The Challenge

Chao Tse-chen, 61, dean of the School of Religion at Peiping's Yenching University, is an austere, kindly man who wears his thinning gray hair in a close-cropped stubble, and occasionally smokes a pipe. Known among his students as "T.C.," he is easily the most popular Christian teacher in China.

Dr. Chao was a Methodist when he came to the U.S. and finished his education at Vanderbilt University in 1917. Today he is an Anglican priest. He is well known in China as theologian and poet. When the Japanese jailed him in wartime for six months of solitary confinement and semi-starvation, he is said to have composed a new poem each day. At Amsterdam last summer he was elected one of the six presidents of the World Council of Churches.

Chao Tse-chen is also something of a modern Christian prophet. When the Communist army entered Peiping in January and so insured its control over North China, Christians in China and throughout the world began wringing their hands. But not Dr. Chao. He wrote and circulated privately among his fellow Christians his own call to Christian battle. This week, U.S. churchmen had an opportunity to read one of these articles: Excerpts:

Four Things. ". . . Now the challenge has come. The churches, with a poorly equipped ministry which has more worldly wisdom than true self-knowledge and spirituality, are simply unprepared to meet the situation. Dangers and unprecedented opportunities to demonstrate the power of the Gospel, both stare in the face of the churches . . .

"The churches (O the misery of the plural!) must now do four things. They must have a clear understanding of the ground on which they stand, so as not to make a compromise of the faith. They must in all earnest start a process of internal revitalization to sweep away idol worship, worldliness, hypocrisy, division, ignorance, and heaviness of the eye and lukewarmness of the heart . . . They must quickly plan together and decide upon a program of practical and concrete social service. And they must revolutionize their organization, their theology, their ways of living, and their methods of evangelism.

"These four things all suggest the need of the prophetic and the creative, in their response to God's judgment and demand for a renewal . . . What the Church did through its saints, apostles, heroes and martyrs in meeting crisis after crisis should give the lesson and the encouragement. The creeds were all manmade, under various social conditions and against various political backgrounds. So were the organizational side and the different theological developments. Under the present social, economic, political and cultural conditions here in North China, Christians should be courageous enough to dissociate the Gospel and their churches from historical accretions . . .

"Man lives in the realm of nature and of social relations, is part and parcel of the material world and of society . . . The churches must realize that they have their social duties, and must serve under whatever political regime ... In order to live [under the Communists], they must become their words in concrete social action. Therefore, a concrete progress of service is a necessity . . ."

A Dressing-up. "Just now, not a few of the reverends are at a loss to know how even to carry on the routine . . . They do not know that Christianity has no new message and that the Christian message is always a dangerous thing to impart. But one should not blame them for their sincere uncertainties. The message needs a new dressing-up, and this new dressing-up is in their own Christian living. They need a careful re-education . . .

.". . . The lesson need be learned to divest the Christian mind of bourgeoisie habits of complacency, of class consciousness, of the fear of change and revolution . . . Preaching stations that cannot be effectively maintained may be discontinued. Inefficient clergymen may be advised to discover their livelihood in other services . . .

"Yes, church organization, evangelistic methods, theology, and ways of living must undergo a radical change . . . Audacity of thought is necessary. There is no fear of heresy, for history tells us that creative periods have always been times for the emergence of heretics . . . But today there can be no more inquisition, judgment, condemnation, and execution. The fire that burned saints to death for heresy has been thoroughly extinguished. The trouble is that there is so little heresy in the Chinese churches, so little creative thinking, so little originality.

"Communists are human beings like fragile Christians . . . For some time to come, Communists will be too busy in military operations, in the training of workers, and in conferences of various kinds, to pay much real attention to the churches. Should the churches not take the opportunity thus afforded to show their determination to accept the challenge wholeheartedly? . . . Communism is man's challenge to Christianity, but it is also God's judgment upon flabby churches . . . When it is proved that Christians can accept . . . criticisms and prove them to be unsound and untrue, thoughtful Communists will sit up and take notice . . .

"O time! Oh day! . . . Blessed are they who hear and obey their vision!"

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.