LIF2023 – 8th Annual Conference of Logos International Forum: Faith & Contemporary Issues In Society & Culture

LOGOS INTERNATIONAL FORUM – 8TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE – MAY 6, 2023
A peer learning forum for Christian professionals & academics

The Vision

LIF began in 2015 when Christian faculty members from seven HK institutions came together with a vision for faith-learning integration to engage society and culture.         

The first five annual conferences culminated in the celebration of the May 4 Centenary in 2019.  After a break in 2020 due to the pandemic, we resumed online in 2021 and 2022 with “Faith & Vocation in a Time of Transition” and “Serving Our Generation in Changing Times” as our themes.  

We are thankful for technology that has made it possible for participants to join us not only from the Mainland, but also a few Asian countries outside of Hong Kong.  

The Call in 2023

As Hong Kong slowly recovers from the social upheaval of 2019 and adjusts to the ongoing sociopolitical changes, our society is faced with many complex and challenging issues.       

This year, in our Education & Social Sciences track, we are exploring gender issues in Hong Kong that demands thoughtful responses from the faith community as we reflect on the legal, cultural, pastoral and theological perspectives.

Our economy is struggling with the impact of the pandemic.  Beyond survival, what are some unchanging principles that Christian businesses should hold on to in these difficult times?  The Faith & Business track will examine the biblical perspectives and practical implications of stewardship in managing people and profits. 

On the world stage, international relations continue to be volatile.  The need for east-west understanding is more pressing than ever before.  Our Faith & Chinese Culture track will have two sessions of Christian-Confucian Dialogue to explore some fundamental issues.

As society and culture continue to change, we are committed to faith, hope and love as we serve our generation with compassion, wisdom, humility and courage with all that we have received from God in our education and professional training.

LIF 2023 PROGRAM

FAITH & CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN SOCIETY & CULTURE

9:00-12:00

    FAITH & BUSINESS - online - Cantonese
    
        Stewardship: Implications for People Management
        *  Prof. ChungMing Lau, former Professor & Head of Management, CUHK Business School
        *  Dr. Natalie Man Se Chan, Director of Bethel Ray Bakke Centre for Urban Transformation
      
        Stewardship: Biblical Perspectives of Wealth Creation 
        *  Dr. Ricky Szeto, CEO & Executive Director of Hung Fook Tong Group Holdings Ltd.
        *  Ms. Patricia Yuen, Executive Director of EGL Tours                                                              
  
Our economy is struggling.  On March 26, Hong Kong Professional & Educational Services hosted a hybrid seminar featuring two local CEOs Mrs. Patricia Yuen of EGL Tours and Dr. Ricky Szeto of Hung Fook Tong Group who shared their personal “朝不保夕經歷神”journeys of experiencing God in difficult times in the last three years since the pandemic began.  

In this webinar, they will be joined by Dr. ChungMing Lau, a senior Business academic, and Dr. Natalie Chan, a theologian who spent many years in the corporate world, to explore what are some unchanging principles and core values that Christian business people should hold on to in these difficult times that will enable them to survive and thrive.

Prof. Chung-Ming Lau was former professor and head of Management at the Chinese University of Hong Kong Business School.  He was the founding President of the Asia Academy of Management.  He is a member of EFCC Yan Fook Ma On Shan Church and currently serves as the Chairman of Christian Communications Ltd.  Besides his academic publications in the management field, he has also authored several church-related books, including Church Management Make Sense, Courage to Lead, and Six Leadership Essentials.

Dr. Natalie Man Se Chan is Director of Bethel Ray Bakke Centre for Urban Transformation (BRBC), Professor in Urban Ministry and Program Director for two doctoral programs and one  master program at Bethel Bible Seminary.  BRBC has published research about churches in Hong Kong including recent titles such as “The Churched and Dechurched”, “Church Ministry and Online service during the Pandemic”, “New Church Expression – rethinking the essence of the Church in turbulent times” and “The Spiritual State of Christians in Hong Kong”.  BRBC has also just published a new book Transforming Theology in Action – 12 Praxis in City Lives, edited by Natalie.

Dr. Ricky Szeto Wing-fu has joined Hung Fook Tong Group Holdings Limited (Stock Code 1446) since 1999 and is currently the Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director of the group. 

Dr. Szeto serves at various public service committees, including the Committee on Hong Kong Tourism Board, Social Welfare Advisory Committee, Industry Training Advisory Committee, and  Advisory Committee on the Enhancing Self-Reliance Through District Partnership Programme. Dr. Szeto is also director of Alliance Bible Seminary, Vice-Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Hong Kong Society for Rehabilitation, and chairman of Hong Kong Professional &  Educational Services.  He is former Program Director of Bachelor of Business Administration and Master of Marketing at Hong Kong Shue Yan University and currently Professor of Practice in Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

Ms. Patricia Yuen is currently Executive Director of EGL Tours which has been listed in HKEX since 2014.  Pat has extensive knowledge and experience in the tourism industry.  She is also a  deaconess at Tsung Tsin Mission of HK Whampoa Church.
                              
