ABSTRACT
One of the most hotly debated tenets of Christian belief in the West has been that of the supernatural conception of Jesus. Many thousands of pages have been written both in defense and in derision of the “virgin birth” of the founder of Christianity. Protestant missionaries differ very widely in their beliefs, and the differences among Chinese Christians may to some extent be attributed to this cause. But it would be a mistake to suppose that Chinese Christian attitudes merely echo those of their teachers. The relative unimportance of virgin birth is also conspicuous in the public pronouncements of two significant Christian groups in China. The first is the report of Commission III of National Christian Conference, on “The Message of the Church.” The movement toward a scientific attitude on the question of Jesus’ birth is part of a contemporary trend in China's thought world. Individual Christians may uncritically accept or safely disregard the miraculous birth in their devotional life.
