TRS – Dr. Clement Wen

At this week’s Theological Research Seminar, Dr. Clement Wen will be presenting, “Wolfhart Pannenberg and Sino-Christian Theology: A Third Way between Liu Xiaofeng and He Guanghu”

Read the abstract and his bio below.

All are welcome to attend in Camelford Hall (room 226) at McMaster Divinity College at 1:00pm or via livestream at the link below:

Join the Livestream
Password: z00m (Note that the password has zeros rather than “o”)

Abstract

This presentation explores the reception to date and constructive potential of the late German Lutheran theologian, Wolfhart Pannenberg (1928–2014), for Sino-Christian Theology. While Pannenberg’s voice has not been as prominent as Karl Barth, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Jürgen Moltmann, Reinhold Niebuhr, and Paul Tillich, I argue that his programme’s overall apologetic interests, interdisciplinary emphases, focus upon history, and framing of the public nature of truth carry relevance for Sino-Christian theological construction, especially when considered in the light of the contrasting proposals by two of the movement’s more prominent figures: Liu Xiaofeng (b. 1956) and He Guanghu (b. 1950). Specifically, I argue that Pannenberg’s programme can serve as a mediating third way for Sino-Christian Theology between Liu’s suprahistorical revelational positivism and He’s principled religious pluralism. Insofar as Pannenberg’s programme is often accused of being overly Western and Eurocentric in its reading and application of Christianity’s developmental history, I propose also that Pannenberg’s own thought contains internal resources which can help correct this alleged problem. Though Sino-Christian Theology as an academic modality of discursive engagement has come upon challenging times over the last couple decades, Pannenberg’s voice is still relevant in providing mediating correctives to the approaches put forward by Liu and He.

Bio

Dr. Wen’s current interest in the reconstruction and renewal of evangelical theology is inspired by the work of the late Robert E. Webber (1933-2007) and the late Stanley J. Grenz (1950-2005). However, the broader trajectory of his historical and systematic thought to date has been primarily influenced by his previous research on the Byzantine Father Maximus the Confessor (580-662), the Protestant Reformer John Calvin (1509-1564), the twentieth-century German Lutheran Wolfhart Pannenberg (1928-2014), and the contemporary move in recent decades towards Global and World Christianity. Dr. Wen’s first monograph, An ‘Open-Ended Distinctiveness’: The Contemporary Relevance of Wolfhart Pannenberg’s Participatory Ecclesiology and Ecumenism for World Christianity, was published in Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht’s Forschungen zur systematischen und ökumenischen Theologie series in 2021.

About TRS

The MDC Theological Research Seminar (TRS) is a bimonthly gathering for all MDC students and faculty. TRS meets from 1:00 PM to 1:50 PM on alternating Mondays, and includes about thirty minutes for the paper presentation and twenty minutes for discussion.

All advanced degree students are invited to present a paper and share your research with your colleagues. TRS is an excellent opportunity to “test drive” a paper you will be presenting at an upcoming conference and receive helpful feedback on your current research projects. Thinking about submitting an article to a journal and want some interaction first? TRS will provide it. Just published an article or an essay and want to share it us? TRS is an excellent opportunity to broadcast it.

This year the organizing committee consists of Dr. James Dvorak, Dr. Phil Zylla, and Dr. Gord Heath. To submit a paper, contact a member of the organizing committee.