    FAITH, EDUCATION & SOCIAL SCIENCES - online - English
  
        The Legacy of Chinese Christian Universities
          *  Prof. Ruth Hayhoe, Professor of Leadership, Higher & Adult Education, Univ. of Toronto
                                                  

In this talk I will share thoughts that developed out of a recent translation project, in which we selected thirteen essays and book chapters recently published in China by historians and sociologists analysing the lessons learned from China’s historic Christian universities. All of them were merged with public universities in the reorganization of 1952 and condemned as expressions of cultural imperialism. However, in China’s opening up in the 1980s, Professor Zhang Kaiyuan, a leading historian, established a center to research their legacy and guided many scholars in related research.

In 2022 the 100th anniversary of the United Board for Christian Higher Education in Asia was celebrated. Founded in 1922 to support universities in China, it had extended support to Christian higher education throughout Asia after 1952, then reconnected with China in the early 1980s. It is worth reflecting on lessons we can learn as Christian academics from the history of Christian higher education in China and Asia.

Prof. Ruth Hayhoe is a Professor at the University of Toronto. She served as First Secretary for Education, Science and Culture in the Canadian Embassy in Beijing (1989-1991), Visiting Professor at Nagoya University (1996) and Director of the Hong Kong Institute of Education, now the Education University of Hong Kong (1997-2002). Her recent books include China Through the Lens of Comparative Education (2015), Canadian Universities in China’s Transformation: An Untold Story (2016) and Religion and Education (2018).  Ruth received the Silver Bauhinia Star from the Hong Kong SAR Government and the title of Commandeur dans l’ordre des Palmes Académiques from the Government of France in 2002.  She has a PhD from University of London and also holds honorary doctorates from the Hong Kong Institute of Education (2002), the Open University of Hong Kong (2015) and Victoria University in Toronto (2019).

Serving Youth in Difficult Times: Update from Project Change
        *  Dr. Pauline Sung-Chan, Project Change Founding Director 
        *  Prof. Yun Wing Sung, former Professor & Chair of Economics, CUHK                      

Project Change is a multi-disciplinary team of HK academics and professionals financially independent from the government providing timely comprehensive psychological counseling and legal support to arrested youths in Hong Kong’s 2019 anti-extradition movement.

Their mission is to provide comprehensive and de-politicized support for the arrested youths and their families so as to aid them in weathering and overcoming the predicaments wrought upon them by the social movement.

In LIF2022, our speakers presented what they had learned from serving the youths and their families in over 200 cases since June 15, 2020 when the Project was launched.  

This year, they will update us with their progress with more stories.

Prof. Pauline Sung-Chan received her Ph.D. from University of Nottingham, England. Currently, she is the founding director of the Citizen Action Design Limited (a policy think tank). Since February 2020, she has served as an honorary associate professor of the Hong Kong Institute of Economics and Business Strategy.  She is a research investigator at the Prevention Research Center of Washington University in St Louis, USA.

Prof. Sung-Chan was Associate Professor at Department of Applied Social Sciences of Hong Kong Polytechnic University from 1994 to 2015, visiting Professor at the School of Medicine of Tongji University, Shanghai, from 2015 to 2018, and adjunct associate professor at the Institute for Public Policy of Hong Kong University of Science & Technology from 2017 to 2019.  Her other high-level appointments include: Deputy Director of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University-Peking University Social Work Research Center, Fulbright Senior Research Scholar of Washington University in St Louis (2011-2012), USA, and visiting scholar at Department of Urban Studies and Planning, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Prof. Sung-Chan has been active in promoting social work development and social work education in Mainland China since the early 1990. She played a pivotal role in developing the first MSW program in Mainland China in collaboration with the Dept. of Sociology at Peking University to offer a train the trainer’s program. She was the founding director of the program for the 2002-03 cohort.

Since 2012, Prof. Sung Chan has conducted several innovative public health research studies with cross discipline research team to promote and implement scientific research in Mainland China and Hong Kong.  She has collaborated with various organizations including the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Shanghai Municipal Education Commission, and Jockey Club School of Public Health of the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Her most recent groundbreaking research has been a cross-university and cross-discipline research on promoting social mobility through an evidence-based e-parenting program. This Early Childhood Investment Initiative (2017-2020) is the first of its kind in Hong Kong and Mainland China.

Her research interest includes organizational learning and transformation, action research, social mobility, adolescent obesity, adolescent mental health, families in Transition in Mainland China, professional education effectiveness, and cross-country evidence-based research.

