Having had an opportunity to mentor a number of Asian and Asian-descent PhD students at Fuller Theological Seminary, not infrequently have I found the tendency among them to write on topics engaging European and North American (predominantly Caucasian male) theologians rather than scholars of their own region. Not only that, but the theologians and theological topics they had majored in in their previous theological studies in their native lands had been mostly of Western origin.
Not so with Dr. Jacob (Chengwei) Feng, my former student and the author of the present voluminous work of Science, Religion(s), and Spirit(s) in China: A Constructive Chinese Theology of Creation Based on Jingjiao’s Qi-Tological Theology, with a New English Translation of the Entire Tang Jingjiao Corpus. Delving deeply into his own Chinese cultural, historical, religious, and scientific background, including a huge number of sources written in Mandarin, he writes as a Chinese scholar on a Chinese theological topic. That alone is a reason to celebrate the publication of his dissertation.
That said, there are other reasons to highlight the distinctive features of this unique constructive theological work. Not only is it deeply comparative theological, engaging Christian tradition and history with Chinese religions. That alone is a tall order and requires huge linguistic, cultural, and religious assets. On top of that, the study also relates deeply and widely to science-religion dialogue—coming from the pen of the author, who has finished degrees in natural sciences at one of the leading universities in China and at a top American graduate university! In fact, this is a triadic method, putting into mutual conversation Christian theology, natural sciences, and Chinese religions.
As if this were not enough! There is more to the menu of this highly distinctive constructive theological proposal. Dr. Feng also delves deeply into the recent, rapidly developing area of the philosophy of metaphors and their use in science and the humanities. And, speaking of linguistic resources, you can find in the Appendix the author’s brand-new translations of Tang Jingjiao documents!
Talk about constructive theology, theological scholarship deeply embedded in the best sources of historical study—in this case, the first major Christian missionary movement to China during the 7th to 9th centuries CE—in search of solutions, insights, and proposals for the contemporary (with us) needs and debates. Rather than merely analyzing ideas of past and present thinkers, Christian as well as Daoist and Chinese Buddhist, or describing the history of the emergence of science in his native land, Dr. Feng makes bold theological, missiological, and pastoral suggestions in service of the third millennium’s Chinese church. And even when the materials and questions he deals with are complex and complicated—let alone coming from various eras, cultures, and linguistic environments—the author possesses the skill of communicating clearly and unambiguously.
Now that international and theological scholarship is finally coming to the realization that the much-talked-about “globalization” of the Christian Church—currently housing over two-thirds of World Christianity members in the Global South (Africa, Asia, and Latin America)—is not a recent phenomenon but rather a development started in early centuries, a major study on the beginnings of Chinese Christianity through the lens of Jingjiao is highly significant. It reminds us that Christian faith, rooted and established in African and Asian soil rather than in Europe or North America, is Eastern rather than Western religion. This study also tells us the glorious story of the bold, innovative Assyrian Church’s monks’ strategy of missionizing ancient China with the help of the command of the best of scientific, cultural, and linguistic resources. The famous Jesus-Sutra, analyzed in detail in this work, is a prime example of what in our own times has been called the contextualization of Christian theology and mission. Hence, neither globalization nor contextualization is a recent phenomenon; their origin and roots lie deep in the earliest Christianity.
Tolle, lege. This is a feast of theological scholarship on a new key!
Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen
Professor of Systematic Theology at Fuller Theological Seminary Docent of Ecumenics at the University of Helsinki
June 6th, 2025