Acquainted With Grief

what makes this a great book is the final chapters on the present situation and the reality of the state endorsed churches and the housechurch networks. a very nuanced discussion. i would reccommend reading the recent biography of griffith john to round out the consideration of the contribution of western missionaries. occasionally their contribution is underestimated.

Acquainted with GriefIn 'Acquainted with Grief' Thomas Harvey has given us an interesting insight in to the church of 20th century China. He does this through biographical details of the life of Wang Mingdao.This book is for the serious reader who wishes to be better informed on some of the key issues within the church which those in leadership had to face through turbulent times in the nation's history. The issues raised by Wang Mingdao continue to be relevant to our understanding of the church in China today. It is important to know how the church has arrived where it is today, to know what it has come out of and what it has come through in order to see more clearly the way forward.Wang Mingdao was born during the Boxer Uprising in historic and emotional circumstances which had a traumatic effect upon his early life. His early disenchantment with the West and his own personal pursuit of perfection led him to seek rebaptism and the non-aggressive reform of society. Though not pursuing a career in politics his teaching nevertheless lead to a political reaction and his eventual internment. He quickly sensed that Western missionaries had passed their sell by date and that the future of the church in China lay with his own people. The church needed indigenous leadership and not to be lead by foreigners. Repentance and conversion were for him the key ingredients in his self-understanding and the means of reforming the church. The Chinese word for ethics is daode. Dao meaning the path or way and when followed leads to excellence or daode. Harvey argues that Wang saw a meeting of Chinese cultural concerns for righteousness. From this Wang saw a meeting of Chinese cultural ideas with the Christian understanding of Christ being the way. There were for him many paths in life; some of them dark and uncertain but to follow Christ was to walk in the light. Therefore in Wang Mingdao we see a fusion of Christianity and Chinese culture. This notion helped to embody Christianity in China. This was not a super spiritual other worldly journey but one with practical consequences for him and society.In his pursuit of perfection and the marriage of the biblical and Chinese notions of the dao he hits the age old conflict between theory and practice squarely on its head when he says, "There are indeed a few Christians in the world who are engaged in spreading the light, but unfortunately their efforts are limited to words. They can preach quite acceptably; they can describe the beauties of the Lord; and they can indicate the path that men should follow. But before long their own shadow obscures this good teaching. For there is a considerable difference between what they say and what they do". The church in his eyes is a company of people who are central to this way of life and hence his criticism of corruption within the churches. The churches, he said, must be exemplars and followers of the excellent way, a way which has echoes of St. Paul in his first Corinthian