A Study On Chang Lit-sen's Christ Salvation Thoughts

Chang Lit-sen is a famous Chinese jurist in the first half of the 20th century.At the same time,he is also an important theologian recognized by overseas Chinese churches.His theological works lead many Chinese catechumen to convert to Christianity.As his main theological works were translated into English,he began to have a certain influence in the world of Christian studies.Saving China is a common concern of Chinese intellectuals in the first half of the 20th century.In the early years,Chang Lit-sen,like the contemporary Chinese scholars at his time,he worked hard to start from the individual to seek national revival,and actively explored the path to salvation in the Chinese tradition and the western trends of thought.However,the personal occasions drifting up and down and the social status quo has not changed,which dispel his ideal of reviving China with the aid of oriental religious culture.He converted to Christianity overseas since 1950,and then went to the United States to receive professional theological training.As he incorporated his early salvation thoughts into the new faith,he made a huge change.That is,from valuing personal salvation to recognizing Christ salvation.Although the two are both named "salvation",the once salvation hero becomes the aim of salvation.From the"God-centered" stand of theology,he revolves around Jesus Christ,bringing personal liberation and national revival into the plan of God for saving mankind,which makes salvation breaking the limit of "China".What's more,it has made his theological ideas and intentions universally meaningful.Therefore,we will discuss the relevant contents in four chapter after explaining the research background and meaning.The first chapter will focus on clues of his life-long salvation,exploring the most distinctive ideological features of his early years by his faith-changing experience.And in the second chapter,it revolves around the Christ salvation and Chang's theological ideological system was investigated.These two chapters will show his full view of Christ salvation thoughts.At the same time,it also tries to explain the change of his ideas before and after his conversion to Christianity.As Chang's understanding of "God-centered" Christ salvation thoughts gradually strengthened,He began to base on the purpose of confirming faith and facilitating Christian scholars to preach Christianity.Returning to the Confucianism,Buddhism and Taoism classics,to reflect shortcomings of other religious cultures through apologetics.Thus,the third chapter will be combined with his main works of apologetics.Analyzing how he confirmed that Christianity is the only method of salvation and Christ Jesus is the only Savior.This chapter will show how Chang strengthened his belief in the salvation of Christ.In addition,it also revealed why he determined to serve for life and never changed his faith again.The fourth chapter will start to comment on Chang's theological thoughts.First,basing on Chang's Christ salvation thoughts,to analyze the connection between his theological ideas and the Eastern religious culture that he had contacted in his early years,combined his social background to search for his western theological features at the same time.In addition,focusing on the original issues of concern.This article believes that we must pay special attention to Chang's main preaching group and the space-time distance between him and Chinese catechumens,understanding his innovation in language expression and his introduction of Western mature theology.As for the logic of argumentation mentioned by scholars,this article believes that we must proceed from the aspects of Chang's Christian identity and theological self-consistency and treat them in a fair manner.At the same time,we must also pay attention to the deviation of his theological language to the reader's feelings.Finally,this article briefly evaluates the important contribution of the Chinese Christian community and cultural development that based on Chang's theological thoughts.