ONE GOOD REAGANESQUE PUSH:

The Red Glowing Cross: A veteran journalist makes vivid the hidden and expanding world of Chinese Christianity (David Marshall, 02/18/2004, Christianity Today)

Jesus in Beijing is first of all a portrait of Christians in China: leaders of house fellowships, artists, song-writers; a gentle Canton pastor who spent 20 years in prison linking coal cars; an American who landed a million Bibles on China's southern coast. The cautious world of Chinese evangelism, hidden from conventional journalism as any hermit kingdom, comes to life here.

Aikman is the right person to write this book. At home in Chinese and Christian cultures, he is also a serious scholar of Marxism and religion. His 1979 dissertation, The Role of Atheism in the Marxist Tradition, traced with erudite pugnacity the Promethian (even demonic) rage that infused the thinking of Marx, Engels, and Lenin. But he is matter-of-fact and fair, if occasionally cynical, about modern Chinese politics.

Aikman is weaker on how Christianity is becoming Chinese. Marx claimed to "abolish all religion and all eternal truth," and his disciples swept the public square clean of bourgeois gods. By contrast, followers of Jesus generally want not to abolish Chinese tradition but to renew it.

"The most important thing is to make people realize that Christianity is related to Chinese culture," Aikman quotes philosopher Yuan Zhimin. Though Aikman fails to fully develop this crucial insight, he does explore political aspects of how the "Christian spirit" may in the future help "save China" and benefit humanity as well. Considering the growth and influence of Christian minorities in other parts of East Asia, Aikman makes the case that if the church continues to grow, "it is almost certain that a Christian view of the world will be the dominant worldview within China's political and cultural establishments."

In the meantime, let's revoke most favored nation status until they stop abusing human rights.

Posted by Orrin Judd at February 20, 2004 8:55 AM