Bishop K. H. Ting | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Native name | 丁光訓 |
| Church | Chung Hua Sheng Kung Hui,China Christian Council |
| Other posts | Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference,National People's Congress |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1915-09-20)20 September 1915 Shanghai, China |
| Died | 22 November 2012(2012-11-22) (aged 97) Nanjing, Jiangsu, China |
| Denomination | Anglicanism |
| Spouse | Kuo Siu-May |
| Children | Stephen Yenren Ting, Heping Ting |
| Alma mater | St. John's University,Columbia University,Union Theological Seminary |
| K. H. Ting | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Traditional Chinese | 丁光訓 | ||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 丁光训 | ||||||||
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K. H. Ting,Ting Kuang-hsun orDing Guangxun (Chinese:丁光訓; 20 September 1915 – 22 November 2012), was chairperson emeritus of theThree-Self Patriotic Movement (TSPM) and President emeritus of theChina Christian Council, the government-approvedProtestant church in China.
Ting was trained in theAnglican tradition and, in 1955, was consecrated as AnglicanBishop of Chekiang. As he never renounced his ordination, he remained a bishop until his death. However, in 1958 theAnglican Church in China came to an end as an independent institution in mainland China, leaving Ting with no episcopal functions to perform.
Ting had also held a number of political posts. He was a vice-chairman of theChinese People's Political Consultative Conference (1989–2008), and a member of theNational People's Congress, China's legislature.
Ting was educated at Shanghai'sSaint John's University (1937–42), graduatingB.A. in 1937 andB.D. in 1942. In the same year, he was ordained as an Anglicandeacon and married Siu-May Kuo (1916–1995),[1] both taken place at the Church of Our Savior on Wu Yuan Road,Shanghai.[2]
From 1942 to 1945, Ting worked in the administration of theYMCA. In 1946, he and his wife moved toCanada, where he became missions secretary of the CanadianStudent Christian Movement. Ting studied atColumbia University and atUnion Theological Seminary, both inNew York City, from 1947 to 1948, gaining a master's degree in arts and theology. From 1948 to 1951, he worked in the administration of theWorld Student Christian Federation inGeneva,Switzerland.
In 1951 the Tings returned to China with their young son Stephen Yenren Ting, born in November 1948. Their second son Heping Ting was born in July 1952. Ting went on to serve as general manager of theShanghai-basedChinese Christian Literature Society from 1951 to 1953, when he became principal ofNanjing Union Theological Seminary.[1]
In 1954, shortly after the establishment of thePeople's Republic of China, 138 Chinese Christian leaders presented theChristian Manifesto to the country, pledging the support of Christians foranti-imperialism, anti-feudalism, and the struggle against bureaucratic capitalism.[3] This manifesto would launch theThree-Self Patriotic Movement,[note 1] of which Ting was elected to the standing committee in the same year. In 1955, he was consecrated as the Anglican bishop ofZhejiang. By 1957, the Three-Self Patriotic Movement claimed the loyalty of the overwhelming majority of Christians in China.[3]
In 1958, the Anglican Church in China was merged into the Chinese Christian Church and Ting lost his positions in the Anglican Church, but he remained a bishop in the eyes of many Chinese Christians and the wider Anglican Church. He returned to prominence in the 1970s. In 1980, he became President of theChina Christian Council and leader of the TSPM, positions he held until 1997. In 1985, Ting helped found theAmity Foundation and remained its president as well as being principal of Nanjing Union Theological Seminary until his death. In 1988, Ting proclaimed that "the church should be in tune with socialism, but should not be a government department", proposing the end of the Three-Self Movement by 1991. This proposal was rejected after theTiananmen Square protests of 1989.[4]
Ting died on 22 November 2012, and his body was cremated on 27 November.Yu Zhengsheng attended his funeral on behalf of the central government.[5] Several Chinese Anglican leaders, such asPeter Kwong andPaul Kwong, led Ting's funeral service on 8 December at Christianity Mochou Road Church.[6]
Before the 1950s, influenced by his predecessor Y. T. Wu, Ting joined theYoung Men's Christian Association (YMCA), attempting to devote himself to the national salvation and advocating that Christianity focuses not just individual salvation, but also social salvation. At that time, he also appreciated communism, although cautiously. In 1948 when he commented on the civil war in China, he wrote:
With the fall of Chiang and the Kuomintang government, and after the defeat of contemporary Chinese reactionaries who now rally around Chiang, a democratic coalition government will be formed in which Communists, Democratic Leaguers, progressive Nationalists and members of other anti-reactionary parties will all participate. What Americans think of as a Communist dictatorship is not in the wind for China's future.[7]
After he returned the new China in 1951, he joined the Three-self movement which was led by Y. T. Wu and chose to cooperate with the CCP regime. Ting became one of the most influential Christian leaders in the nationalThree-self Patriotic Movement and theChina Christian Council since the 1980s.
