Christianity and Social Engagement in China

Christianity and Social Engagement in China
Author: Francis K.G. Lim
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 141
Release: 2020-12-23
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1000297438

How does Christianity continue to experience growth in an increasingly authoritarian political system that enforces strict regulations on religion? How are ordinary Christians affected by social and political changes in the country, and how do they make their influence felt in wider society? Taking Chinese Christians’ experience as a case study, Lim and Sng examine the possibilities and limitations of Christian engagement in society under an authoritarian regime. They look especially at efforts by religious individuals and groups who are seeking to address social issues by engaging in unobtrusive and non-antagonistic activities that interact with controlling state institutions. Their emphasis is on everyday lived religion, analysing how Christians express their faith in their everyday activity and not only in spaces demarcated as falling within the religious domain. This book is a valuable reference for scholars and students looking to understand religion in relation to politics, culture and everyday life in rapidly modernising East Asian societies and particularly in China.

House Church Christianity in China

House Church Christianity in China
Author: Jie Kang
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 296
Release: 2016-11-04
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 3319304909

This book provides a significant new interpretation of China's rapid urbanization by analyzing its impact on the spread of Protestant Christianity in the People's Republic. Demonstrating how the transition from rural to urban churches has led to the creation of nationwide Christian networks, the author focuses on Linyi in Shandong Province. Using her unparalleled access as both an anthropologist and member of the congregation, she presents a much-needed insider's view of the development, organization, operation and transformation of the region's unregistered house churches. Whilst most studies are concerned with the opposition of church and state, this work, by contrast, shows that in Linyi there is no clear-cut distinction between the official TSPM church and house churches. Rather, it is the urbanization of religion that is worthy of note and detailed analysis, an approach which the author also employs in investigating the role played by Christianity in Beijing. What she uncovers is the impact of newly-acquired urban aspirations for material goods, success and status on the reshaping of local Christian beliefs, practices and rites of passage. In doing so, she creates a thought-provoking account of religious life in China that will appeal to social anthropologists, sociologists, theologians and scholars of China and its society.

New Developments in Christianity in China

New Developments in Christianity in China
Author: Francis K. G. Lim
Publisher: MDPI
Total Pages: 128
Release: 2020-05-23
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 3039287249

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.

Pilgrims and Citizens

Pilgrims and Citizens
Author: Michael Nai-Chiu Poon
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2006
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9781920691585

This volume of essays, the first in a new Christinaity in Asia Series, from the Trinity Theological College, Singapore, marks a fresh approach to articulate the character of Christian social engagement in East Asia today. Key institutional interpreters of Christianity in Asia Sinagpore and China, inspite of their obvious dissimilarities, share a similar desire to make religion a positive factor in promoting the common good. Hard earnered social stability, after all, can be undermineds by ethnic and religious conflicts. Hence the ongoing political and social engagement by Chinese and Singaporean Christians should be of immense interest to both academics and practicioners.

Christian Social Activism and Rule of Law in Chinese Societies

Christian Social Activism and Rule of Law in Chinese Societies
Author: Chris White
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 423
Release: 2021-06-10
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1611463246

Although Christianity has been a minority religion in Chinese societies, Christians have been powerful catalysts of social activism in seeking to establish democracy and rule of law in mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and diasporic communities. The chapters gathered in this collection reveal the vital influence of Christian individuals and groups on social, political, and legal activism in Chinese societies. Written from a range of disciplinary and geographical perspectives, the chapters develop a coherent narrative of Christian activism that illuminates its specific historical, theological, and cultural contexts. Analyzing campaigns for human rights, universal suffrage, and other political reforms, this volume uncovers the complex dynamics of Christian activism, highlighting its significant contributions to the democratization of Greater China.

