The Bible and Calligraphy in China

2021 ◽  
pp. 750-764
Author(s):  
Jeremiah Zhu Shuai
Keyword(s):  
Chinese Language ◽  
Chinese Calligraphy ◽  
Visual Form ◽  
Chinese Christians ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Christian Art ◽  
Textual Meaning

In China, calligraphy has become an important element of Christian art and Christian localization in the proclamation of the gospel. This essay surveys the history and characteristics of Nestorian, Catholic, and Protestant use and understanding of calligraphy in relation to Scriptures and textual meaning. Since “holy words” have transcendental characteristics in Christianity, and the Chinese language itself is combined with its visual form, so the holy words in the Bible expressed by Chinese calligraphy have an ontological meaning of “incarnation.” To many Chinese Christians, the Chinese people’s aesthetic pursuit of handwriting means that beautiful writing itself reveals and witnesses to God’s glory.

The Artist as Reader of the Bible. Visual Exegesis and the Adoration of the Magi

2005 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 337-373 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin O'Kane
Keyword(s):  
Subject Matter ◽  
Biblical Narrative ◽  
Biblical Story ◽  
Image Viewer ◽  
The Bible ◽  
History Of ◽  
Entire History ◽  
Visual Exegesis ◽  
Textual Meaning

AbstractThe article explores the processes at work in a painting's engagement of its viewer in biblical subject matter. It accentuates the role of the artist as an active reader of the Bible and not merely an illustrator of biblical scenes, the dynamic that occurs in the text-reader process as paradigmatic for the image-viewer relationship and the important role of the developing tradition that felt the need to change or rewrite the biblical story. The processes are explored in terms of hermeneutics and exegesis: hermeneutics defined as 'the interweaving of language and life within the horizon of the text and within the horizons of traditions and the modern reader' (Gadamer) and exegesis as 'the dialectic between textual meaning and the reader's existence' (Berdini). Applied to the visualization of biblical subject matter, the approaches of Gadamer and Berdini illumine the key role given to the viewer in the visual hermeneutical process. The biblical story of the adoration of the Magi (Matt. 2: 1-12), the first public and universal seeing of Christ and one of the most frequently depicted themes in the entire history of biblical art, is used to illustrate their approach. The emphasis in the biblical narrative on revealing the Christ child to the reader parallels a key concept in Gadamer's hermeneutical aesthetics, namely Darstellung, the way in which a painting facilitates its subject matter in coming forth, in becoming an existential event in the life of the viewer.

Fan Pu (China): The Bible Interpreted through the Art of Paper Cutting

Exchange ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 43 (4) ◽  
pp. 379-389
Author(s):  
Alle G. Hoekema
Keyword(s):  
Folk Art ◽  
Chinese People ◽  
New Techniques ◽  
Nineteen Seventies ◽  
Evangelical Christian ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Christian Art

In this article two major volumes with Chinese paper cut art by Fan Pu (Paula Fan) are reviewed. In her work it becomes clear how a traditional type of folk art can be transformed by using new techniques and material. By doing so, Fan Pu is able to make modern Christian art, which hopefully also appeals to present-day Chinese people. Herself being an evangelical Christian, she interestingly also uses sayings by pre-Christian Chinese sages like Confucius in her art; their wisdom can be seen as a kind of preparatio evangelica. The two works, analyzed here, together form a catalog of her work so far, from the nineteen seventies till now.

The Basset-Su Chinese new Testament

2021 ◽  
pp. 78-94
Author(s):  
Song Gang
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Chinese Language ◽  
Direct Influence ◽  
Foreign Missions ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Depth Analysis ◽  
Language And Literature ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
History Of ◽  
Study Offer

This essay examines the first Chinese New Testament translated by the missionary of the Paris Foreign Missions Society (M.E.P.) Jean Basset (1662–1707) in collaboration with Confucian convert Johan Su in the early Qing period. Though they did not complete a full translation of the New Testament, the work carried unique characteristics that went beyond the limitations of its time. One of the original manuscripts also exerted direct influence on nineteenth-century Protestant translations. With in-depth analysis of this exemplary piece among early Catholic endeavors, the essay addresses a set of key concerns that have not been sufficiently studied, including Basset’s vision of a Chinese Bible, the translation principle and techniques, Christian and Chinese terminology, and the interface of biblical translations and Chinese language and literature. The findings of this study offer fresh insights and facilitate a re-evaluation of Catholic contributions and legacy in the history of the Bible in China.

