China: Ethical
Challenges for Church and Society
in a Globalised World
Prof. Dr. Christoph
Stückelberger
Professor of Ethics at the Theological Faculty
of the University of Basle/ Switzerland,
Nanjing Union Theological Seminary, 21 August 2003
1. The call for ethics in China
China with its
very long history and profound culture has a highly developed moral basis in
its society. This culture is influenced by different, impressive value systems,
especially Confucianism, but also Buddhism, Christianity, Chinese socialism and
others. With the fast economic development in this country – as in other
countries in this modernized world –, the question has become urgent of how do
we relate these value systems to maintain a common ethical basis in a society
and how to allow at the same time freedom of thinking, religion and values. Today,
I hear a strong call for ethics in China. Let me mention four eminent and
credible sources:
Bishop K. H. Ting impressed
me when he said, already in 1989, at the Memorial Meeting on the 10th
Anniversary of the Death of Y. T. Wu: “For the church to emphasize service in
her works, our theology ought to hold high ethics and morals. … The starting
point for a contextualization seems to be the restoration of the ethical and
moral content of Christianity. Christianity is a religion that emphasizes
ethics and morals.”[1] And in the
same year he confirmed: “Religion has its ethical dimensions and these play a
positive and supplementary role in socialist society.”[2]
Other high
representatives of the Chinese church express the same call for ethics in
China. Rev. S. Cao, President of CCC and also teacher of ethics, underlined the
importance of ethics when we had a consultation between CCC and the Swiss Federation
of Protestant Churches in May 2003 in Switzerland: “Christian ethics is a major
task to teach in seminaries today and in future.” Presbyter J. Ji, president of
TSPM and Vice-president of the Nanjing Union Theological Seminary, said in the
same consultation: “I hope there will be an exchange on Christian ethics and
social ethics between Switzerland and China on an academic and regular basis”
and he formulated the vision of a “department of ethical studies on the planned
new campus of the Nanjing Christian University”.
A Chinese
delegation of the Jiangsu Provincial Overseas Friendship Association and the
Bureau of Religious Affairs visited Swiss officials and the Federation of
Protestant Churches in March 2003 for a consultation on “Church and State
Facing New Religious Needs”. During the consultation, the head of the Chinese
delegation, Mr. Lin Xiangguo, expressed the hope and expectation, “that
religions and churches can support the search for ethical orientation in modern
socialist China.”
A collection of
statements of pastors from CCC under the title “Chinese Christians Attach
Importance of Ethics” was recently published in the Amity News Service. The
editor notes that “the Chinese government has repeatedly voiced the need to
develop a [socialist] spiritual civilization.”[3]
2. The meaning of ethics for the Christian faith and the churches
Is ethics
important for the Christian faith? If yes, why? I discussed this question yesterday
with Bishop K. H. Ting, because it seems that in China as well as in Europe and
America, there are people who think that ethics has no role to play for the
faith – because salvation only comes by faith, and this justification by faith
makes moral behavior and ethics meaningless. I give seven reasons why ethics is
important for Christian faith:
2.1 God acts first. The tri-unite God, in which
we believe as Christians, creates as Creator, liberates as Jesus Christ and reconciles
and loves as Holy Spirit before we as human beings start doing anything. So, we
do not start with our own action, because our action is only a re-action to God’s
action. It is very important for Christian ethics to underline that God acts
long before we do anything.
2.2 The second reason for the importance of
ethics is the following formula: Grace + Faith + Behavior = Salvation. That
means: we as human beings make the distinction between faith and behavior, first
we believe and then we act, but for God that is one. So it is only our human
limitation that makes the distinction. Of course, we confess “justification by
faith”, but the ethical behavior is the logical consequence of God’s grace and
our faith. Faith without a corresponding behavior is an empty faith, a meaningless
faith.
Let me say one more word about grace. Grace is what God offers to us. It includes
forgiveness. Forgiveness is an important part of liberation. With forgiveness, we
are free to act and take responsibility even if we cannot act according to God’s
will. So there are some Christians who fear they could make mistakes here and
there: “I don’t want to act because I could become guilty.” That’s wrong! God
invites us to have ethical behavior as consequence of his grace and
forgiveness.
