The Chinese Patriarchal Compound has published a translation of the document "Fundamentals of the Social Concept of the Russian Orthodox Church" into Chinese. The translation was carried out by a group of Russian and Chinese translators.
The foundations of the social concept were adopted at the Jubilee Bishops' Council in 2000. This document sets out a church–wide view on issues of church-public and church-state relations, as well as on current problems of modern society as a whole. It is the first experience of structured presentation of the social teaching of the Orthodox Church.
The published translation is unique in its kind, since in the process of working on it a lot of attention was paid to theological terms that were translated into Chinese for the first time. This is due to the fact that nowadays Chinese Orthodox terminology is, in fact, being formed anew. All interested people from the academic and Christian community are usually invited to the translation process. The quotations from the Holy Scriptures were taken from a modern Protestant publication known as the. At the same time, some quotations have been corrected and supplemented in accordance with the modern Orthodox tradition. A reference device has also been added to the translation in the form of brief comments and a list of proper names, the website of the Chinese Patriarchal Compound reports.
The bilingual format of the book is of particular value – the Russian text of the document is placed in its second part, which makes it easier for Russian-speaking users to read.
The publication was carried out with the assistance of the Foundation for the Support of Christian Culture and Heritage.