The Oxford Handbook of Christianity and Law

The Oxford Handbook of Christianity and Law
Author: John Witte, Jr.
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 921
Release: 2023
Genre: Education
ISBN: 019760675X

This volume tells the story of the interaction between Christianity and law-historically and today, in the traditional heartlands of Christianity and around the globe. Sixty new chapters by leading scholars provide authoritative and accessible accounts of foundational Christian teachings on law and legal thought over the past two millennia; the current interaction and contestation of law and Christianity on all continents; how Christianity shaped and was shaped by core public, private, penal, and procedural laws; various old and new forms of Christian canon law, natural law theory, and religious freedom norms; Christian teachings on fundamental principles of law and legal order; and Christian contributions to controversial legal issues. Together, the chapters make clear that Christianity and law have had a perennial and permanent influence on each other over time and across cultures, albeit with varying levels of intensity and effectiveness. This volume defines "Christianity" broadly to include Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox traditions and various denominations and schools of thought within them. It draws on Christian ideas and institutions, norms and practices, texts and titans to tell the story of Christianity's engagement with the world of law over the past two millennia. The volume also defines "law" broadly as the normative order of justice, power, and freedom. The chapters address natural laws of conscience, reason, and the Bible and positive laws enacted by states, churches, and voluntary associations. Several chapters focus on Christian engagement with specific types of law: canon law, family law, education law, constitutional law, criminal law, procedural law, and laws governing labor, tax, contracts, torts, property, and beyond. Other chapters take up cutting edge legal issues of racial justice, environmental care, migration, euthanasia, and (bio)technology as well as fundamental legal principles of liberty, dignity, equality, justice, equity, judgment, and solidarity.

China's Urban Christians

China's Urban Christians
Author: Brent Fulton
Publisher: Lutterworth Press
Total Pages: 150
Release: 2016-12-29
Genre: History
ISBN: 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.

Christianity in Contemporary China

Christianity in Contemporary China
Author: Francis Khek Gee Lim
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 281
Release: 2013-05-07
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1136204997

Christianity is one of the fastest growing religions in China. Despite its long history in China and its significant indigenization or intertwinement with Chinese society and culture, Christianity continues to generate suspicion among political elites and intense debates among broader communities within China. This unique book applies socio-cultural methods in the study of contemporary Christianity. Through a wide range of empirical analyses of the complex and highly diverse experience of Christianity in contemporary China, it examines the fraught processes by which various forms and practices of Christianity interact with the Chinese social, political and cultural spheres. Contributions by top scholars in the field are structured in the following sections: Enchantment, Nation and History, Civil Society, and Negotiating Boundaries. This book offers a major contribution to the field and provides a timely, wide-ranging assessment of Christianity in Contemporary China.

China's Harvest Fields

China's Harvest Fields
Author: Tabor Laughlin
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 164
Release: 2020-04-29
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1725260913

This book is about specific ministry needs or opportunities in China. It is perfect for missionaries who are serving or will serve in China to read, to get a better idea for ministry opportunities within China. Additionally, the chapters are very relevant for Chinese believers in house churches in China. Though house churches in China have spread across China and matured over recent decades, this book focuses on multi-faceted ways that house churches in China can continue to mature in their faithfulness to the gospel. This book has multiple authors, each of which is writing a chapter relating to their expertise. A chapter in this book written by author John Ensor is about doing ministry through anti-abortion pregnancy help clinics in China. Another chapter in this book, written by Elisabeth Kim, is about doing ministry through working in large corporations in China. These are just some examples of profound and practical chapters that are written by the authors of this book about ministry opportunities in China. Some of the authors in this book are mission professors in the US. Some are missionaries with various platforms and ministries in China.

The Encyclodedia of Christianity, Vol. 5

The Encyclodedia of Christianity, Vol. 5
Author: Erwin Fahlbusch
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
Total Pages: 897
Release: 2008-02-14
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 080282417X

Written by leading scholars from around the world, the articles in this volume range from sin, Sufism and terrorism to theology in the 19th and 20th centuries, Vatican I and II and the virgin birth.