T. C. Chao’s Response to the “Anti-Christian Movement” and His Reference to Taixu’s Buddhist Reformation

In the early 20th century, Chinese Christianity was greatly impacted by the “Anti-Christian Movement”. T. C. Chao, an influential modern Chinese Christian theologian, actively contemplated and responded to accusations such as being “the accomplice of imperialism” and “the enemy of Mr. Science”. T. C. Chao, taking into account the social context and the state of religious development at the time, and drawing inspiration from the Buddhist reforms of his contemporary, Master Taixu, proposed the ideas of the indigenization and contextualization of Christianity. This laid the theoretical foundation for the construction of “Chinese theology” and provided new perspectives and practical directions for the “de-othering” of Chinese Christianity.