The Institute for Study of Christianity and Culture in Beijing, marked 20 years of academic research on Christianity and culture and the promotion of evangelisation in China and beyond.
Operating under the Archdiocese of Beijing the institute was founded in 2002 by Father Peter Zhao Jianmin, the archdiocesan, who graduated in canon law from the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium.
Father Zhao was the first priest from China to obtain a doctoral degree after the opening up of China 1970s following the communist takeover, the brutal Cultural Revolution and the country’s severance of diplomatic ties with the Vatican.
According to Fides, since its foundation, the institute has sought to study religions, especially Christianity, local culture and promote greater harmony between Catholicism and traditional Chinese culture.
It has promoted the study of various themes through debates, conferences, publications, seminars, forums, training courses, scholarships and international exchanges, with topics ranging from Mariology and St. Ambrose, to the Doctors and Fathers of the Church, the contributions of Chinese and foreign missionaries to evangelisation and social development in China.
The institute has been a pioneer in mainland China in paving the way for dialogue between the inculturation of faith and the evangelisation of cultures.
In an interview in 2006, Father Zhao said it was essential to have academic dialogue between the Church in China and theologians on the world scene. For that purpose, it was vital for the Church to promote scholarship by adopting positive and substantial policies to support theological research.
The institute has been a pioneer in mainland China in paving the way for dialogue between the inculturation of faith and the evangelisation of cultures.
The institute’s director said the China Church needed to learn more about the conceptual development of Catholic theology, which links the local Church to the teachings of the universal Church.
He suggested the need for “more research on inculturation so the gospel could be spread throughout Chinese civilisation.”
Since 2003, the institute has conducted training courses and seminars for young people on the theme, Catholicism and Ethics, and published the texts in its Journal of Catholic Studies.
Another major programme it runs is an annual Forum on Catholic Studies for Young Chinese Scholars that began in 2008.
The institute also collaborates with Chinese and international partners including the Social Academy of Beijing and the Catholic University of Leuven.
In 2019, during the XXIV Public Session of the Pontifical Academies, Pope Francis reportedly praised the academy for its role, especially in evangelisation, over the years.
“The academy … is also a force of evangelisation, which belongs to the present of the Church and her mission,” the pope said.
The earliest documented presence of Christianity in China were the Nestorians who came to the then Chinese capital of Chang’an [Xi’an] during the Tang dynasty in 635AD.
The first Catholic mission to China was led by Franciscan friar Giovanni da Montecorvino, who arrived in what is now Beijing in 1293. Russian Orthodoxy was introduced in 1715 and Protestants started their mission in 1807.
A nationwide survey by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in 2010 showed that China’s 23 million Protestants accounted for 1.8 per cent of its 1.3 billion people.