Ting's writings were mainly published after the 1980s. Ting formally started to construct his theological discourse aiming to deal with the relation of Christian faith with communism and other religions; meanwhile, he promoted "theological reconstruction" (simplified Chinese:神学思想建设;traditional Chinese:神學思想建設;pinyin:shénxué sīxiǎng jiànshè) in an attempt to construct indigenous theology on the basis of Chinese socio-political and religio-cultural context. It was also seen by some as an attempt to removefundamentalist andevangelical forms of Christianity from the Chinese church.[8][9]
The TSPM was regarded as the application of the three principles of self-governance, self-support, and self-propagation. Ting claimed that "it is work of God."[10] Ting avidly accusedWang Mingdao of distorting the meaning of three principles and refusing to cooperate with TSPM. Besides, he believed that the church should play an active role in the society for serving the people, rather than cling to the church just paying attention to individual salvation.
Ting summarizes that aCosmic Christ encompasses two aspects:[11]
(1) the universal extent of Christ's domain, concern and care, and (2) the kind of love which we get a taste of in Jesus Christ as we read the Gospels being the first and supreme attribute of God and the basic to the structure and dynamic of the universe, in the light of which we get an insight as to how things go in the world.
Influenced greatly by the thinking ofPierre Teilhard de Chardin andprocess theology based on the writings ofAlfred North Whitehead, Ting argues that creation is a long process in which Christ not just participated in creation in the beginning, but continues to sustain the incomplete creation.[12][13] Redemption is in the process of creation. Following this, he contends that not Christians but humankind are involved in Christ's redemptive work. In this way, he appeals to Christians to appreciate the values in communism and other religio-cultural resources.[14]
With regards to thedoctrine of sin, Ting has pushed away from the traditional emphasis on people as "sinners" but also as individuals who are "sinned against."[15][13] Ting is opposed to creating "antagonism between believers and nonbelievers" by aggressiveproselytization, favoring brotherly love towards and not condemnations to hell of Chinese non-Christians.[16] Because China is a Confucian society where the theory of the goodness of human nature is the mainstream.[17] The emphasis of "The sinned against" leads people to know the love of God and receive consolation after a long-time oppression and suffering in the history.[18]
Ting has argued that the doctrine ofjustification by faith has been misunderstood by many Christians and that it was originally meant to liberate humans rather than consign people to hell.[19] Because of this, he has been accused of replacing the traditional Protestant doctrine with justification bylove, to support the notion that those who God's love are within the boundaries of Christianity; it is therefore considered to be an attempt to reconcile the atheistic ideology ofcommunism with Christianity in order to maintain good relations with thePeople’s Republic of China.[20] However, he has explicitly stated that he neither understands what the phrase means but considers it a misleading imitation ofjustification by faith.[21]
Ting considered that Christians should get along well with non-Christians and atheists of all sorts. Besides, he further stresses that "Provisional unities of truths we can observe with joy and thanksgiving because they illuminate us and point toward the ultimate unity in Christ which is the promise of his revelation."[22]
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|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Bishop of the Diocese of Chekiang ofChung Hua Sheng Kung Hui 1955–1958 | Succeeded by Position revoked |
| New title | Chairman of theAmity Foundation 1985–2012 | Succeeded by Vacant |
| President ofNanjing Union Theological Seminary 1980–2010 | Succeeded by | |
| President of theChina Christian Council 1st–3rd | Succeeded by Han Wenzao [zh] | |
| Honorary President of the China Christian Council 4th–6th | Succeeded by Vacant | |
| Preceded by | President of theNational Committee of Three-Self Patriotic Movement of the Protestant Churches in China [zh] 3th–5th | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Honorary President of theNational Committee of Three-Self Patriotic Movement of the Protestant Churches in China [zh] 6th–8th | Succeeded by Vacant |
| Government offices | ||
| Preceded by | President ofChina Committee of Religion and Peace [zh] 2004–2009 | Succeeded by |
