Mahayana Christian Theology: A Rejoinder

Mahayana Christian Theology: A Rejoinder

LAI Pan-chiu

The publication of my book Mahayana Christian Theology: Thought Experiments of Sino-Christian Theology (2011) has attracted several book reviews so far. This article attempts to clarify some of the possible misunderstandings arising from the evangelical background of some readers and to respond to some of the comments made by the reviewers.
The Mahayana Christian theology proposed in my book aims to reflect critically on Christian theological traditions, especially the “Hinayana” tendency dominating Chinese Christian churches, and to contribute to the development of academic theology in China as well as the global theological discussion. It significantly differs from the approach of theological indigenization through modifying Christian doctrines according to the taste of Chinese people or the Chinese context.
As a branch of Christian theology, the most fundamental guiding principle for Mahayana Christian theology is that it matches Christian theological traditions and is not an abstractly constructed humanistic Mahayana principle or spirit. That is the reason why some of the ideas proposed in the book differ from the typical positions of Mahayana Buddhism.