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Author: Jean Charbonnier
Publisher: Ignatius Press
Published: 2007-01-01
Total Pages: 606
ISBN-13: 0898709164
DOWNLOAD EBOOKChronicles the history of Christianity in China throughout the centuries, from the arrival of Christian missionaries during the seventh century to efforts to connect Chinese followers with European Catholics in 2000.
Author: Rodney Stark
Publisher: Templeton Foundation Press
Published: 2015-05-02
Total Pages: 161
ISBN-13: 1599474883
DOWNLOAD EBOOKWhat 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.
Author: Daniel H. Bays
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Published: 1996
Total Pages: 526
ISBN-13: 9780804736510
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis pathbreaking volume will force a reassessment of many common assumptions about the relationship between Christianity and modern China. The overall thrust of the twenty essays is that despite the conflicts and tension that often have characterized relations between Christianity and China, in fact Christianity has been, for the past two centuries or more, putting down roots within Chinese society, and it is still in the process of doing so. Thus Christianity is here interpreted not just as a Western religion that imposed itself on China, but one that was becoming a Chinese religion, as Buddhism did centuries ago. Eschewing the usual focus on foreign missionaries, as is customary, this research effort is China-centered, drawing on Chinese sources, including government and organizational documents, private papers, and interviews. The essays are organized into four major sections: Christianitys role in Qing society, including local conflicts (6 essays); ethnicity (3 essays); women (5 essays); and indigenization of the Christian effort (6 essays). The editor has provided sectional introductions to highlight the major themes in each section, as well as a general Introduction.
Author: Fenggang Yang
Publisher: Penn State Press
Published: 2010-11-01
Total Pages: 252
ISBN-13: 9780271042527
DOWNLOAD EBOOKChristianity has become the most practiced religion among the Chinese in America, but very little solid research exists on Chinese Christians and their churches. This book is the first to explore the subject from the inside, revealing how Chinese Christians construct and reconstruct their identity--as Christians, Americans, and Chinese--in local congregations amid the radical pluralism of the late twentieth century. Today there are more than one thousand Chinese churches in the United States, most of them Protestant evangelical congregations, bringing together diasporic Chinese from diverse origins--Taiwan, Hong Kong, mainland China, and Southeast Asian countries. Fenggang Yang finds that despite the many tensions and conflicts that exist within these congregations, most individuals find ways to creatively integrate their evangelical Christian beliefs with traditional Chinese (most Confucian) values. The church becomes a place where they can selectively assimilate into American society while simultaneously preserving Chinese values and culture. Yang brings to this study unique experience as both participant and observer. Born in mainland China, he is a sociologist who converted to Christianity after coming to the United States. The heart of this book is an ethnographic study of a representative Chinese church, located in Washington, D. C., where he became a member. Throughout the book, Yang draws upon interviews with members of this congregation while making comparisons with other churches throughout the United States. Chinese Christians in America is an important addition to the literature on the experience of "new" immigrant communities.
Author: Zhang Rongliang
Publisher: Whitaker House
Published: 2015-07-01
Total Pages: 240
ISBN-13: 1629113387
DOWNLOAD EBOOK"My name is Zhang Rongliang, and I am an unashamed follower of Jesus Christ.…It is considered quite dangerous to reveal the contents of this book, but these are stories that need to be told for God’s glory and for the encouragement of the church.” So begins this extraordinary first-person account by the prominent leader of one of the largest underground churches in China. A former Communist Party member, Zhang took a stand for Christ and was targeted for prison, work camps, and torture, all the while helping to build a network of millions of faithful believers. Spanning the time of Mao’s regime to today, Zhang testifies of God’s supernatural movements, of the sacrifice of countless Christians who loved and served Christ—regardless of the cost—and of the exciting new vision among believers in China to reach not only the Chinese but the entire world with the gospel.
Author: David Aikman
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Published: 2012-03-27
Total Pages: 459
ISBN-13: 1596986522
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis book details the great unreported story of the Chinese giant, its enormously rapid conversion to Christianity, and what this change means to the global balance of power.
Author: Jie Kang
Publisher: Springer
Published: 2016-11-04
Total Pages: 296
ISBN-13: 3319304909
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis 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.
Author: William Lane Craig
Publisher: Crossway
Published: 2008
Total Pages: 418
ISBN-13: 1433501155
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis updated edition by one of the world's leading apologists presents a systematic, positive case for Christianity that reflects the latest work in the contemporary hard sciences and humanities. Brilliant and accessible.
Author: Fr. Jean Charbonnier
Publisher: Ignatius Press
Published: 2010-05-05
Total Pages: 606
ISBN-13: 1681490986
DOWNLOAD EBOOKChristianity first came to China by way of the Silk Road in the seventh century, and, ever since, this great and enduring civilization in the heart of Asia has been home to brothers and sisters of Christ. Christians in China: A.D. 600 to 2000 chronicles the lives of the Chinese faithful who through the centuries have been both accepted and rejected by their own countrymen. It explores the unique religious and political situations in which Chinese Christians, Catholic and Protestant, have struggled to live their faith and give witness to Christ. This major work covers each of the historic periods in China with a focus on the development of Christianity and its cultural interaction in each period. It shows the evolution of Christianity as it occurred within the Peopleಙs Republic of China. While telling the stories of various Christians throughout Chinese history, the author addresses a few key questions: How the did the Church develop over many centuries in a culture so different from the West? How do Christians in China give witness to their faith? How do they contribute to the life of the universal Church? The answer to such questions provides a meaningful historical background to the broad approach of Pope Benedict XVI in His Letter to the Catholics in China issued on June 30, 2007. Illustrated.
Author: A. C. Moule
Publisher: Martino Fine Books
Published: 2011-12
Total Pages: 340
ISBN-13: 9781614272083
DOWNLOAD EBOOK2011 Reprint of 1930 Edition. Full facsimile of the original edition, not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software. Illustrated with 22 plans, views, portraits etc. The plan of this book is to gather into one volume the available evidence of the existence of Christians in China in the early and middle ages of the Christian era, and to give in English translation the actual words of the original authorities in every case, avoiding as far as possible all generalizations, summaries or expressions of personal opinion by the editor. References and explanations have been provided in the footnotes. Chapters on the Tang Dynasty, The Zaitun Crosses, Rabban Sauma, the Mission of the Franciscan Brothers and more. Scarce in the original.
