Editorial reflection and analysis on issues shaping Chinese Christianity.
In mid-July 2026, Chinese Christian scholars and pastors from various denominational backgrounds in the United States, the United Kingdom, China, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan, and Hong Kong gathered in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, for the three-day Third Public Theology Conference.
What was most noteworthy about this congress was not only what it said, but also how it was experimenting with new ways to speak, lead, communicate, and understand the next generation.
Disciples are made to need one another, and in their interdependence they reveal God's glory.
After leaving Kuala Lumpur, one question stayed with me: were we, throughout the conference, actually speaking about the same thing when we used the term ‘public theology’?
Does the gospel of Christ also concern a nation's public life: justice, poverty, corruption, the environment, refugees, and people suffering in disasters? I believe the answer is yes.
Those who want to walk alongside the church in China need to understand not only the suffering it produces, but the architecture that produces it.
To serve effectively in a Chinese American church, pastors must address a more fundamental issue: securing a legal status that allows them to live and minister in the country.
Like all theology, public theology begins not with issues, but with the knowledge of God.
“Many Chinese churches place great emphasis on ‘truth’ and ‘goodness’ in their teaching and practice, yet they pay less attention to ‘beauty.’” Complaints of…
The thoughtful and wide-ranging contributions in this issue of ChinaSource Journal are particularly relevant to where China’s church finds itself today.
By looking not only at the church in China itself but also to Christian communities in the global Chinese diaspora, these scholars offer both cautionary tales as well as hopeful visions of what it means to be a witness to the “public God.”
The thought patterns formed by long-term, deeply embedded atheistic education and scientism remain a major epistemological threshold that Chinese diaspora Christians must cross in evangelism, as well as a stronghold that apologetics must address.