Dr. Yun-wing Sung (Ph.D. in Economics, University of Minnesota, 1979) was Chairman of the Economics Department of the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) for 17 years (1995 – 2012). He is currently adjunct Professor of the Department, Associate Director of the Joint Shanghai–Hong Kong Development Institute (CUHK and Fudan University), and Associate Director of the Economic Research Centre, Hong Kong Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies, CUHK. He received two prestigious awards in the field of economics in China, namely, Sun YeFang Award of Economic Science (2009-10), and Award of the Pekang Chang Research Foundation of Development Economics (2009). 

He is Corresponding Editor of Asian Pacific Economic Literature, members of Editorial Boards of China Review: An Interdisciplinary Journal on Greater China, Asian-Pacific Journal of Business, and The Global Studies Journal, and also member of the Advisory Committee of China Economic Journal.  In public service, he is member of Chinese Association of Hong Kong and Macau Studies (2013–present), of Expert Advisory Committee of the Institute of Free Trade Areas of Sun Yat-Sen University (2015–present), Honorary Senior Research Fellow of Hong Kong Policy Research Institute and of Bauhinia Institute, Academic Advisor of Hong Kong Cultural Development Institute, and member of Advisory Committee of Citizen Action Design Limited.
   

FAITH & CHINESE CULTURE: CHRISTIAN-CONFUCIAN DIALOGUE - hybrid [Venue: DLB 712+zoom] - Putonghua
                                      
當前國際關係處於動盪時刻，中西文明對話乃為學界深刻關注；我們希望通過是次對話及今後的跟進研討，能推進中西文明之間的相互理解，進而走向更多的交流，共建人類文明共同體。
        

 敬天情結與為人處世  
    *  對話：楊鵬 - 獨立學者  /  趙法生 - 中國社會科學院宗教研究所研究員
    *  主持：謝文郁 - 山東大學猶太教與跨宗教研究中心退休教授；香港浸會大學中華基督宗教研究中心客座研究員
                                    
楊鵬，獨立學者，北京掌上國學創辦人。畢業于北京大學，曾在哈佛大學亞洲中心擔任研究學者（2014-2016）。主要從事中國傳統文化與猶太-基督教比較研究。出版《老子詳解：老子執政學研究》《“上帝”在中國源流考》《尚書二十講》《楊鵬解讀<論語>》《楊鵬解讀<道德經>》《楊鵬解讀<大學>》等十一部專著。

趙法生，中國社會科學院世界宗教研究所研究員，中華孔子學會常務理事，中國哲學史學會常務理事，中國宗教學會儒教研究分會會長。主要研究儒教和儒家思想，出版《儒家超越思想的起源》，《天道與政教》，主編《大眾儒學經典叢書》，《究天人之際---儒家超越性問題討論集》。

謝文郁，山東大學猶太教與跨宗教研究中心教授，北美中華福音神學院歷史神學教授，香港浸會大學中華基督宗教研究中心客座研究員。美國克萊門特大學Claremont Graduate Univeristy宗教學博士，北京大學哲學碩士。歷任北京大學哲學系講師、美國關島大學哲學教授、洛杉磯國際神學院神學與哲學教授。主要研究興趣：基督教思想、宗教哲學、希臘哲學、比較哲學。代表著作：《形而上學與西方思維》（2017年）；《自由與責任》（2014年）；《道路與真理》（2012年）；《自由與生存》（2007年）；《蒂邁歐篇》（2003年、2005年、2021年）；The Concept of Freedom (2002)；《失魂與還魂》（1995年）。中英文學術論文逾百篇。
  
12:00-1:30   Lunch at NTT Bistro 

1:30-4:30
  
   倫理道德與社會正義
   *  對話：瞿旭彤 - 清華大學哲學系長聘副教授 / 唐文明 - 清華大學哲學系教授及系主任
   *  主持：鄒曉東 - 山東大學儒學高等研究院副教授                

瞿旭彤，清華大學人文學院哲學系長聘副教授。主要教學和研究領域：宗教學和外國哲學。近期代表性論文有：《信任：“之間的”漢語神學與多學科研究初探》和《邊緣與中心：中國基督教史研究的理論視角和研究方法》。

唐文明，清華大學人文學院哲學系教授、系主任，人文學院學術委員會主任，校學術委員會委員，清華大學道德與宗教研究院副院長，中華孔子學會秘書長，中國哲學史學會常務理事、中國倫理學會理事、中國宗教學會理事。發表學術論文多篇，出版專著《與命與仁：原始儒家倫理精神與現代性問題》（河北大學出版社2002年版）、《近憂：文化政治與中國的未來》（華東師範大學出版社2010年版）、《隱秘的顛覆：牟宗三、康得與原始儒家》（生活·讀書·新知三聯書店2012年版）、《敷教在寬：康有為孔教思想申論》（中國人民大學出版社2012年版）、《彝倫攸斁—中西古今張力中的儒家思想》（中國社會科學出版社2019年版），《極高明與道中庸—補正沃格林對中國文明的秩序哲學分析》（生活·讀書·新知三聯書店2023年版），主編《公共儒學》。

