From periphery to partnership: a critical analysis of the relationship of baptists in Hong Kong with the colonial government in the post-World War II era

Abstract

Baptists in Hong Kong, originally a peripheral denomination before the World War II, had become the largest Protestant community by the time of the handover of the colony to China in July 1997. This study aims to narrate and explicate the formation of the church-state practice of Baptists in Hong Kong in the period of 1949 to 1984. The thesis is focused on the question of the extent to which the British colonial policy contributed to the rise of the Baptist community in Hong Kong. The thesis will uncover the roots of the British colonial strategy in the post-World War II era and how the Baptist denomination happened to be part of the scheme. The thesis will also attempt to account for the formation of the Baptist church-state practice. The thesis finally will employ John Howard Yoder's criticism of Constantinianism to critique the Baptist church-state practice in the post-World War II period, and the core concepts of Yoder's Jeremianic model will serve as an alternative of the Baptist church-state practice in the post-colonial era.The study will be based upon a theological and empirical research. The socio-political- ecclesiological context of Hong Kong in the post-World War II period and the British colonial policy in the territory will be scrutinised. The uniqueness of Baptist polity that has led to the emergence of the Baptist lay-leaders and the interactions between the laity and the pastors on the issue of Baptist educational institutions accepting the government subsidy, embodying the formalisation of the church-state practice, will be examined. The rationale behind the Baptist leaders' willingness to become a partner with the government will be explored, by investigating the patron-client relationship between the colonial government and Baptists and kuan-hsi (network), a prominent feature of the Chinese cultural heritage.The practice of Baptist worship service will be investigated as it is regarded as the principal factor of the formation of spirituality. I will suggest that pietistic individualism focusing on personal religious and spiritual experience contributes to a problematic church-world dichotomy in the minds of Chinese Christians. A review of Chinese theology in the first half of the twentieth century will disclose a solid heritage of pietism among Chinese Christians. The factor of "state control of religion" in Chinese culture fosters and enhances their uncritical attitude toward government. Additionally, order and contents of Baptist worship service have also been shaped by the pietistic tradition so that sermons in worship mainly focus on such topics as personal relationship with God as deepened through Bible reading, prayers, fellowship, sin, etcThe existing models explicating Hong Kong's church-state situation offered by Hong Kong local scholars will be analysed. A literature review of the discourse on church-world relations by the post-World War II theologians in the West, including Oliver O'Donovan, Stanley Hauerwas, and John Howard Yoder, will be introduced. Yoder's model will be considered as a better one among them, and its strengths as well as its applicability will be examined. "Effectiveness" and "faithfulness," two key features of Yoder's Jeremianic model, will be singled out as the main criteria to expound the church-state practice of Baptists in Hong Kong. The thesis will also explore the question of the extent to which the church-state model adopted by Baptists in Hong Kong relied on a Constantinian model which in the post-colonial era is now shown to be problematic, and the suggested solutions to the dilemma of Baptists will be offered. The practice of "the church as a worshipping community" will lead Baptists to a faithful church-state practice in the post-colonial era. The thesis will conclude with an examination of the Jeremianic model of church-state relations in dialogue with Yoder's political theology. At the end of the thesis, it will be pointed out that the Home Church in China after 1949 has been the most rapid-growing group within the Christian community despite acute persecutions by the Communist government. This example will serve as a model of church-state practice for Baptists in the present day Hong Kong -the city that has taken on a new configuration with increasing strong presence of Mainland China's political and ideological influence.