Hill Road Journal

The Theological Aesthetics of Han Urs von Balthasar

Samuel S. HO

The first volume of Balthasar's The Glory of the Lord human being's encounter concerns with radiance, doxa, the initial moment that leads them to recognize the foundation of the covenant God. Balthasar's discussions circle around a central theme: the glory of God's triune love as expressed in the form of Jesus. The central point is that through Christ God addresses us with the free call of his love. We can only receive this call in gratitude, and answer it in obedience, to the glory of God. Balthasar says, “the more obediently he thinks, the more accurately will he see. (It is) because the light of faith proportions his whole being as a man (including, therefore his intellect) in such a way that it can receive the mystery." Throughout the whole book, at least in the first three-hundred pages, Balthasar elaborates this thesis by asking : How is God's love manifested to us? What is the structure and nature of our understanding of it? How can God's love be perceived in its objective glory?

In answering all these questions, Balthasar argues that God's glory is clearly manifested in his majesty through his covenant. For Balthasar, "covenant" is the key to understanding theology. What Balthasar calls "aesthetics" in his work is a purely theological enterprise, that is to receive the perception possible only in faith, of the glory of God's most free love as it reveals itself to us. Balthasar contends that revival of the aesthetic dimension in theology means a return to the existential method in theology. He points out that contemplation , seeing and inchoative visions have long been undermined by Christian theology. For Balthasar, true theology begins only at the point where “exact historical science” passes over into the science of faith proper—a “science” which presupposes the act of faith as its locus of understanding. Theology's exceptional position held by Thomas Aquinas is the science which, founded on its participation through grace, and based on the personal act of faith and the intuitive saving knowledge of God himself and of the church Triumphant, not an exact science. What Balthasar calls the “exact science” concerns the application of historico-critical analysis to Biblical texts, texts that are then analyzed as if they were any other kind of documents. He observes that since theology disconnected itself from philosophy, fundamental theology only seeks to prove the historic authenticity of God's revelation. Along this trend, other related studies were turned into scientific analysis in an ever-changing historical situation. Aesthetics finds no place in the series of changes. In this book, Balthasar proposes that philosophy should become reunited with theology.

Telling God about His Own Disbelief: The Honest Praise to the Lord by RS Thomas

Yin-ching WU

This essay on the famous Anglican Welsh poet priest, RS Thomas, is more a set of personal study notes than an academic paper. It is divided into three parts. The first discusses his lifelong struggle with an internal rioting “disbelief” in the God, whom he committed himself to and spent his whole life serving. The second part tells about the loneliness caused by his eccentricity in character and how that eventually turned into a kind of chosen solitude and a special relationship between God and himself. The third part is about how he looked at his own art — the poetry he was trying to present to the world. He managed to move his Christian readers deeply because he was always trying to be honest to God even though he thought he “might” lose his salvation for being so.

The Christianness and Penetration of Christianity into Modern Chinese Literature: An Alternative Perspective of Rereading Thunderstorm

NG Mei Kwan

Cao Yu was a prominent Chinese dramatist during the May Fourth era in the early twentieth century. His virgin play Thunderstorm, which was written when he was just a 23-year-old undergraduate, marked the coming of age of modern Chinese drama. In spite of the fact that it was continually put on stage, and was well received over a long period of time and in many places, Cao Yu kept rewriting the script. This may lead, to a certain extent, to a bias in the interpretation of its Christian elements.

This paper is a re-reading of the first version of Thunderstorm published in Literature Quarterly in 1934 from a perspective through which we can better understand the localization of Christianity and Christian culture in modern Chinese literature.

This paper consists of three parts. Part one traces the marks of Christian penetration in the context of the play script Thunderstorm. Part two explores the relation between Cao Yu's Christian experiences and the discourses in his play script. Part three presents a possible interpretation of its Christian metaphor from the perspective of a tragedy. Finally, the paper suggests a possible reading strategy to May Fourth literature through the examination of its Christianness.

On the Art of Translating Apologetics: Translating the Argumentative Rhetoric of GK Chesterton's Orthodoxy into Chinese

CHONG Yau Yuk

Orthodoxy represents the complex record of a remarkable intellectual odyssey of one of the most brilliant minds of the twentieth century. Considered a theological treatise that is at once politically trenchant and prophetic, religiously substantial, and often outrageously funny, it has never been out of print since it was first published in 1908. Propounding the Christian faith with surprising arguments and dazzling illustrations, Orthodoxy emerges as a masterpiece of rhetoric, and a modern classic of Christian apologetics. This paper aims to discuss the art of translating Orthodoxy on the premises that firstly, the aesthetic features of a translation is closely connected with its original, and secondly, the artistic qualities of a translation have to be realized through the translator, and thirdly, the aesthetic value of a work of art is conditioned by the literary norms of the recipient culture. By taking one's own translation as an example, the writer of this paper explores the art of translating into Chinese the argumentative rhetoric of Orthodoxy with reference to the image of GK Chesterton as an eloquent apologist, an apostle of common sense, a prince of paradox, and a prophet of mirth.

