The Emergence and Continuity of the Community of Sino-Christian Theology

Since the emergence of Sino-Christian theology, the participants' identity has remained the greatest issue. As most scholars conducting Christian studies in Mainland China are not believers or have any affiliation to the institutional church, the "non-church" nature of Sino-Christian theology has long been a focus. Nevertheless, as the institutional church is limited to exert influence in the Chinese society, the academic feature of Sino-Christian theology helps to bring Christianity into the public sphere, transmitting a kind of public faith without the (institutional) church. This phenomenon is like traditional Confucianism - a kind of "diffused religion" as coined by the sociologist C. K. Yang. But this must bring about inconvenience for development and continuity. From the sociological perspective, if Sino-Christian theology has already shown its influence in the public sphere, then there must be an ethical community behind which shares some spiritual values among the members. Therefore this article tries to examine the issues of emergence and continuity of this community from the sociological theory of community. We find that although scholars committing to the Christian faith and conforming to the Christian values may continue to play important roles, others who bear a neutral attitude toward Christianity would also be significant in the future of the Sino-Christian theology movement.