Microsoft Word - Critiquing the Method of Traditional Western Theology by wan 10.03


Critiquing the Method of Traditional Western Theology and Calling for Sino-Theology 
 

Enoch Wan 
Professor, Western Seminary 

Published in Global Missiology, Contextualization, Oct. 2003, www.globalmissiology.net 
 

Abstract 

The third article in a series is a transitional piece related to "the challenge of" and "the change 

for" contextualization for contemporary Chinese. Theology is foundational to Christian faith and 

practice; just as worldview of a certain cultural tradition is foundational to group members’ 

belief and practice.  Therefore “contextualized Chinese theology” (i.e. “Sino-theology” or “ST”) 

is essential to further discussion on practical contextualization.  A critique of the method of 

“Traditional Western Theology” (TWT) is offered in this article from a Chinese perspective and 

a call is issued for the formulation of ST specifically for the contemporary Chinese Christian.  

Critique of the either/or cognitive pattern in TWT is offered to show the necessity of formulating 

ST.  Since the both/and pattern is the cultural theme of the Chinese, it is both right and good to 

employ it in the formulation of ST. 

 

First published in Chinese Around the World, November 1999 (A Ministry of Chinese 

Coordination Centre of World Evangelism) and posted at http://www.missiology.org. 

 

Send comments to: ewan@westernseminary.edu 
 

When writing these articles, the author has no personal agenda against the church of the West 

and the missionary from the West. I am forever grateful to the American missionaries who led 

members of two generations both in my family and my wife’s to the Lord.  However, when 

dealing with issues related to the danger of Westernization and the need of contextualization, 

critical analysis is necessary and valuable. 

Part I 

I.  INTRODUCTION  

Theology is foundational to Christian faith and practice; just as worldview of a certain cultural 

tradition is foundational to group members’ belief and practice.  Therefore “contextualized 

Chinese theology” (i.e. “Sino-theology” or “ST”) is essential to further discussion on practical 

contextualization.   A critique of the method of “Traditional Western Theology” (TWT) is 

offered in this article from a Chinese perspective and a call is issued for the formulation of ST 

specifically for the contemporary Chinese Christian. 

This article is written as a warning that some Chinese Christians might have blindly 

swallowed some Western cultural elements (both the good and the bad) in the process of 

theologizing when receiving the sound Christian doctrine from Western theological 

tradition.   This subtle form of westernization is not easily detected and the bad elements 

might be dangerous and poisonous.  



Clarification of several concepts and terms is in order at the outset.  The term 

“contextualization” is used in this series to denote “the efforts of formulating, presenting and 

practicing the Christian faith in such a way that is relevant to the cultural context of the target 

group in terms of conceptualization, expression and application; yet maintaining theological 

coherence, biblical integrity and theoretical consistency." 

“Sino-theology” is one such “contextual theology” that is specifically designed for the Chinese 

people; not by transplanting Christianity in the “pot” of Western culture but by planting it in the 

Chinese cultural soil so it can take root, flourish and grow.   ST should be done by using the 

Chinese cognitive pattern (e.g. shame culture vs. the guilt culture of TWT), Chinese cognitive 

process (e.g. synthetic vs. the dialectic of TWT), Chinese way of social interaction (e.g. 

relational /complementary vs. dichotomistic/confrontational of TWT), Chinese vocabulary, 

topics, etc.  Only one of these aspects of  ST is the focus of this article in contra-distinction 

from TWT, i.e. “both-and” of ST vs. “either-or” of TWT.  (For other details regarding the 

complexity of the issues and debates related to ST and TWT, readers may consult two separate 

titles by the author listed at the end.  The extensive quotations from Arnold Yeung’s 1988 title 

are included with the intention to show that the view presented here is neither to be regarded as 

esoteric nor to be dismissed as the author’s idiosyncrasy.)  

II.  THEOLOGY, THEOLOGIES, AND THEOLOGIZING  

“Theology” is man’s attempt and accomplishment in studying God (including His attributes, 

action and accomplishment) and His relationship with the created order (including man, angel, 

nature, etc.) systematically and academically.  Since men differ from one another in terms of 

time, temperament, cultural background, circumstance thus they do not have uniform cognitive 

pattern, process, method, etc. when theologizing.  As a result, there are numerous kinds of 

theology (e.g. Puritan and contemporary, liberation and feminist, Catholic and Protestant, etc.) 

and multiple ways of theologizing (e.g. biblical vs. historical, conservative vs. liberal, 

dispensationalist vs. reformed, etc.).  