2.3 Many Christians, especially fundamentalists,
believe that eternal life will only be possible by confessing faith in words.
That is only half of the truth. As I said, grace plus faith plus behavior
brings eternal life. I would even say that God’s grace offers us the freedom
not to care about our personal salvation. That is a very important sentence! God
liberates us from being concentrated on our own salvation, always thinking
about how I can get eternal life; that is also a kind of egoism and sin. No,
God offers us grace and then I am free not to care about my eternal life but to
care about the needs of my neighbors. I know that my life is in God’s hands,
and that makes me free to care for the poor, the weak, those who need us, and
to care for the society and the earth.
2.4 A fourth reason why ethics is important and
an integral part of faith: The Greek New Testament word “metanoia” means to
turn around, to reverse. It means a new orientation of the whole life in all
its dimensions. It means that we change the direction of our thinking, our
spirit, our body and our material existence. A new existence means: all that we
are is new, also our behavior.
2.5 Preaching the liberating gospel and healing
through diaconal work are two sides of the same coin, in the life of Jesus as
well as in the life of the church. They cannot and should not be separated.
2.6 The Bible gives a lot of indications for
Christian ethics. The Old Testament professors and the New Testament professors
at the Nanjing Theological Seminary know a lot about it. The Bible is very rich
in teaching ethics. Of course, there are different ethical positions: the ethical
call of prophet Isaiah is different from the Deuteronomic ethics or the wisdom
literature in the OT, but all these authors express an ethical re-action to God’s
action and revelation. The Bible is not abstract on ethics. Augustine once said:
“Love – and then do whatever you want.” In a way that is a very true sentence:
love is the most important expression of Christian ethics. If we love, we will
behave in a right manner. But then, immediately the question follows: love – what
does it mean? In today’s China, in Nanjing, in Switzerland, in Britain or in South
Africa? We therefore need help to know what it means to love. The Bible gives
very concrete examples for it: With the Ten Commandments (Ex 20), with the
Sermon on the mountain (Mt 5-7) and with a lot of other texts. That also includes
that the “old law” in the Old Testament is transformed by the “new law” of
Jesus Christ, but remains at the same time in this transformed way still valid
for Christians as I recently explained in more details[4].
2.7 The seventh reason may be the most
important one for the role of ethics in Christian faith. As Christians we
believe that God is creator and king of all that exists. That means no sphere
of life can be excluded from being responsible to him. Every aspect and minute of
my life is part of that responsibility where we respond to his grace. Every
aspect is under his kingdom. God invites us to be his co-workers for his
kingdom.
Let me conclude this
first issue with the following remark: Christian Theology has to emphasize the
importance of ethics for Christian faith and the church. But on the other hand
we must avoid to think that theology is only ethics! There is for example the
German professor of ethics Trutz Rendtorff who
reduces theology to ethics by teaching an “ethical theology”[5].
That is in my view wrong because to praise God in worship and liturgy is
crucial for Christian faith and cannot be reduced to an ethical behavior. So we
have to find the right balance: Faith is more than ethics. But faith inevitably
leads to ethics.
3. All theological disciplines can contribute to Christian ethics
Within theology,
all theological disciplines can and should contribute to Christian ethics. Old
Testament, New Testament, Dogmatic, Philosophy, Church history, Science of Religion,
Practical Theology, Sociology etc. all of them contribute to Christian ethics. They
can show the biblical diversity and contextual ethics, warn and enlighten us by
historical analysis, systematic reflection or empirical data about existing
moral behavior in today’s society.
4. Ethical Challenges in the globalized world
Today’s world is – at least partially – globalized and in many parts of the world fast changing.
4.1
Characteristics of the – partially – globalized world
·
Interdependence. If there is an economic crisis in China,
we feel it4in Switzerland. If there is a climate change, everybody on earth is
affected.
