The Catholic Church in Taiwan pp 175-194 | Cite as
Wang Wen-hsing’s Religious Dimension: A Catholic Perspective
Abstract
Given that he is an eminent contemporary writer in Taiwan, Wang Wen-hsing is often praised for his insight into religious awareness. Yet few in-depth studies are devoted to him as a Catholic writer. This chapter focuses on his long novel Beihaide ren (or Back Against the Sea 1981–1999), to present the Catholic religious dimension in the work. Two domains of the novel, life and faith as existential problems, are selected for the analysis and it is found that Wang Wen-hsing adopts an Asian outlook to approach Western concepts. On the notions of human suffering and creation, he subtly engages in theological dialogue with Thomas Aquinas and its structure is comparable to that of the topical cycle of the Summa Theologia, hence typically a Catholic perspective.
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