Congratulations to Dr Kin Pan Wu, who was awarded the Rev. Chow Lien-Hwa Memorial Foundation’s “Prize of Outstanding Theological Publication” for 2024. This annual Taiwanese prize recognises an original and impactful Chinese theological book published in the last three years.
Dr Wu, who is an Honorary Research Associate at Australian Lutheran College, received the prize in-person and delivered a speech at an event held in Taipeh, Taiwan, on 15th March 2025. His book, Thy Kingdom Come: Rev. Dr. Ernst Faber’s (Hua Zhi’an, 1839-1899) intercultural-missionary vision of Chinese Spirituality (Bochum/Freiburg: Projekt Verlag, 2022) was written in English and published in Germany.
From the perspective of cross-cultural missions, Dr Wu’ book explores the thoughts of Rev. Dr Ernst Faber (1839-1899), a German missionary and sinologist who is known for his profound attainments in Sinology. Faber was a pioneer in practising dialogue between Christianity and Chinese culture. The book reconstructs Faber’s life record by collecting original Chinese, German, and English texts, summarises his ideological system, and compares his evaluation with that of his contemporaries. It examines how Faber integrated Chinese culture with the ontology of Christianity to achieve the goal of renewing the spirituality of the whole person and the whole society. Dr Wu evaluates Faber’s understanding of topics such as discussing the human mind and nature, divine discourse, ethical reflection, the correlation between benevolence and courtesy, the wisdom of governing a state and being righteous. It reveals Faber’s vision of intercultural mission. Dr Wu’s book is praised as being the most thorough study regarding this famous missionary.
Professor Megan Cassidy-Welch, Dean of Research Strategy at the University of Divinity said: “Congratulations to Dr Kin Pan Wu for winning this prize for his important research on intercultural mission through an innovative study of Ernst Faber and his world view. This is welcome recognition of original and rigorous scholarship”.
Australian Lutheran College is a college of the University of Divinity from the Lutheran tradition, based in Adelaide, South Australia.
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