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Chinese terms for God Wikipedia

Chinese terms for God have, since the introduction of Christianity to China, proved a point of contention for Christianity in China|Chinese Christians and non-Chinese Christians in China, especially missionaries.

The modern Chinese language typically divides Christians into two groups, believers of Jidu jiao (基督教), Protestantism, and Tianzhu jiao (天主教), Catholicism. (Jidu jiao is also commonly used to refer to Christianity as a whole; in this case, Protestantism is called Xinjiao (新教), literally "New Religion", to disambiguate.)

The terms originate with different terms for God used in Chinese. The Catholic church historically favored Tianzhu (天主, literally, Lord of Heaven) over Shangdi (上帝, literally, Sovereign Above), an alternate term used more commonly by Protestants. In contrast, the current term for the Protestant denomination refers to the Mandarin Chinese translation of the word "Christ", Jidu (基督). However in most modern Chinese bibles, the term " 神" is used instead. (The space before the character "神" is intentional, in order to preserve formatting.)

The word Shen (???, spirit) is also commonly used by Protestants as the main name of God. The issue has remained controversial for over a century and Protestant organizations often publish two versions of the Bible, using the two different words.

References

• http://www.internationalbibles.com/catalog/bibles/publishers/abs/103830.htm Example - notice how Shen and Shangti (shangdi) alternatives are offered at the top of the page.

Last Modified:   2005-11-04