·
Mobility. There are a lot of people moving around
the world as tourists, as business people, as migrant workers within countries
and internationally. That is only possible because of the non-renewable and
renewable energy sources that we exploit. I was recently in Congo in Africa in
an area where there are only about five cars in a region as big as Switzerland,
almost no roads and no possibility to move by bicycle. So, mobility means nothing
but walking. The other extreme is to be able to be almost everywhere on this
globe at any time.
·
Open
borders. Global trade is
only possible because goods and services are exchanged across borders.
·
Centralization in some fields and de-centralization
of activities in others. For example, the media-ownership is increasingly
concentrated in the hands of a few. A few globally acting companies in the
world control very big parts of the international Internet market and new
technologies. So there is a lot of power concentration in a few hands. But we also
face de-centralization: Internet and other communication technologies can –
theoretically – be used by everybody which leads to decentralized knowledge.
·
Technological
revolutions. Globalization
is to a great extent influenced and enabled by technological innovation. Especially
information technologies, bio-technologies, transport technologies,
nano-technologies and new instruments of the financial markets play a vital
role.
·
Acceleration. Everything goes faster and faster. This creates
also ethical problems. The technological and economic globalization is very
fast, the political integration in continental or global structures is of
course slower because political processes need time. And the ethical
globalization is the slowest process because changing behavior and value
systems often needs one generation or more.
·
Pluralism. To have open borders means we are
confronted with different value systems, with different ethics, with different
worldviews. This may also provoke value confusion.
4.2 Ethical
chances and risks of the globalized world
|
Chances |
Risks |
|
- More wealth |
- Deeper gap
poor-rich |
|
- More
consumerism |
- Less
solidarity |
|
- More
information/knowledge |
- More confusion |
|
- Mutual
enrichment |
-
Vulnerability/instability |
|
- More mobility |
- More broken
relations |
|
- More personal
comfort |
- Less
environmental sustainability |
|
- Faster
technological revolutions |
- More
technological risks and destruction |
|
- More freedom |
- More
individualism |
Interdependence offers
opportunities for more wealth because we can exchange goods. We can buy Chinese
goods in Switzerland and you can buy Japanese cars, whatever. But it also creates
instability, because if something is happening like the Asian crisis, then not
only Indonesia, Thailand and there economies were heavily affected, but at the
same time also those of Europe and America. So it is like a storm. A crisis starts
in one corner of the globe and can affect the whole world. On my way to Nanjing
I found a book in an airport shop with the shocking title “The Coming Collapse
of China”[6].
If China’s economy really collapsed – because of a banking crisis or for other
reasons –a worldwide economic depression would inevitably follow.
4.3 Challenges
for the diaconal task and ministry of the Church
Fast changing
societies are confronted with manifold ethical and diaconal challenges. The
“State of China Atlas”[7]
shows charts about equality and inequality, employment, agricultural,
industrial changes, the development of traffic, environment, energy and
investments in China. Especially the development of social security systems
represents a huge ethical and social challenge in fast changing societies when
traditional family systems brake down and new social security systems are not
yet established.[8] Also, the
rapid changes in family relations, sexual behavior, drugs and prostitution
calls for diaconal services and ethical answers from the side of the Churches.
Growing inequalities between poor and rich challenge the Churches teaching the
just distribution of wealth and the equal dignity of all human beings as God’s
image. Fundamentalist tendencies add additional ideological, political and
social tensions. Fundamentalism means to reduce the complexity of the world to
a few very simple answers. This is an attempt at overcoming insecurity and
confusion provoked by the fast changes. All these developments bring additional
tasks for the social service work and ethical responsibility of the churches as
well as of the governments.
4.4 Challenges
for the different themes and sectors of Christian ethics
If we believe that
God is king of the whole world (see above 2.7), no sphere of our life can be
excluded from responsibility to God and to his world, that means from ethical responsibility.
