Comparative Theology

Romans repeatedly makes claims that sit in direct tension with concepts a Mandarin-speaking audience already holds, drawn from three distinct traditions rather than one. Naming each tension explicitly, rather than translating past it, is part of this curriculum’s job.

Romans doctrine	Adjacent concept	Tradition	Key difference
Salvation (救恩)	解脱 — liberation from the cycle of suffering and rebirth	Buddhism	Salvation is reconciliation with a personal God through a historical act, received in this life by faith, not an escape from an impersonal suffering-cycle.
Sanctification (成圣)	成圣 — self-cultivation into sagehood through moral discipline	Neo-Confucianism	Biblical sanctification is the Spirit’s ongoing work in a believer already justified by faith, not a self-achieved moral attainment.
Sonship of Christ (神的儿子)	天子 — “Son of Heaven,” the emperor’s title under the Mandate of Heaven	Classical imperial theology	Christ’s Sonship is eternal and unique, not a political office resting on a revocable cosmic mandate.
Grace (恩典)	功德 / 阴德 — merit earned through good deeds	Buddhism	Grace is unearned favor given apart from merit; it directly contradicts a merit-accounting framework rather than describing a more generous version of it.
Resurrection (复活)	轮回 — the cycle of reincarnation	Buddhism	Resurrection is bodily, historical, and once-for-all; it ends the cycle rather than continuing it.

Why this matters for translation

Unlike a context with one dominant competing worldview, Mandarin translators have to check each doctrine against three separate traditions rather than one filter. The comparative theology table above is the working reference for why translation_memory.json rejects the “obvious” translation in each of these cases, and why the rejected term differs in flavor from row to row.