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China's Urban Christians

Author: Brent Fulton

Publisher: Lutterworth Press

Published: 2016-12-29

Total Pages: 150

ISBN-13: 0718844807

China's Urban Christians: A Light at Cannot Be Hidden looks at how massive urbanization is redrawing not only the geographic and social landscape of China, but in the process is transforming China's growing church as well. The purpose of this book is toexplore how Christians in China perceive the challenges posed by their new urban context and to examine their proposed means of responding to these challenges. Although not primarily political in nature, these challenges nonetheless illustrate the complex interplay between China's Christian community and the Chinese party-state as it comes to terms with the continued growth and increasing prominence of Christianity in modern China.

Religious Entrepreneurism in China’s Urban House Churches

Author: Li Ma

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2019-06-27

Total Pages: 250

ISBN-13: 1000227928

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This book offers a unique historical documentation of the development of the ambitious religious entrepreneurism by leaders of the Early Rain church (and later Western China Presbytery leadership), in an effort to gain social influence in China through local institution-building and global public image management. It unravels the social processes of how this Christian community with a public image of defending religious freedom in China was undermined by an internal loss of moral authority. Based on publicly available texts from Chinese social media that aren’t readily available in the West as well as in-depth interviews, it is framed by existing scholarship in social theories of the public sphere, charismatic domination in social transition, and the role of power in organizational behaviour. These churches’ stories show how Christianity, which has long been politically marginalized in communist China, has not only adapted and challenged the socio-political status quo, but how it was also ironically shaped by the political culture. This is an insightful and critical ethnographic study of one of modern China’s most famous house churches. As such, it will be of great interest to scholars of Religion in China as well as those working in Religious Studies, Asian studies, Chinese studies, and Mission Studies more generally.

Saving the Nation

Author: Thomas H. Reilly

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 2020-10-15

Total Pages: 265

ISBN-13: 0190929502

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While Protestant Christians made up only a small percentage of China's overall population during the Republican period, they were heavily represented among the urban elite. Chinese Protestant elites adapted both the social message and practice of Christianity so that they were better able to contribute to the building of a New China. Saving the Nation recounts the history of the Protestant elite and their struggle to strengthen and renew theirnation.

The Souls of China

Author: Ian Johnson

Publisher: Pantheon

Published: 2017

Total Pages: 480

ISBN-13: 1101870052

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From the Pulitzer Prize winning journalist: a revelatory portrait of religion in China today, its history, the spiritual traditions of its Eastern and Western faiths, and the ways in which it is influencing China's future. Following a century of violent antireligious campaigns, China is now awash with new temples, churches, and mosques as well as cults, sects, and politicians trying to harness religion for their own ends. Driving this explosion of faith is uncertainty over what it means to be Chinese, and how to live an ethical life in a country that discarded traditional morality a century ago and is still searching for new guideposts. Ian Johnson lived for extended periods with underground church members, rural Daoists, and Buddhist pilgrims. He has distilled these experiences into a cycle of festivals, births, deaths, detentions, and struggle a great awakening of faith that is shaping the soul of the world s newest superpower. (With black-and-white illustrations throughout).

New Developments in Christianity in China

Author: Francis K. G. Lim

Publisher: MDPI

Published: 2020-05-23

Total Pages: 128

ISBN-13: 3039287249

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The phenomenal expansion of Christianity in China in recent years has attracted much scholarly and public attention. As the country continues to deepen its linkages with the rest of the world, Chinese Christian networks are spreading both within and outside the country. These networks link and crisscross at multiple scales and localities in China while strengthening interactions with overseas Chinese Christians and global Christianity. Many Christian groups throughout the country are harnessing the tremendous potential of new media, such as the internet and mobile apps, to share religious messages, participate in rituals, access information, create online communities, and to evangelize. Chinese Christians have also begun exerting their influence outside China through activities such proselytism, charity work, and development projects. This volume presents cutting edge research by scholars working in the field of Christianity in China, providing valuable insights into how Chinese Christianity is evolving and how it is shaping the country and beyond.

A Star in the East

Author: Rodney Stark

Publisher: Templeton Foundation Press

Published: 2015-05-02

Total Pages: 161

ISBN-13: 1599474883

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What is the state of Christianity in China? Some scholars say that China is invulnerable to religion. In contrast, others say that past efforts of missionaries have failed, writing off those converted as nothing more than “rice Christians” or cynical souls who had frequented the missions for the benefits they provided. Some wonder if the Cultural Revolution extinguished any chances of Christianity in China. Rodney Stark and Xiuhua Wang offer a different perspective, arguing that Christianity is alive, well, and on the rise. Stark approaches the topic from an extensive research background in Christianity and Chinese history, and Wang provides an inside look at Christianity and its place in her home country of China. Both authors cover the history of religion in China, disproving older theories concerning the number of Christians and the kinds of Christians that have emerged in the past 155 years. Stark and Wang claim that when just considering the visible Christians—those not part of underground churches—thousands of Chinese are still converted to Christianity daily, and forty new churches are opening each week. A Star in the East draws on two major national surveys to sketch a close-up of religion in China. A reliable estimate is that by 2007 there were approximately 60 million Christians in China. If the current growth rate were to hold until 2030, there would be more Christians in China—about 295 million—than in any other nation. This trend has significant implications, not just for China but for the greater world order. It is probable that Chinese Christianity will splinter into denominations, likely leading to the same political, social, and economic ramifications seen in the West today. Whether you’re new to studying Christianity in China or whether this has been your area of interest for years, A Star in the East provides a reliable, thought-provoking, and engaging account of the resilience of the Christian faith in China and the implications it has for the future.

Chinese Christianity

Author: Peter Tze Ming Ng

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2012-02-03

Total Pages: 272

ISBN-13: 9004225757

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This volume attempts to review the historical development of Chinese Christianity from a “global-local” or “glocalization” perspective. It includes chapters on the Boxer Movement, Chinese indigenous movements, and Christian higher education and also contains seven biographical chapters. The author expounds upon the interplay of “universal” and “particular” aspects as well as the global and local forces which shaped the characteristics of Chinese Christianity in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. This work focused on China could have wider implications for modern scholarship, both in the fields of comparative history of education and modern Chinese church history, for those scholars who are exploring the dialogical interplay between global and local Christianities.

How Christianity Came to China

Author: Kathleen L. Lodwick

Publisher: Fortress Press

Published: 2016-12-01

Total Pages: 281

ISBN-13: 1506410286

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“The story of the foreign missionaries who served in China between 1809 and 1949 is one of fervent religious commitment and of the loss of faith, of determined perseverance and of angry frustration, of accepting people as they are and of cultural superiority . . . of human kindness and of narrow prejudice, of those who loved China and of those who refused to acknowledge the society in which they lived, of those who spent their entire adult lives in China and of those who fled home as soon as possible, and of those who admired China and of those who were driven insane by living in China. In short, it is a story of ordinary people with all their good qualities and all their shortcomings.” In all of its complexity, Kathleen L. Lodwick tells the story of Christianity in China. It’s essential reading for anyone wanting to understand the contemporary phenomena that is Christianity in China, which some people predict soon will be the country with the largest Christian population in the world.

Christianity in Modern China

Author: David Cheung

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 440

ISBN-13: 9789004131439

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This monograph studies a significant episode in Chinese Christianity. Focusing on the origins of Protestantism in South Fujian, it investigates the evolution of the churches which pioneered in indigenization and ecclesiastical union in China during the 19th century.