All spheres of life are affected by today’s challenges and are subject to
Christian ethics[9]:
We distinguish six
main domains of ethics:
Life ethics includes specific domains like health
ethics (what kind of medicine should we take or not take), medical ethics (what
kind of treatment, e.g. gene therapy, is allowed or not allowed), ethics of
sexual relations (procreation, forms of sexual behavior), bio-ethics (the
beginning and end of life, children’s mortality, longevity etc.)
Community
ethics is the second main domain.
As human beings we do not live alone. We are always related to others. What
life-style do we have in community? Marital and family ethic. Whether
homosexuality is allowed or not is a controversial and hot question in
Christian debate. The question of ethnic communities or minorities in a community,
and also what we call the inter-generational ethics. That means the community
between us, the living generations, and the future generations.
Environmental
ethics: God’s creation
includes human and non human life and the whole non-living environment. Resource
ethics asks: how much energy are we allowed to use in order to allow future
generations to still have natural resources and in order to maintain God’s
environment? Ethics of bases of life, biodiversity ethics, animal ethics (for
example, is it allowed to genetically modify a cow or other animals?) Or is
that not allowed?[10]
In addition, all these questions have a global dimension in a globalized world:
for example, if the Swiss government says no to research or production of genetically
modified animals or plants, the Swiss company who wants to produce or use
genetically modified material, threatens to do it in France or China. We as
Christian churches are therefore confronted with the question: What is our
response in Switzerland and in China? How can we communicate about this, exchange
our arguments and concerns. That is an important task of common academic
ethical research and ethical networking on an international level.
Economic ethics is very important today because in a
market economy the individual economic actor (companies, traders, consumers
etc.) has to find ethical guidelines in his freedom of decision. Corporate
ethics or business ethics deals with responsibility of companies. Labor ethics
with labor standards and rights. The working hours, salary systems, level of
profit, investment policies are questions of business ethics. The ethics of
economic policy which can be justified by Christian ethics – or probably also
qualified or criticized if necessary –, deals with the macroeconomic order. Trade
ethics[11]
becomes very important with today’s fast increasing international trade. Consumer
ethics – does it really care about the wellbeing of consumers? Professional ethics
sets standards for the professional activities of a medical doctor, a
researcher in a specific field etc.
Political
ethics: How can we find a political
order where Christian values are put into practice? The ethics of legal systems.
The government ethics, peace ethics or land ethics (how to distribute land in
an equitable way?) are in many countries very crucial ethical issues.
Ethics of
cultural and religious life: media
ethics (what is the responsibility of media?), sports ethics etc. Christian
ethics became very specialized in order to be able to give concrete and helpful
answers for all these challenges.
5. Basic Christian values
Christian Ethics
in itself is pluralistic because the different biblical authors express
different sides of the same coin of God’s revelation, according to their
respective context. But at the same time, we can find common Christian values
behind these different approaches of the Deuteronomist, the prophets, the
wisdom literature, Jesus’ and Paul’s teaching. These fundamental values are independent
of context and possess long-term validity. On a second level, they then need to
be confronted with a concrete context. This process of transformation and
contextualization of fundamental values leads to practical standards (they are
often called maxims) which, context-related, can be modified according to the
specific situation.
I see eleven
fundamental Christian values as the basis of Christian Ethics relevant for the
individuals as well as for the society:
·
Preservation
of life
·
Justice
·
Freedom
·
Sustainability
·
Peace
·
Solidarity
·
Dignity
·
Partnership
·
Trust
·
Responsible
use of power
·
Forgiveness
All these values
have different dimensions which I further develop in my book on “Global Trade
ethics”[12]
but cannot be done at this place.
6. The relationship between Christian Ethics and Socialist Ethics
Bishop Ting expressed – after 50 years of leadership in the year 2000 – the relationship between Christian faith and socialist ethics as follows: “Our future vision of the Chinese church is one that is rich in a theology that respects reason and is more suited to Chinese socialist society.”[13] Christian Ethics in his view should be reasonable so that also Non-Christians can understand it, and it should be committed to the society, in the Chinese case the socialist society.
