Embracing and Embodying God s Hospitality Today in Asia

Confucius said in the beginning of theAnalects: Isit not a pleasure, having learned something, to try it out at due intervals? Is it not a joy to have friends come from afar? Is it not gentlemanly (a way of profound person) not to take offence when others fail to appreciate your abilities? (The Analects 1)2 These famous statements fittingly express this great event of the 7th Congress of Asian Theologians. The Congress of Asian Theologians (CATS) is established precisely to giveChristian scholars and theologians in Asia the opportunity to enjoy these pleasures. Today, we have friends who have come from afar, from the East, the West, and the South. We are going to celebrate the pleasures of learning something together, trying it out at due intervals. With this genuine joy as a Confucian-Christian host, I express mydeepest welcome to you, friends from four corners.Furthermore, the theme of this congress is hospitality. When I was requested by the continuing committee to give this talk, I was puzzled as to whether I am the right person to do this. I was afraid that I would violate the attitude of a profound person dictated in the statements as the third condition, by pushing our dear friends to appreciate my abilities.Furthermore, so far, I have not been somuch hospitableas suspicious and critical of the so called “hospitality” ofexpansive Christianity.My preparation for this talk was not so enjoyable but rather painful. But itofferedme an opportunity to recall and reassess my Christian journey from the beginning. And it radically challenged my theology,still under construction, which I call a theology of Dao.