Author: ZHAO Pan, Associate Researcher, School of Philosophy, Wuhan University.
Abstract:
In 1923, the apologetics journal The Life published over twenty articles written by Christian intellectuals on personal religious experience. These articles demonstrate Chinese intellectuals’ personal faith journeys, theological understanding, and expectations of solving the central issues of Chinese society through Christianity. This paper explores the impact of New Culture Movement thought on Chinese Christianity during the May Fourth era: guiding youths to convert to Christianity with the purpose of reforming Chinese society; stimulating an internal reexamination of Christian tenets among intellectuals, who often embraced a liberal theology and Social Gospel ideas more in conformity with the scientific and rational ethos of the era. The many writings from the 1930s of Wu Leichuan, Zhao Zichen, and Wu Yaozong also reflect the limitations of Christian intellectual thinking in the May Fourth Era.
Keywords:
Christianity; intellectuals; May Fourth Movement; the new thought, religious experience.
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