鄒曉東，物理學學士、宗教學博士，山東大學儒學高等研究院副教授，出版《意志與真知——學庸之異》《性善與治教》《我在〈文史哲〉幹編輯》三書，曾榮獲2013年度傅偉勳基金會-國際中國哲學會亞洲哲學研究論文競賽獎。

    FAITH, EDUCATION & SOCIAL SCIENCES - hybrid [Venue: DLB 719+zoom]- Cantonese
  
    當代青少年性別身份議題
        
    法律：評終審庭就「女轉男」不需完成整套性別重置手術便可更改身份證性別的裁決
    *  關啟文博士 - 香港浸會大學宗教及哲學系教授                                                 

2023年2月6日香港終審法院裁定，由女轉男的跨性別人士在保留子宮和卵巢的情況下，仍可更改身份證上的性別（案件編號：FACV Nos. 8 & 9 of 2022 ；訴訟各方：Tse Henry Edward v. Commissioner of Registration，Q v. Commissioner of Registration）。 法庭認為，身份證上的性別標記是用於核實身份，而非確立法律上的性別；要求跨性別人士接受完整變性手術的規定違反人權。關啟文博士會分析有關判決及對整個社會的性別觀念、教育和女性權益等的影響。

關啟文博士是香港浸會大學宗教及哲學系教授，香港性文化學會主席。研究性倫理議題多年。著作包括《是非曲直──對人權、同性戀的倫理反思》、《同性與變性──評價同性戀運動和變性人婚姻》等。

  
    文化：西方跨性別文化及虛擬浪潮如何改變香港青少年的性別身份及自我觀
    *  鄭安然先生 - 香港性文化學會事工總監、性教育工作者                                       

自2015年美國最高法院要求全國承認同性婚姻後，跨性別運動成為新一波浪潮，在西方引起極大爭議。雖然跨性別運動在香港未算是輿論主要關注的議題，但司法爭取在香港接踵而來，也出現新興的跨性別組織。而且，跨性別文化背後所假設「視心靈為存在核心」的自我觀已開始影響今日的香港青少年，而虛擬浪潮同樣塑造青少年有這種自我觀。鄭安然先生會從前線教育經驗和對以上的文化分析，為教育工作者建議一些可行的出路。

鄭安然先生是香港性文化學會事工總監，創立一套以科學和倫理學作基礎的互動體驗式性教育教材。十年來到中小學教授。曾到香港電台電視部及香港開電視分享性教育心得。創立新媒體平台例如Podcast「Sex But True 騎呢性趣聞」。

    牧養：信仰群體如何與跨性別人士同行?
    *  姜雁慈女士 - 新造的人協會總幹事、資深社工                                                      

當教牧和信徒在教會遇上跨性別人士，可以用甚麼心態和行動接待他們? 姜雁慈女士及團隊具有多年與跨性別人士同行牧養的經驗。透過不同故事點滴，與大家分享信仰群體與跨性別人士的同行錦囊及全人成長轉化藍圖。

姜雁慈女士是新造的人協會總幹事，前「後同盟」召集人，近年多於教會、社福機構及學校推行相關主題講座及工作坊，分享「信仰」及「同性經驗」的信仰實踐整合。Gloria是資深社工，專為受性傾向困擾的人士及青少年提供輔導支援服務、推動家長支援工作，為同行者提供諮詢服務。

  
    神學：面對青少年性別身份的議題，反思基督教的人觀和罪觀
    *  楊思言博士 （中國神學研究院神學科助理教授）                                                 

當我們思考當代性別身份議題時，我們可以用甚麼神學資源呢？若沿用昔日我們對福音的傳統理解，例如「人人都犯了罪及需要悔改」，不單止不易叫人接受（特別是年青人），更可能無力回應掙扎者的處境。當代性別身份議題迫使教會重新反思基督教的人觀和罪觀，並聆聽、回應現今處境。楊思言博士會和我們一起反思身體、性別、罪與救贖等課題，希望以新的神學視野思想性別身份議題，調整教會的宣講和教導：在尊重神的創造同時，有效回應當代文化給教會的功課。

楊思言博士現為中國神學研究院神學科助理教授，主要研究和教授題目包括創造、人觀和罪觀。多年在堂會擔任職青導師。

Co-organizers:

•    Centre for Sino-Christian Studies, HKBU - https://rel.hkbu.edu.hk/research/centre-for-sino-christian-studies 
•    Hong Kong Professional & Educational Services - https://hkpes.com/ 
•    Hong Kong Sex Culture Society – http://scs.org.hk