Chapter 5 looks at how these Christian public theologians compare with other public intellectuals of this period. Because of its significance for our period, the chapter also tries to tease out some of the details of the different intellectual factions that have formed since the late 1990s, paying particular attention to the two major political groupings of ‘new left’ (xin zuo pai) and ‘liberalism’ (ziyou zhuyi). Whilst the revived interests in Confucianism and Christianity are sometimes considered two other factions during this time, the chapter shows how the four schools have much more porous boundaries than is often recognized. The chapter further argues how a ‘Confucian imagination’ shapes various developments in contemporary China, whether this be public intellectualism, generally, or Chinese Christianity, specifically.
Radical Ambition: The New Left in Toronto by Peter Graham and Ian McKay