The Unity of Heaven and Humans as the God-man Relationship: A Critical Analysis of the “Chinese Kierkegaardian” Zia Nai-zin

Abstract Although Zia Nai-zin, the Chinese philosopher and theologian, was the editor of the first Chinese translation of Kierkegaard’s writings, studies of Kierkegaard’s influence on Zia’s theology are limited. His theology of neo-in-ism (新唯中論) remarks Zia’s contribution to Sino-Christianity, i. e. the Christian doctrines of incarnation and the Unity of Divinity and Humanity and the Confucian Doctrine of the mean, which is essentially about the unity of Heaven and Humans, complement each other. While Zia himself did not relate his theology of neo-in-ism to his studies of Kierkegaard’s philosophy, this paper argues that Kierkegaard’s implicit influence on Zia’s thoughts could be found in two aspects: firstly, Zia’s criticism of New Confucians’ failure to distinguish religiousness and morality is inspired by Kierkegaard’s three stages of life, and, secondly, Zia’s reinterpretation of the Confucian idea of the Unity of Heaven and Humans align with Kierkegaard’s concepts of contemporaneity and God-man relationship. Yet this paper also revealed an implicit disagreement between Zia’s and Kierkegaard’s thoughts: different from Kierkegaard’s individualistic approach to the God-man relationship, Zia also highlights the unity of individuality and sociality.