Chińskie Oblicza Jezusa Chrystusa. Przegląd problematyki i impresje ikonograficzne
Jesus Christ’s Chinese Faces. An Overview of Issues and Iconographic Impressions

Summary/Abstract: The question about Jesus Christ is without a doubt a crucial one to the meaning of Christianity itself and its revelation. Who is Jesus of Nazareth? Who is Jesus Christ? These questions are posed from the beginning of Christianity and still we have varying answers to them. They are also found in China and are the subject of the submitted article. Who do the Chinese take Jesus for? On the background of the Chinese history of missions, in the article first there are shown various, conditioned historically and contextually, faces of Jesus Christ. What is worth remembering, it is not pure iconographic representation of Jesus that is important here – it is also about understanding Jesus by the Chinese, both the converts as well as the opponents. The question concerns then the origin and reception of these faces in different periods of Chinese history (since the times of Tang till the 7th century AD).After the process of translating the Good News of the Saviour Jesus Christ was executed in the Chinese context, the present author discusses the individual eras of the history of missions in China, separating the specificity of the face of Jesus created by each of them. The interpretation of this diversified picture of Jesus – made by R. Malek together with a group of specialists from around the world – was published in a five-volume work The Chinese Face of Jesus (Sankt Augustin-Nettetal 2002-2007). Numerous “Chinese faces of Jesus” – especially in the iconographic interpretation – constitute a great challenge for our western understanding of Jesus.

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