中国宗教艺术-中国基督教艺术（英）

“中国宗教艺术”系列图文并茂，以大量精美图片，反映中国五大宗教艺术的起源、风格特征、艺术价值以及对世界文明的影响等诸多方面内容，向中外读者介绍中国宗教各方面的知识，使其更直观地了解中国宗教文化。

PrefaceChapter One: Christian Arts in China  The Almost Ignored Beauty: Early Christian Arts in China  Early Attempt of Inculturation: Modern Christian Arts in China  The More Blossoming Garden: Contemporary Christian Arts in ChinaChapter Two: Christian Music in China  The Praising and Singing Afore Time: The Christian Music in the Nestorian Period  Expecting the Oriental Tune: Modern Christian Music in China  Trying the Refreshing Fruits: Church Music during the Autonomous Movement of the Chinese Church  The Singing of All Birds: Church Music in New ChinaChapter Three: The Diversity of Christian Arts in China  The Diversity of Christian Arts  Postscript

PrefaceIn the present-day China, Christmas celebrations by the Chinese churches in the cities and in the countryside attract both Christians and non-Christians. More and more Chinese young people become interested in Christianity. It is in part because they want to meet their spiritual needs and find ways to relieve their stress and anxieties in the hectic social life. Besides, when China becomes more and more open to the world, young people would like to celebrate such fashionable non-Chinese holidays as Christmas, to enjoy the lively worship style of the church, and to appreciate the aesthetic beauty of Christian arts at certain Christian festivals that touch their hearts.Christianity did not originate in China and its broken developments in Chinese history made most Chinese people unacquainted with its nature and doctrines. Christian arts, however, do impress many people who try to understand the Christian religion. Church buildings anywhere with symbolic religious meanings show their uniqueness and hence become beautiful landscapes in the Chinese cities and villages. The melodic hymns also have a strong appeal to many people who try to come into church although they may not intend to become Christians.All the arts that draw people’s attention to Christianity are concerned with the basic motifs of the Christian faith. The themes of the arts can be about the Biblical materials or the church life, which can help people understand more about God’s creation, righteousness, salvation, love and so on. It also aims to reflect the individual Christian’s conversion, baptism, evangelism, thankgiving, hope, eternal life, etc. All the arts that deal with the themes as mentioned above fall into the category of Christian arts. The Christian arts came into being with the birth of Christianity and exist in church life in such various forms as painting, carving, the visual impressions of church architectures and the Christian music to praise God.The Protestant arts originated from the Catholic arts at the medieval time. At that time in Europe, Christian arts could be regarded as the “wordless Bible,” which is one of the most important ways for people to understand the Christian faith. After Reformation, the Protestant arts became much closer to modern people’s daily life. In today’s Chinese churches, although the visual arts are not specially intended for the preaching of the Word and although the decorations of the church buildings still follow the overall feature of Reformation, that is, comparatively simple and clear without many paintings, statues and so on, they convey the religious feelings and spiritualities. With the continuous development and renewal of Protestant Christians’ understanding of the Bible and faith, the artistic expressions of Christian faith also become more and more colorful. As they differ in times and contexts, Christian arts manifest different artistic methods with their national characteristics. The same is true of the development of the Chinese Christian arts…….

The Singing of All Birds: Church Music in New China“The winter is past; the rain is over and gone; the flowers appear on the earth; the time of singing has come, no longer waiting and no longer hesitating.” The verse quoted from the Song of Solomon speaks aloud the real sentiments of the Chinese church when it was re opened in the last century. With the vernal songs, the music of Chinese church also enters a new age.In February 1981, the working group for Chinese Christian hymns was formed and it tried to solicit the lyrics and tunes for The New Hymnal. By surveying the situations that the hymns were used in Chinese churches in the past years and based on a great number of manuscripts and resources, CCC and the National TSPM established the Chinese Christian Hymnal Committee which included the representatives who were either the leaders in the local churches or Christians who studied hymnology and Christian music. The Committee specially studied and promoted Chinese Christian music. It summoned a group of Christian musicians who have committed themselves to Christian music, such as Yang Yinliu, Ma Geshun, Chen Zemin and Cao Shengjie. They set about compiling a hymnal that would be suitable for the Chinese churches in the new age.Just about one year later, The New Hymnal that collected four hundred hymns and forty two short songs were in the hands of Chinese Christians. In it, there were two hundred and ninety two traditional hymns used by churches all over the world. Basically they were taken from the translated versions in China. One hundred and two hymns were either the hymns composed by Chinese Christians in the past one hundred years or the poems arranged with Chinese traditional melodies. Fifty six hymns among them were composed by Chinese Christians after China implemented the policy of reform and opening up. There are 10 major reference hymnals including The Hymns of Universal Praise, Hymns of Praise, Holy Hymns of Praise, The New Hymns of Praise, Selections of Hymns and others. It also includes such traditional hymns as the “Gloria Patri” of the early church, “The Day of Resurrection” in the Medieval time, And “a Mighty Fortress is our Lord” at the time of Reformation. It also has the “Nestorian Hymn to the Holy Trinity”, “Lord Before our World was Formed”, and “Grant, Good Lord” with classical lyrics and melodies. Besides there are also in the hymnal the Japanese hymn of “Ah, What Shame I have to Bear”, the Indian hymn of “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing”, and the Myanmar hymn of “Sursum Corda” and other oriental hymns.In terms of the melodies and lyrics, the hymnal is diverse. During the selection of the hymns, the compilers esteem the traditions of various churches and try their best to get rid of the denominational prejudice. At the same time, the various characteristics of the denominations are retained in the hymnal and they become an important part of the praise that all Chinese Christians offer to God. Inheriting and fostering the ideal of “Chinese hymns” that developed since 1920s, the hymnal collects “A New Jerusalem We Seek” and “Our Church now is Self-Reliant”. The former reflects the wishes of the Chinese Christians in the old world who look forward to new heaven and earth while the latter expresses that the Chinese Christians require that the Chinese churches be independent. The adapted folk song “May Thy Divine Life” and the zheng-tuned “Creator’s Artistic Brush” are also collected in The New Hymnal. Besides, it even collects the works of the minorities, such as “Worship in Truth” in the tune of Miao nationality and “Behold, There came a Cloud” in the tune of the Korean in China. All these are important explorations for the Sinolization of Christian music in China.