Christian solidarity doesn’t derive from civil religion, but from the church’s role in redemptive history amid world history.
Every year, the people of Taiwan come together on February 28 in remembrance of an event from 1947 that ended with massive police and military crackdowns. In commemorating “228,” we reflect on our nation’s historic and current struggles against tyranny to establish and protect the rights and freedoms that we presently enjoy.
This year, I called for my fellow Taiwanese to voice support for Ukraine as a way of commemorating 228. For me, being Taiwanese means standing in solidarity with the Ukrainian people in their fight against invasion and tyranny.
A question then arose in friendly theological discussion: Did I post this comment in my capacity as a Taiwanese citizen or as a Christian theologian—or perhaps both? How do I make sense of my Taiwanese identity in relation to my Christian identity?
First, I must state unequivocally: I am not “a Taiwanese Christian,” but rather “a Christian from Taiwan.” The notion of a civil Christianity—a Volksreligion—has no room in the biblical worldview.
The Swiss theologian Karl Barth, who was forced to leave Germany in 1935 because of his opposition to its mystical nationalism, wrote of his native land in Gottes Gnadenwahl (God’s Gracious Election) in 1936: “There is no such thing as Swiss totality of life [Lebenstotalität], no Swiss religion, no Swiss Christianity.” In a similar vein, German theologian Jürgen Moltmann said to my fellow Taiwanese theologian Lin Hong-Hsin and my Chinese colleague Hong Liang in a 2019 interview: “I am not a German Christian, but a Christian in Germany.” As a neo-Calvinist, I heartily agree with these repudiations of civil Christianity.
Of course, it may be argued ...
from Christianity Today Magazine
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