Each Church has the task to define its relationship to its own society. As Swiss Churches, we face the challenge to formulate (economic) Christian ethics in the context of a socially regulated market economy which becomes more and more an economy of Manchester capitalism – without social regulations and responsibility and global free trade as its highest principle. The Chinese Church faces the challenge to formulate Christian ethics in the context of a socialist society which integrates elements of the market economy in a fast process of transformation.
The first task and goal of Christian Ethics is not to defend existing economic models, neither socialist nor capitalist ones. Christian ethics has to define and defend the Christian core values such as justice/equity, community, peace, freedom and sustainability, that means caring for the poor and the weak, using freedom for the benefit of the community and not for egoistic exploitation of others, being responsible for the environment and social and political peace. If we then compare these Christian values and ethics with socialist ethics we see that there are many similarities between them. I mention some of them:
- justice, especially the distributive justice and justice as equality
- the golden rule of mutual respect (Matthews 7,12)
- The community-centered approach: our behavior should strengthen community
- The people-centered approach. The people, especially the weaker members of the society should be in the midst of our concern
- The common goods which are as important as the private property.
At the same time, Christian ethics can contribute to deepening and sharpening socialist ethics, and has to take a critical standpoint, where human dignity is not respected. There was a very intense dialogue between Christian and socialist ethics in Europe when I was a student in the seventies.[14] It could be helpful to analyze if that dialogue could stimulate the efforts of the Chinese church to redefine its role in the modern socialist Chinese society.
A dialogue means to identify common convictions but at the same time to identify differencies and to make them bear fruit. Christian ethics therefore can support socialist ethics and challenge it by emphasizing how the faith in Jesus Christ as the foundation of Christian ethics can contribute to a human society and a socialist spiritual society.
7. The relationship between Christian, Confucian and Buddhist Ethics
An other challenge
is to clarify the relationship between the Christian, Confucian and Buddhist
ethics in order to find “A Global Ethic”[15]
and common ethical grounds for the Chinese society; and at the same time the
challenge is to increase mutual respect for the differences in these value systems.[16]
The profound
community-orientation is common in Confucian[17]
and in Christian ethics. Even if modern Western Christianity seems to be rather
individualistic, Christian faith in Asia, Africa and Latin America is based on
the community. Christians can also learn from the important concept of respect
for all living beings in the Buddhist value system and can compare it with
God’s call, “to till and to keep/conserve” the garden of Eden and therefore the
whole creation (Genesis 2,15).
But there are also
differences between these value systems which cannot and should not be denied
and which have to be discussed. An example: The famous Theologian Hans Küng (of
Swiss origin and teaching in Germany) mentions as the main difference between
Confucius and Jesus, that “Confucius was backward oriented, to the past and the
better past of the early empire” whereas “Jesus was forward oriented, to the
better future, the coming kingdom of God.”[18]
8. Ethics as the basis of the diaconal services of the churches
Ethics is not just
a theoretical or metaphysical exercice. The goal is to help people to find
orientation for their daily decisions as father and mother, in professional
life, as politician, worker or company CEO and up to national and international
decision making processes. Ethics is the basis of the diaconal services of the
churches. It tries to understand God’s love for humankind and his whole
creation and tries to translate it into the modern context. In Swiss and other
European churches we describe the diaconal work of the churches in seven
dimensions which respond to the ethical needs of our people:
·
Diaconia for disabled
people: the sick, the handicapped, the prisoners etc.
·
Diaconia for different
ages: old and retired, young, single people etc.
·
Diaconia for relationship
and integration: women’s and men’s groups, integration of migrants in a
society, family councelling etc.
·
Diaconia by media
work: orientation by information and analysis etc.
·
Diaconia for worldwide
solidarity: development cooperation, solidarity between churches etc.
·
Environmental diaconia for the integrity of creation
etc.
·
Economic diaconia for fair economic relations
·
Political diaconia for peace in a society and
between societies etc.
Diaconia in all
these dimensions is the concrete and visible result of Christian ethics. Both
need each other.