The First and Last Day (1917–1922)

2019 ◽  
pp. 86-118
Author(s):  
Melissa Wei-Tsing Inouye
Keyword(s):  
Significant Variation ◽  
Religious Revival ◽  
Chinese Christians ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Personal Morality ◽  
The World ◽  
Big Ideas ◽  
True Jesus Church ◽  
Social Turmoil ◽  
Insight Into

Why do some big ideas catch on, spread, and endure while others fizzle? Analyzing Wei Enbo’s vision of Jesus and the religious revival it sparked gives us insight into the attraction of the True Jesus Church in 1917. Wei’s theophany was recounted in multiple stories revealing overlap but also significant variation. Over the course of retelling, these stories became more abstract and theologically focused, suggesting ways in which religious narratives emerge. This process generated a culturally fluent and linguistically discriminating message of biblical adherence. Chinese Christians seeking increased ecclesiastical purity and personal morality converted to the new movement. Wei’s prediction that the world would end by 1922 reflected realities of social turmoil and Chinese millenarian traditions, but also was in keeping with the charismatic (extraordinary) tenor of the early True Jesus Church movement, which relied heavily on tropes, language, and expectations from the Bible.

Early Christian Art

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robin Jensen ◽  
Lee Jefferson
Keyword(s):  
New Media ◽  
Precious Metals ◽  
Wall Paintings ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Sacred Texts ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Christian Art ◽  
Painted Panel ◽  
Complex Images

Most scholars agree that Christian art first appeared around the end of the 2nd century or the beginning of the 3rd century. Among these earliest examples are the wall paintings and epitaphs found in the Roman catacombs. At first the iconography was primarily simple and symbolic (e.g., doves, anchors, boats, and praying figures). More complex images included the Good Shepherd with his sheep and representations from the Hebrew Bible, including Jonah, Noah, Daniel, and the Three Youths in the fiery furnace. By the end of the 3rd century, Christians had begun commissioning sarcophagi with relief carvings that depicted narrative episodes from the Bible, both Old and New Testaments. Following the legalization of Christianity and the imperial support that following the conversion of the Emperor Constantine, Christian art was dramatically transformed in style, technique, context, and motifs. From the mid-4th through the end of the 6th centuries, Christians built and decorated churches and baptisteries; designed and made liturgical vessels; produced private devotional objects in gemstones, pottery, glass, ivory, fabric, and precious metals; painted panel portraits of their holy men and women; and began to illustrate their sacred texts. Older types and motifs, such as the Good Shepherd and Jonah, were gradually replaced by new iconography that emphasized the glory and triumph of Christianity over the traditional Roman gods. Along with the iconographic changes, new media emerged, in particular polychrome glass mosaic for walls, apses, and domes of church buildings.

Exhibition Review: "Picturing the Bible: The Earliest Christian Art"

Gesta ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-76
Author(s):  
Stephen R. Zwirn
Keyword(s):  
The Bible ◽  
Christian Art

scholarly journals Translating the Bible into Chinese

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raissa De Gruttola
Keyword(s):  
Old Testament ◽  
Chinese Language ◽  
Research Centre ◽  
Biblical Text ◽  
Translation Process ◽  
Archival Material ◽  
The Bible

TThe translation project of the Sigao Shengjing 思高聖經 was developed by Gabriele Allegra, given the absence of a complete Catholic Bible in the Chinese language. Allegra started to translate in 1935, and in 1945 assembled a team of Chinese Friars to revise the Old Testament and translate the New one. Subsequently, a biblical research centre was founded, and from 1946 to 1961 it published the first Catholic Bible in Chinese in eleven volumes. The single-volume version was issued in 1968. This paper will present the translation process and the features of the Sigao Shengjing. A brief presentation of the translations of the Chinese Bible will precede a description of the general characteristics of the biblical text. Moreover, the phases of the translation and the publication of the Sigao Shengjing will be examined through the analysis of archival material and the main characteristics and features of the first Chinese Catholic Bible will be outlined.

A History of the Chinese Bible

2021 ◽  
pp. 20-46
Author(s):  
Daniel Kam-to Choi
Keyword(s):  
Chinese Language ◽  
Historical Review ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
Chinese Diaspora ◽  
Common Language ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
Bible Translation ◽  
The Bible ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Common

The Bible in China, including the different versions of the Chinese Bible that circulate in China and in the Chinese diaspora, is the result of a long historical preparation. The Christian presence in China has a long but broken history; so does the history of Bible translation in China. This essay is a review of Chinese Bible translation history from the seventh century and focuses on the Chinese Bible after the early nineteenth century until the present. It presents a historical review of the Bible editions translated by Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox translators who worked on translating the whole or parts of the Bible into the common language and dialects of Chinese language.

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