《神学的视野——建构福音派神学方法论》读后感

Prof. Paul Siu’s book titled “The Horizon of Theology: Constructing a Method for Evangelical Theology” (Chinese edition) will benefit any Chinese pastors who struggle to share the Word of God and shepherd God’s flocks in this rapidly changing and globalizing, post-modern world. This reflection paper is intended to highlight primarily two important issues, among many others, selected from several chapters that should be instructive and inspiring to the Chinese pastors. They are the functions of language (see Chapter 6) and the challenges of post-modernism (see Chapters 11-14).

It is fair to say that no time throughout the world history has ever seen as wide and deep an impact of words as in our everyday living. Everywhere we turn, whether it is face to face or iPhone conversation, traditional TV or google TV watching, radio or iTune listening, Kindle book reading and wireless iPad web surfing, we are inundated with words and associated pixels of pictures and bytes of sound. The perennial challenge with pastoral preaching ministry of the Word is this: how can a Chinese pastor stand above the deluge of words and stand firm against the postmodern deconstruction of meaning while preaching the Word of God with conviction and power of conversion? The five functions of biblical language are no different than ordinary human languages in being informative, imperative, illuminative, performative and celebratory (p.165-166). The suggestion to apply speech-act theory in preaching the Word of God is worth heeding to (p.170-174). Oftentimes, the pastor preaches the Word of God (that is, locution in speech-act theory) by stopping short at the illocution level (what it means then), failing to reach the higher level of perlocution (what it compels us to do now). It is ultimately the action taken by the listeners that completes the edification of God’s people. Pastors have an important task to be the cook and deliveryman of God’s fresh manna. To see the well cooked and delivered manna left unconsumed by the congregation (i.e., only enjoying the sermon for its own sake, without receiving the message into one’s heart and initiating concrete, corrective actions) is wasteful. To have God’s manna half-baked and delivered without arousing people’s appetite (poor preparation and delivery of the sermon) is saddening. The pastoral ministry of the Word cannot afford to be the weakest link and produce malnourished flock with spiritual anorexia. One must learn to preach the Word with the full dose of its innate power. Prof. Siu’s book is a timely reminder.

Postmodernism poses both a grave threat and a great opportunity to any Christian church. Chinese church is no exception. How can a Chinese pastor wade through the perilous waters of postmodernism and remain faithful in preaching the Word of God as God’s absolute truth? It is helpful to note the two complementary aspects of truth (propositional truth of the written Word and subjective truth of the incarnate Word, see chapter 5). One must realize that while postmodern people flatly deny the existence of God and the absoluteness of any overarching truth (a metanarrative, p.303), they nevertheless affirm the subjective and perspectival nature of communally agreeable, relative truth (p.290, p.303). The Christian community that lives out the ideal of God’s love and truth can be an attractive model for the postmodern people (p.308-309). Such a community upholds unapologetically the essential biblical truth (see p.253-261 for the seven hallmarks of essential, unchanging truth), while maintaining open-minded flexibility in nonessential truth and sensitivity to cultural plurality (chapter 13, especially relevant to Chinese culture is the suggestions for handling ancestral cult, p.355-358).

To speak to their postmodern audience, Chinese pastors should emphasize the use of narratives in illuminating difficult biblical truth and should not shy away from sharing personal emotions in a holistic and authentic manner (p.309-310). Presuppositional approach (p.310), especially that of Francis Schaeffer (p.312-319) as recommended by Prof. Siu, can bridge the gap of dialogue with postmodern people. At least six aspects of Schaeffer’s approach are worth Chinese church’s attention (p.320-321). These include emphasis of personhood, preaching the holistic gospel, dialogue with intellectuals, cultural sensitivity, biblical inerrancy, and living out the biblical ideal in one’s own life.

The last chapter of the book should be especially helpful for Chinese pastors. Prof. Siu shared his personal mission experience and observations about the postmodern society inTaiwan as well as the rest of Asia and the need for constructing Chinese contextual theology. With the death of God comes inevitably the death of man. How to construct a Chinese brand of the doctrine of Man (p.375-377) is a prerequisite for this undertaking of Chinese contextual theology. The “integrative model” (p.377-384) championed by Prof. Siu combines the strengths of six different models (p.346-350), striking a balance between ortho-doxy and ortho-praxy. Being person-oriented, this model starts with the lost man and ends with the found, new creation, going through sin, grace, family, Christ and God (see diagram on p.381).

Lastly, Prof. Siu’s scholarly depth of theology that is constantly beaming off the pages throughout the book, coupled with his pastoral compassion toward wayward humanity (as evidenced by his personal sharing of the gospel with his dying father, see p.96-98), should serve well to remind all Chinese pastors that theology and Christian life are inseparable twins.