One of the characteristics when theologizing in TWT is the use of the  either/or” thought pattern 

of Greek philosophy.  Since the time of Aristotle, scholars of the Western tradition have been 

strongly influenced by Aristotle's dualistic epistemology.  Subsequently, the dualistic thought 

pattern was reinforced and refined by the Gnostics (Yeung 1986, 27-29).  Henceforth the 

dualistic pattern of "either/or" has been well entrenched in the Western mind.  This "either/or" 

pattern has several variations: the dualistic cosmology of ancient Greece, the dialectics of Hegel 

(dialectic idealism), Marx (dialectic materialism), and Augustine (dialectic sociology of the 

Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Man), etc.  The quotation below is Arnold Yeung’s 

comments on Augustine’s impact on TWT in this regard:  

"Unfortunately, since Augustine the Church fell once again into the trap of Hellenistic dualism.  

This impact was prolonged by scholasticism of the Medieval period and naturalism in the West, 

spreading worldwide…”  (Yeung 1986, 17, translation from Chinese by the present writer) 

THE PATTERN OF EITHER/OR IN TWT 



As shown in Figure 1 below, according to the Aristotelian logic (i.e., the law of non-

contradiction: A is A, B is B; A cannot be B and B cannot be A at the same time) -- the left half 

is A, the right half is B.  Thus, each half is either A or B.  

   

FIGURE 1 - THE WESTERN PARADOX OF EITHER/OR (Wan 1998:120)  

Great thinkers of the Western tradition have been forced to follow the path of either/or thought 

pattern for too long.  The compartmentalization of disciplines (extreme, reductionistic and 

tunnel-vision type of specialization) and dichotomistic conceptualization (e.g. scientific vs. 

spiritual, rationalistic vs. mystical, natural vs. supernatural, cultural vs. supra-cultural, human vs. 

divine, this-worldly vs. other-worldly, empirical vs. intuitive, etc.) are just manifestations of the 

either/or dualistic thought pattern in TWT.  In Figure 2, examples of dualistic thought pattern 

are presented in diagram format.  

FIGURE 2 - THE EITHER/OR PATTERN OF TWT (Wan 1997: 4)  

TOPIC  EITHER  OR  

Christology  Either the deity of Christ 

Either the Christ of kerygma  

or the humanity of Christ 

or the historical Jesus  

   

   

Soteriology  

Either God’s sovereignty 

   

Either faith 

   

or human free will 

  

  

or reason 

  

  



TOPIC  EITHER  OR  

Either grace 

   

Either evangelism for conversion 

or work 

  

  

or social gospel as witness  

Ecclesiology  Either the universal church 

Either organic unity  

or local congregation 

or organizational uniformity  

Eschatology  Either already realized 

   

or yet to come 

Bibliology  Either divine revelation or human authorship  

The first several hundred years of the Christian church were known for the christological 

controversies due to the either/or perspective on the nature of Christ.  This debate has been 

revised in the last few decades by biblical scholars in the New Testament studies of the 

"historical Jesus" as a response to the neo-orthodox insistence on the "Kerygmatic Christ".  

After the series of "christological heresies,” controversies and conflicts occurred repeatedly for  

many centuries between the Augustinians and the Pelagians on the sacraments, and later between 

the  Reformer (salvation by grace through faith) and the Catholic (salvation by self-effort 

through work).  The theological debates on the issue of salvation by God's sovereign will or 

human free-will has consumed much time and effort of theologians and church leaders in TWT.  

The "fundamentalist movement" of the early part of the 20th century was mostly a struggle to 

proclaim and practice evangelism as a matter of personal and spiritual conversion, fighting first 

against the "social gospel" of the liberal, and later against "institutional salvation" of World 

Council of Church and liberation/feminist theology.  The underlying assumption is that salvation 

is either a spiritual/personal matter or an institutional/collective matter. 

In the last few decades, the Christian church has been preoccupied with the "inerrancy debate" 

(i.e. the Bible is either of divine revelation without error or of human authorship and thus not 

error-free).  These historical precedents clearly demonstrate the pattern of either/or thinking in 

TWT.  The resultant events and the costly undertaking are not to be slighted at all.