Dual Mediation of God’s Personhood in Chinese Bible Translations: Daoist and Confucian Perspectives

Chinese translations of the Bible are an important case in the dissemination of texts across cultures and religions. One of its core challenges lies in how to convey the textual personification of God in the Bible through translation within the context of traditional Chinese thought. Through a longitudinal empirical analysis of Jingjiao (景教) texts, Catholic translations from the Ming and Qing dynasties, and the Protestant Chinese Union Version, this article proposes an interpretive framework of “dual mediation,” revealing how Confucian and Daoist thought interact through distinct cultural pathways to influence the representation and local reconfiguration of the divine personhood. Through its concept of “naturalization,” Daoist thought removes the element of coercive will from the expression of divine action, emphasizing instead the process of spontaneous generation from within. Confucianism, on the other hand, through a process of “ethicalization,” relies on the relational network and moral system of the “father-son” to transform God into an educational agent endowed with personal characteristics and moral responsibility. Through these two pathways, God is not only expressed in Chinese translations as a Revealer, Creator, and Redeemer, but His personhood is also adapted during the translation process to align with the divine subject within the Chinese intellectual system and ethical order. Based on this, the “dual mediation” framework presented in this article offers a new perspective for understanding cultural adaptation and theological expression in the translation of the Chinese Bible.