This thesis examines theologies of social ministry among Taiwan’s Chinese Protestant communities between 1945 and 2000. This covers the period the nationalist Kuomingtang Party governed Taiwan, and includes the rise of the democratization movement. The Eden Social Welfare Foundation and its founder, Liu Hsia, are featured as representatives of an innovative contextual theology of social ministry generated on the margins of the Protestant churches. The main argument is that Eden and Liu represent an approach to social ministry that draws from local cultural resources in developing a holistic theology that combines spiritual and social dimensions of social ministry, and thus offers an alternative to the emphasis on either individual evangelism or social action that characterizes the Protestant churches. This argument is based on the hypothesis that the ecclesiastical and political context of Taiwan has affected the theologies of social ministry of the Protestant churches with the result that these theologies have been divided into two distinct factions: those of the churches with origins in China, those of the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan. This thesis will subject the theologies of social ministry prevalent in each of these entities to critical analysis, assessing their differences and evaluating their respective strengths and weaknesses. This thesis has been built on primary sources that include interviews with leaders from the Chinese Protestant community and published and unpublished materials in the Chinese language, with special attention to the previously unresearched miscellaneous writings of Liu Hsia in the Chinese genre <i>sanwen</i> (essays). The thesis belongs to the fields of practical theology, cultural anthropology, and history of missions.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:662658 |
| Date | January 2006 |
| Creators | Sween, Maurice Alwyn |
| Publisher | University of Edinburgh |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://hdl.handle.net/1842/30810 |
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