In 2014 the Research Committee on Scriptural Reasoning and Comparative Literature held the following conferences to foster and support the spirit of scriptural reading and thinking among Chinese scholars.
March 17–19, 2014, the conference on Constructions of East and West: Translating Classical Texts, with a special focus on the variation and outcome in the process of translation. About ten scholars from UK, USA, Hong Kong, and mainland China participated in this conference.
May 18, the Committee held a Workshop with University of Chicago on Human Cultures and Transcendent Meaning. Scholars from the University of Chicago dialogued with the scholars from Renmin University of China.
May 20–24, the Committee helped organize a panel on dialogue between Confucianism and Christianity at the Nishan Forum. About ten scholars held a lively panel discussion.
In September 2014, the Committee helped with the organization and design of the fourth World Conference on Sinology, which gathered about 300 hundred scholars from all parts of the world and from mainland China. There were ten roundtables and forums which provided a special platform for scholars in the humanities and social sciences. This conference represented an application of the spirit of scriptural reasoning in which different civilizations, cultures, and thoughts were shared and exchanges as a mutual reflection.
September 22–25, 2014, the Committee helped organize the Summer Institute and a roundtable as part of the twentieth Congress of Chinese Comparative Literature. The theme of the roundtable and Summer Institute was “Comparative Literature and SR”. About twenty four scholars from UK, USA, France, and mainland China presented their papers.
October 15, 2014, a special seminar organized by the Committee to show respect to the German theologian Jürgen Moltmann, who entered into dialogue with Chinese and British scholars on political theology and hope theology.
Apart from the conferences and seminars, there were several publications.
YANG Huilin published China, Christianity and the Question of Culture (Baylor University Press), which won the Christianity Today 2015 Book Award.
Two issues of the Journal for the Study of Christian Culture were published with topics related to scriptural reasoning.
On the basis of the people we have hosted and the titles the conferences we have sponsored, one can see that we are continuing to promote inter-disciplinary, inter-religious, and inter-cultural studies.
In 2015 we will publish the Journal for the Study of Christian Culture volumes 33 and 34 dealing with “Controversies over the Translation of Scriptures” and “The Significance of Hope” respectively. We will work with the prominent Dutch academic publisher Brill to select the best articles published in the past issues of the journal and translate them into English.
Baylor University Press will publish the essays of the conference in March 2014 under the title of A Poetics of Translation.
The Scriptural Reasoning and Comparative Literature Research Committee plans to host three major conferences in 2015. In April there was an international symposium on East-West Art: Contemporary Developments co-sponsored by the Committee. This meeting sought to undertake scriptural reasoning in the arts, philosophy, and literature. Artists and philosophers with different faith-based interests gathered in order to present diverse artistic forms and engage in lively academic dialogues on spirituality and art. In July the Summer Institute will focus attention on the contemporary crises and lead a discussion on the varied resources and different traditions upon which we may draw. In October the Committee will help host the Executive Council Meeting for World Sinology Conference.
Drafted by
YANG Huilin, Chair (yanghuilin@ruc.edu.cn)
ZHANG Jing (Cathy), Secretary (jing.cathy.zhang@ruc.edu.cn)
Renmin University of China
