A History of Calvin Connections to China
By Phil Holtrop '55

In 1993 the Society of Christian Philosophers, including Al Plantinga ('54) and Nick Wolterstorff ('53), held a historic dialogue with Chinese philosophers on the campus of Peking University (Beida). These sorts of meetings are now annual events and, since 1999, have been organized by Kelly Clark of Calvin's Philosophy Department. The conferences are widely publicized in Chinese academic circles and have paved the way for a number of important contacts and developments. In the last years, Calvin and some of the top Chinese philosophers have come to know each other well. Other members of Calvin's philosophy department, including John Hare (now at Yale University), Lee Hardy and Del Ratzsch, have accompanied Kelly on these trips.

In 1998 Clark and Hare offered postgraduate seminars on Christian philosophy at Xiamen University in southeastern China. That contact initiated a departmental exchange between Xiamen and Calvin, which lasted the next several years. Seven philosophy professors from Calvin visited Xiamen and taught short courses, and four from Xiamen came to Calvin to assist in Kelly's "Chinese Thought and Culture" course. Calvin's philosophers have also brought hundreds of Western and Christian texts in philosophy and religion to the Xiamen University library. Calvin later offered a semester or full year's study in its Philosophy department to three postgraduate students from Xiamen. In the process it exposed them to a distinctively Christian approach to their discipline. Nor were the benefits of this exchange were entirely one-sided. Reflecting on the experiences that he and his Calvin colleagues have had, Kelly notes that "as professors we have been stretched and enriched by the challenge of intercultural dialogue, and have often been put in situations where we have had to explain ourselves as philosophers, as Americans, and as followers of Christ, from the ground up."  

Meanwhile, because of all these contacts, the philosophy department was able to establish closer relations with the two most prestigious universities in all of China-Peking (Beida) and Tsinghua. (Beida is known as "China's Harvard," and Tsinghua as "China's MIT.") This year one philosophy student from Beida and one from Tsinghua are studying at Calvin-making a total of six Chinese students who have come to the college's philosophy department since 2002. By contract they are obliged to return to China to teach philosophy. In the future, two Beida or Tsinghua MA or PhD philosophy students each year will take courses at Calvin in their dissertation areas and will translate a philosophy book into Chinese. The book will be the published work of either a Calvin professor or some other prominent Christian philosopher. In addition, the philosophy department has helped Hope College set up a similar program. Hope had its first two Chinese philosophy students in 2004.  

Last spring, Kelly lectured on the philosophy of religion at Peking University, and helped to formalize a regular exchange between the Beida and Calvin philosophy departments. In May, Steve Wykstra taught a seminar at Beida on the problem of evil. The two schools have discussed annual professor exchanges, advanced seminars, semester-long visits, and further translations and publications.

In short, Calvin's philosophers have come to have close relations with very significant persons on the Chinese intellectual scene. And the plans for the future are continuing. Two Calvin philosophers each year may offer intensive seminars in the Religion and Philosophy departments of Beida as well as in its new Center for Christian Studies. Two Beida professors each year may visit Calvin to participate in "Chinese Thought and Culture" and give some general lectures to the public. A single Beida professor may come for a semester for other consultations and research. In view of Beida's crucial position as China's "number-one university," Calvin's philosophy department has been invited to play a vital role in the development of Christian studies in China. Beida-even more than Harvard in the States-has a very great influence on all of China.   (We should observe here that Religion departments in China are mainly housed in the philosophy departments that oversee them.)

This past October, Peking University Press published translations of two books by authors in the Calvin community-Al Plantinga's Warranted Christian Belief and Kelly's Return to Reason. The book celebration and banquet took place at the tenth anniversary of the Society of Christian Philosophers symposia in Philosophy and Religion at Peking University. Kelly organized the meeting on the topic of Reformed epistemology. The conference brought together ten Chinese scholars and ten American philosophers.

In all, over 100 Chinese who now teach philosophy in key Chinese universities have had associations with the Society of Christian Philosophers and Calvin College-a remarkable fact. This year ten Christian philosophers, including three from Calvin, will teach mini-seminars in philosophy and religion at major universities in China. A total of nine Calvin philosophy professors have taught in or attended conferences in China. Some have been there at least two or three times. Kelly has taught in China "ten or twelve times." At the end of the tenth anniversary conference, Peking University Press agreed to publish many additional books in Christian philosophy, including Hare's The Moral Gap and The Story of Ethics by Clark and Anne Poortenga ('91).

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