國甚具影響力。