Shao-Chi Kuo, who began his doctoral research in 2022 and joined the Centre for Citizenship, Civil Society and Rule of Law (CISRUL) in 2023, has recently submitted his thesis on the public theological significance of Wang Yi and the Early Rain Covenant Church’s practice of “faithful disobedience.”
Under the supervision of Professor Brian Brock (Divinity), Kuo’s research traces Wang Yi’s intellectual trajectory from a prominent conservative civil rights lawyer to a Christian convert and eventually a full-time house church pastor, culminating in his arrest in 2018. The study situates Wang’s constitutionalist political resistance within the broader cultural and intellectual context of post–June Fourth dissident thought, emphasizing its anti-scholar-official critique through the aesthetic and literary sensibilities of that dissident tradition.
Kuo’s study further analyses the development of Wang’s understanding of the public mission of Chinese house churches. It argues that this vision evolved through the interaction of several key influences, including conservative constitutionalism, neo-Calvinism, and the house church’s long-standing tradition of martyrdom and suffering.
In contrast to the majority of existing English-language scholarship—which tends to interpret Wang’s theology through a normative framework that combines neo-Calvinism with Anglo-American liberal conservatism—Kuo’s study highlights the significant intellectual transformation that occurred during Wang’s practice of “publicisation” and faithful disobedience. By foregrounding this transformation, the study demonstrates how the house church disobedience movement points toward a potential “third way” that moves beyond the polarisation of left- and right-wing, or of communist-socialist and liberal-conservative, political ideologies in contemporary China.
Methodologically, Kuo’s study adopts a postliberal theological perspective to interpret Wang’s mature, martyrdom-centred public theology. It places Wang’s thought in dialogue with the martyrdom-oriented ecclesiology developed by Stanley Hauerwas, identifying both overlooked affinities and important differences, particularly in their respective understandings of civil society. Finally, drawing on the theological witness of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Kuo’s study introduces Lutheran theological themes such as the hiddenness of Christianity and the doctrine of the divine estates. It argues that these Lutheran resources provide a more promising perspective than neo-Calvinism for interpreting the significance of Wang’s faithful disobedience and for appreciating his attempts to ground a vision of civil society within the Chinese context.
Prior to his time at CISRUL, Kuo completed dual master’s degrees in philosophy and theology. View Kuo’s profile here, and keep up to date with research being conducted at CISRUL on our Facebook or LinkedIn.