College of Fellows

Sinicization of Christianity

Im Rahmen ihrer Exzellenzstrategie möchte die Universität neue, wegweisende Horizonte für die Forschung eröffnen. Mit dem Programm New Horizons sollen Persönlichkeiten nach Tübingen geholt werden, die das Potenzial haben, innovative Impulse zu geben. 

Die Focus Group organisiert ihre Aktivitäten im Herbst 2025 um die Forschungsarbeiten von Naomi Thurston.

Veranstaltungen

5. November 2025
CoF Lecture Series
Prof. Naomi Thurston

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.


4. Dezember 2025: Book Launch: New Horizons Fellows Prof. Naomi Thurston: "Moltmann in China"

4. Dezember 2025, 20 Uhr | Theologicum, Hörsaal | College of Fellows

Im Rahmen der Veranstaltung zum akademischen Gedenken and Prof. Jürgen Moltmann
Moltmann in China — Reception and Dialogue (forthcoming from Routledge)

The book explores the reception of the German theologian Jürgen Moltmann (1926–2024) in the context of Chinese academic theology. The author introduces the reception of Moltmann’s theology in Chinese contexts as a dialogic process of intercultural learning and theological meaning-making, encompassing readings of Western intellectual history, Marxist dialogue, political philosophy, and comparative studies. By thus presenting Moltmann studies in Chinese scholarship as an interactive, interdisciplinary conversation between contemporary Chinese intellectuals and Western Christianity, the present theological reception history argues for the full inclusion and deeper appreciation of Chinese scholarly voices and perspectives in the transmission, reconstruction, and reimagining of contemporary Western theology in Chinese contexts. Featuring a representative array of academic texts on Moltmann in the Chinese academy over the past four decades, the book highlights the unique critical potential of these crosscultural, interdisciplinary exchanges. The book will appeal to academics, postgraduate students, and theologians interested in world Christianity, contextual theology, Jürgen Moltmann, and intercultural dialogue.

About the author

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.


New Horizons Workshop

Historiographies of Christianity in China
– A Symposium of Current Voices in the Field

12.-13.12.2025 | Villa Köstlin (Rümelinstr. 27), Seminarraum | Zoom (Veranstaltungssprache: Englisch)

Organisiert von New Horizons Fellow Prof. Naomi Thurston

About
Dieser Workshop zielt darauf ab, verschiedene aktuelle Ansätze der Erforschung des chinesischen Christentums zusammenzuführen und zu diskutieren, die von Wissenschaftler:innen aus verschiedenen Teilen der Welt und unterschiedlichen Disziplinen – sei es aus der Geschichtswissenschaft, Theologie, Literaturwissenschaft, Soziologie oder Religionswissenschaft – angewendet werden. Der Workshop wird gemeinsam vom CoF, der Fakultät für Evangelische Theologie der Universität Tübingen, der Divinity School des Chung Chi College der Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), dem Center for Christian Studies im Fachbereich Kultur- und Religionswissenschaften der CUHK und dem Institute of Sino-Christian Studies in Hongkong organisiert und von der China Christianity Studies Group (CCSG) gefördert.

Personen

Ass. Prof. Naomi Thurston

Chinese Christianity, The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), Direktorin des Resource Centre for Contemporary Christian Studies, DSCCC

Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Karla Pollmann

Prof. Dr. Volker Drecoll

Prof. Dr. Johannes Brachtendorf

Prof. Dr. Renate Dürr

Prof. Dr. Christian Witt

Prof. Dr. Gesche Linde

Prof. Dr. Achim Mittag

Prof. Dr. Anreas Holzem

Jun.-Prof. Emily Graf