Theology
Bishop Ting's contribution to theology in China includes his controversial campaign of "theological construction" or "theological reconstruction." This is an attempt to create an indigenous Christian theology, devoid of foreign influence but sensitive to the Chinese context.
He is known best for his Christology of the Cosmic Christ. Influenced greatly by the thinking of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin and process theology, Ting's Cosmic Christ attempts to teach (1) that the whole cosmos is Christ's domain and (2) that God must be understood in terms of the love of Jesus, as seen throughout the four Gospels.
In regard to the hamartiology, Ting has pushed away from the traditional emphasis on people as "sinners" but also as individuals who are "sinned against." Ting is opposed to creating "antagonism between believers and nonbelievers" by aggressive proselytization, favoring brotherly love towards and not condemnations to hell of Chinese non-Christians.
He has been accused of replacing the traditional Protestant Doctrine of justification by faith with justification by love. Some have accused that this allows those who practice love to be within the boundaries of Christianity, regardless of their religious confession, and is considered an attempt to reconcile the atheistic ideology of Communism with Christianity in order to maintain good relations with the People’s Republic of China. However, he has explicitly stated that he neither understands what the phrase means but considers it a misleading imitation of justification by faith.
Read more about this topic: K. H. Ting
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