5. November 2025 | 18:30 Uhr   Villa Köstlin

"Theologian, Critic, Classicist: The Conservative Turn in Sino-Christian Theology"

In the 1980s, a cohort of unconventional intellectuals at Chinese universities began to integrate European theological concepts into Chinese academic discourse, literature, and some newly established journals and book series. This initiative took shape against the backdrop of the post-Maoist "cultural fever" that characterized the era. Famous among this generation of China’s “Cultural Christians” was the young academic Liu Xiaofeng (1956-), known in the 1990s for pioneering a new theological movement among scholars in the humanities. Liu, who later turned to cultural and political conservatism, would eventually distance himself from “Sino-Christian theology” to promote the works of such thinkers as Carl Schmitt and Leo Strauss in Chinese translation. This lecture traces the development of Sino-Christian theology and its sister discourse, Sino-Christian studies; introduces the controversial figure of Liu Xiaofeng; and explores the recent bifurcation of academic theology in China into conservative theology coupled with liberal ideas and contemporary conservatism.

Bio

Naomi Thurston is a scholar of contemporary Chinese Christianity based at The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK). Her research focuses on the contributions of Chinese intellectuals to issues in contextual and academic theology and Christian studies. She has translated the writings of contemporary Chinese scholars in the fields of art criticism and Christian thought and currently serves as director of the China Christianity Studies Group and as Associate Editor of Ching Feng: A Journal on Christianity and Chinese Religion and Culture.

December 4, 2025, 8 p.m. | Theologicum, Hörsaal | College of Fellows

December 12–13, 2025 | Villa Köstlin (Rümelinstr. 27), Seminar Room | Zoom

Organized by New Horizons Fellow Prof. Naomi Thurston

About
This workshop seeks to bring together and discuss diverse current and emerging approaches in the study of Chinese Christianities employed by scholars based in different parts of the world and working in various disciplines, whether in historical, theological, literary, sociological, or religious studies. The Workshop is jointly organized by the CoF, the Faculty of Protestant Theology; University of Tübingen, the Divinity School of Chung Chi College, The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK); the Center for Christian Studies, Department of Cultural and Religious Studies, CUHK; and the Institute of Sino-Christian Studies, Hong Kong; and promoted by the China Christianity Studies Group (CCSG). 

Please find more information here.