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Papers by Naomi Thurston

Exchange, 2024

This article contextualizes the Chinese reception of Moltmann’s “new political theology” within C... more This article contextualizes the Chinese reception of Moltmann’s “new political theology” within Chinese academia by revisiting the “Beijing Summit” of October 2014, when Moltmann travelled to Renmin University of China to dialogue with ten leading Chinese academics in the humanities and social sciences. Debates raised concerned the recent Chinese reception of Carl Schmitt (1888–1985); President Xi Jinping’s Chinese Dream of National Rejuvenation; state responses to terrorism; and the “new political theology” introduced by Moltmann (1926–2024), Johann Baptist Metz (1928–2019), and others in post-WWII Germany. The article juxtaposes Moltmann’s and Schmitt’s political theologies in their respective receptions in Chinese scholarship, summarizes and presents a brief contextual analysis of the 2014 Summit with Moltmann, and probes the critical potential of Moltmann’s ideas for theological discourse in Chinese academia.

Christian Study Centre on Chinese Religion and Culture, 2024

Ancestors play crucial roles in the cultural consciousness of di-verse traditions, many maintaini... more Ancestors play crucial roles in the cultural consciousness of di-verse traditions, many maintaining ritualistic practices related to commemorating the dead. Ancestor commemoration reinforces co-hesion within traditional as well as modern societies, directing a group’s focus to past accomplishments of its cultural heritage whilst providing a unifying narrative of the values that bring and hold a community together. The West African Akan tradition val-ues those who honor their ancestors and, by leading a moral life, seek to become ancestors themselves: persons whose lives enjoy standing in the community beyond their own death. This short paper explores ideas about the role of ancestors as (symbolic) constituents of enduring moral communities by comparing tradi-tional Akan belief to traditional East Asian conceptions of ances-tors. The aim is to consider the metaphysical, social, and moral dimensions related to ancestors, highlighting continuity and communal concerns.

Keywords: ancestors, Akan belief, East Asian ancestral rites, an-cestor veneration, moral community

祖先在不同傳統的文化意識中扮演着至關重要的角色，許多傳統都保留了紀念逝者的儀式。對祖先的紀念活動增強了現代社會與傳統的連繫，它不但將社群的注意力引向其文化遺產所塑造的成就，還提供了一種價值觀統一、且促進社群聯結的敘事體系。西非阿坎族的傳統重視那些崇敬祖先的人，他們通過道德規範化的生活，努力成為先祖式的人物—即死後仍在社群中享有崇高的地位。本文通過比較阿坎人的信仰傳統和東亞社會中的傳統祖先觀念，探討祖先這一符號概念在維繫道德規範化的社群中所扮演的角色。目的是從形而上學、社會和道德等不同層面考量與祖先的關聯，突出其連續性和社區關切性。

關鍵詞：祖先、阿坎信仰、東亞祖先禮儀、尊敬祖先、道德規範化的社群

DSCCC Newsletter , 2023

中國宗教研究內容豐富，又複雜非常。本文主要簡要說明中國宗教研究的現況及學者所面臨的挑戰。「中國宗教研究」一詞涉獵甚廣，一方面涵蓋中國從古至今的所有宗教活動，例如中國古代宗教及新興宗教運動 (N... more 中國宗教研究內容豐富，又複雜非常。本文主要簡要說明中國宗教研究的現況及學者所面臨的挑戰。「中國宗教研究」一詞涉獵甚廣，一方面涵蓋中國從古至今的所有宗教活動，例如中國古代宗教及新興宗教運動 (NRM‘s);另一方面，「中國宗教研究」又指中國學術界或中國政策研究機構中制度化的宗教研究。本文將介紹現代中國宗教研究的一些主要觀點，並參考「中國化」的學術討論，探討宗教自由的問題。。。

Filosofia Theoretica: Journal of African Philosophy, Culture and Religions, 2022

Ancestors play crucial roles in the cultural consciousness of diverse traditions, many maintainin... more Ancestors play crucial roles in the cultural consciousness of diverse traditions, many maintaining ritualistic practices related to commemorating the dead. Ancestor commemoration reinforces cohesion within traditional as well as modern societies, directing a group's focus to past accomplishments of its cultural heritage whilst providing a unifying narrative of the values that bring and hold a community together. The West African Akan tradition values those who honor their ancestors and, by leading a moral life, seek to become ancestors themselves: persons whose lives enjoy standing in the community beyond their own death. This short paper explores ideas about the role of ancestors as (symbolic) constituents of enduring moral communities by comparing traditional Akan belief to traditional East Asian conceptions of ancestors. The aim is to consider the metaphysical, social, and moral dimensions related to ancestors, highlighting continuity and communal concerns.

Contemporary Chinese Thought , 2020

Studying Christianity in China introduces an emerging academic trend in contemporary Chinese scho... more Studying Christianity in China introduces an emerging academic trend in contemporary Chinese scholarship. Through qualitative interviews with leading experts in Chinese Christian studies, Naomi Thurston has investigated the ongoing conversation between China and Christianity. Since the 1980s, this conversation has given rise to an interdisciplinary academic eld that is quickly gaining traction as a cutting-edge, cross-cultural discourse. The Chinese intellectuals driving this eld are encountered as unique transmitters of cultural knowledge: they are cultural mediators working in a range of humanities and social science disciplines who are not only re-interpreting Western theology, but are also lending a new voice to Chinese expressions of the Christian faith. As such, they are at the forefront of a novel force in World Christianity. Readership All interested in Chinese theology and the academic study of Christianity in China.

This article, based on qualitative eldwork among Chinese scholars of Christianity whom I intervie... more This article, based on qualitative eldwork among Chinese scholars of Christianity whom I interviewed between 2011 and 2015, explores the nexus between scholarly inquiry, cross-disciplinary negotiation, and religious belonging, speci cally among the rst generation of scholars researching Christianity after the launch of Deng Xiaoping's policy of reform and opening-up. The article presents a typology of the researchers that is informed by interviewees' disciplinary, religious, and discursive alignments. It also addresses the question of how the academic discipline of theology might nd new anchorage in the landscape of "Sino-Christian studies," with its many voices and varied interests.

Teaching Documents by Naomi Thurston

Book Reviews by Naomi Thurston

International Bulletin of Mission Research, 2020

Christianity & Literature, 2018

Ching Feng: A Journal on Christianity and Chinese Religion and Culture, 2022

The conversation about theological contextualizing and its termino- logical scaffolding in the Ch... more The conversation about theological contextualizing and its termino- logical scaffolding in the Chinese context is important as it relates to the question of how to name the incarnation itself, the event Christians celebrate in the “holy birth.” It goes to the heart, too, of the many divi- sions that are plaguing expressions of Chinese Christianity today. You Bin’s Meditations suggest that the survival of Christianity is not merely a question of politics—although it is certainly that, too—but a question of textual, religious, and ethnic culture.

Books by Naomi Thurston