Books by Lit-Sen Chang

Modern man has found that material achievements are failing him, but in his escape from despair, he has become an easy prey for the deceptive cult of ""Zen-Existentialism."" There has emerged a mode of radical ""New Humanism"" with its emphasis on ""human autonomy."" In place of the God-man appears the ""man-god."" There is a search for the ""world within,"" the ""limitless inner space,"" the ""expansion of consciousness"", and the transcendental experience of ""Satori."" First published in 1969, this book prophetically anticipated the growth of New Age developments in the decades to follow. Lit-sen Chang directly spoke to the Hippie movement of his day, which was then seeking various means of transcendence through drugs and eastern mysticism.This book also reflects fifty years of bitter experiences of the author''s spiritual pilgrimage and shows how he was miraculously delivered by the grace and power of God from his ""cul-de-sac."" Chang writes of the utter futility of the fantasy of the East, analyzes the root causes of the crises in the West, and points out the doom of auto-soterism after his careful diagnosis of the human problem in cultural, philosophical, religious, and theological terms. ""Chang makes his judgment by cultural and Scriptural criteria, tempered by a background in the Orient and a vast experience in the West . . . He speaks of his own experience of Zen and this gives his words the authoritative power of witness.""Dr. James Forrester, Former President, Gordon College and Divinity School""The finest work from a Christian standpoint on the subject of Zen-Buddhism . . . Chang has performed a real service for evangelical Christianity by analyzing Zen from the inside.""Dr. Walter Martin, The Christian Research InstituteLit-sen Chang (1904-1996) was an ardent Chinese Buddhist on his way to India to promote a renaissance of Asian religions when he met Christ. He had been a talented legislator, and a brilliant young author on law and land policy. He now committed himself to serve Christ, and graduated summa cum laude at Gordon Divinity School in 1959, and then served as special lecturer on missions and world religions. He wrote twenty volumes on the field of Christian apologetics against Chinese culture and the contemporary West. Wheaton College honored him with the Doctor of Letters in 1984.

About the Contributor(s):G. Wright Doyle is Director of Global China Center and English editor of the Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Christianity (www.bdcconline.net). He is author of Christianity in America: Triumph and Tragedy (2013); Reaching Chinese Worldwide (2013); Christ the King: Meditations on Matthew (2011); Carl Henry: Theologian for All Seasons (2010); and coauthor of China: Ancient Culture, Modern Society (2009).

How should Christianity relate to Chinese culture? That question has engaged the minds of both Chinese and Western Christians for several centuries. Lit-sen Chang (1904-1996) was brought up as a Buddhist and educated in the Confucian classics as well as in modern political philosophy. He later delved deeply into Daoism as well. After World War II, he founded Jiangnan University in order to ""exterminate"" Christianity and revive Eastern religion. Conversion to Christianity in 1950 radically altered the course of his life. He studied at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and then joined the faculty, teaching missions and writing prolifically on theology and apologetics, especially on the relationship of Christianity to Chinese culture. His Critique of Indigenous Theology and Critique of Humanism are published here in English for the first time, and provide excellent examples of his wide learning, insightful analysis, powerful writing, and firm commitment to historic Christianity.