A Fruitful Trip to Beijing

　　The weather was cool in Beijing. The noon time temperature was -2 C. On 17th December 2001, Dr. Samuel Ho and I arrived at a hotel just outside Tiananmen Square. We were to stay there for a short visit. The next day we visited Yenjing Seminary, situated in the Haidian district in the northwestern part of the city. Their deputy director, Rev. Yu Xin Li and the Rev. Qi Tie Ying welcomed us warmly. Yenjing Seminary trains pastoral workers for the north and northwestern parts of the country and it currently has more than 70 students. The seminary has a great deal of potential for development and I hope that in the days to come, there will be more opportunities for visits and exchange. As a conclusion to the visit, we were treated to a mutton hotpot lunch, a great local delicacy.

　　That afternoon we visited Dr. Zhuo Xinping at the China Academy of Social Sciences. Dr. Zhuo is the director of the Institute for Research in World Religions at the Academy. He specializes in research on Christianity and has published many books on more than 20 subjects, ranging from the theology of the modern Protestant church, theology of the Roman Catholic church, to church history. Apart from research work at the academy, Dr. Zhuo also supervises research students at masters and doctorate levels.

　　The following day we visited Central University for Nationaliti University and Capital Normal University. Central University is a Chinese academic institute specializing in research of the culture of ethnic minorities. Its faculty of Research on Christianity is undertaking an important area of research, viz. the development of Christianity among ethnic groups in the southwest. Its head of faculty, Dr. You Bin, a young and promising scholar, was once a visitor to CGST. The two of us presented papers at Central University - mine was "The Christian elements in John Locke's Political Theory", and Dr. Ho's was "The Aesthetics of Sublime".

　　In the afternoon, we visited Capital Normal University, where I presented a paper entitled "Martin Luther's religion and society" and Dr. Ho presented "The Comparative Studies on Chinese and Western Arts". Both papers were presented in English. The standard of English of the undergraduates was very good. The students received the papers enthusiastically and asked questions in English. The head of the faculty of comparative literature, Dr. Yang Naiqiao, together with 40 members of the faculty, taught comparative literature there. Dr. Yang promptly invited Dr. Ho and myself to be visiting scholars at the Capital Normal University. I hope there will be more opportunities for lectures and exchanges in the future.

　　This trip was very fruitful and confirms our belief that there are many serious scholars of the Christian faith inside China, and that seminaries there are faithfully training pastoral workers. God has granted many opportunities to China and I urge all of us to pray more for China, so that she will become even more blessed.