Relationship of Theology and Cinema: Means of Mutual Enrichment

Jerry E. MOYE

Theology can be enriched by study of films just as the world of cinema can be enriched by theologians; there is significant overlapping of concerns. Theologians could be just as concerned about a good story as film makers. Both hope to gain a sympathetic response and engage the mind and passions of their audience. Both engage questions about the human condition; exploring our failures and hopes and probing the value systems by which we live.

The interaction needs to recognize the similarities and differences between theologians and film makers. Theologians are committed to a particular world view in which biblical stories are basic. This world view can be seen as a cosmic drama in which we all are part of a life and death struggle. Biblical stories concern flesh and blood people who struggle for moral integrity. They sometimes fall but, often, triumph. Christians have a great stock of powerful stories. Some are from the Bible while others are from struggling saints through the ages.

Film makers draw from a larger stock of stories and world views. Their probing of people caught in differing cultures and traditions can help Christians see the human condition in larger frame. Sometimes Christians can be near-sighted and not see our connection to all human beings who struggle for meaning and value in life.

There are several dimensions to exploring the common concerns of theologians and film makers. We can probe the matter of good art and bad art; specifically, what makes for a good story told in an effective way? We can study the films of a particular good film maker and analyze his/her world view. We can analyze those films which critics see as good and bad films and understand the intellectual climate of our day. We can testify to those particular movies which have given us personal soul enrichment.

Many Evangelical Christians still feel a resistance to enthusiastic enjoyment of films. It is part of our Puritan heritage. But for most of the population, watching films is an established mode of finding pleasure, stimulation, and even enlargement of soul. It is best to call our Christians to cultivate the skill of evaluating films that saturate our world. It is a means of engaging the mind and heart of our generation.

The Community of the Church: A Reflection on Stanley Grenz's Perspective

SUN Yi

This essay deals with the question of whether the identities of individual regenerated Christians of a church or the communal nature of the Church takes precedence in defining the nature of the Church. The answer we give depends on how we understand the nature of the Church.

This paper argues for the communal foundation of the Church by means of the three perspectives proposed by Stanley Grenz. First of all, the Church consists of members who are both a people in covenant with God and, at the same time, bear the sign of God's kingdom. Second, the Church is to testify to God's future kingdom, that is, God's activity in history, including the consummation of God's plan in his eschatological reign, when God's purposes for the world will ultimately be fulfilled. Third, the Church community should reflect the life of the triune God, which is in a constant relationship of love among the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. The paper concludes that, as a community, the Church's structure is not mainly based on some special characteristics of her individual members but rather on the nature of her head, that is, Christ Jesus.

Rereading Mark's Gospel: We are Jewish Differently!

Solomon HF WONG

How would the gospel of Mark be understood? Is it a Christian writing? Or is it a Jewish writing? This paper is an attempt to reread the gospel of Mark as a Jewish writing. To read Mark's gospel as a Jewish writing is to read it against its first-century Mediterranean culture (the embeddedness of Religion and Religion as a part of Ethnicity). In this regard, the conception “Jewishness”, suggested by Shaye JD Cohen, is introduced to serve as a Jewish milieu, in which the concept Factionalism will be further explained. This broader definition of Jewishness allows one to rethink the question as to what was meant by “to be Jewish”. Mark and the Marcan faction, a textual construct from Mark's gospel, belong to and have been located within this Jewishness. Sabbath observance, one of the most important Jewish identity-markers in the Second Temple period, is put to test in this paper to show that Jesus has not abrogated the Sabbath law and the discussion between Jesus and the Pharisees can be understood as a Jewish debate within first-century Jewishness. If this (re)reading is sustained, Mark and the Marcan faction are very Jewish in outlook but, at the same time, because of their faith in Jesus, they are “Jewish differently”!

Reflections on the Belote Lectures by Prof. J. Wentzel van Huyssteen

Andres S. TANG

This paper is a response to and reflection on the Belote Lectures given by Prof. J. Wentzel van Huyssteen at Hong Kong Baptist Theological Seminary in October, 2006. Firstly, the author finds that most of the responses to the lectures fall into the trap of external criticism; that is, the critics do not go into the core of the theology of Prof. van Huyssteen in asking questions or giving comments. They cannot avoid insisting on their own position without properly understanding the speaker. Secondly, on the one hand, reading Prof. van Huyssteen's Alone in the World? and The Shaping of Rationality is necessary for one to grasp his methodology of postfoundationalism. On the other hand, contemporary theologians like Colin Gunton and Trevor Hart share the same spirit of giving significance to the role of tradition in the process of theological thinking. Prof. van Huyssteen's technical term, “transversal rationality” is used to describe reality in such a way as to go beyond both universality/modernity and particularity/postmodernity. Thirdly, Prof. van Huyssteen includes the contribution of the empirical sciences to support or develop a conception of the embodiment of human being which is not abstract but, rather, concrete and relationally alive.