Ethical Reorientation for Christianity in China

This book makes an urgent call for a reorientation of Christian ethics in China. Since the “reform and opening” policy was adopted in China in 1979, the country has been enjoying an improved standard of living and increasing freedom. However, the Chinese people are also experiencing many serious social problems, including moral decline. Unfortunately, the ethic adopted by many Chinese Christians is individually focused and otherworldly, preventing them from responding to social problems effectively. Thus Lin tries to trace the underlying factors, and propose a socially focused and this-worldly Christian ethics drawing on Christian virtue ethics, Confucianism, Chinese Marxism, as well as the ethical thought of the first-generation Chinese Protestant thinkers.

本書呼籲中國基督教會需要正視國內社會的迫切需要,在倫理方面重新定位。 自從中國在1979年奉行「改革開放」政策以來,國內的生活質素和自由程度均得以提升；但與此同時,社會上卻出現不少非常嚴峻的問題,其中備受關注的是──道德下滑。可悲的是,國內基督徒的倫理思維卻十分自我中心和出世,以致他們完全不熱衷回應社會上的問題。因此作者林曼紅博士嘗試找出中國社會道德下滑背後的種種因素,並參考基督教德行倫理學、儒學、中國馬克思主義,以及中國第一代基督徒思想家的倫理論述,從以建構另一套面向社會和入世的基督教倫理,幫助當代中國信徒跟身處的社群和社會建立更緊密的關係,以致積極回應社群和社會的需要。