The DOI matches its Crossref record.
China’s Catholics: Tragedy and Hope in an Emerging Civil Society
Abstract
After suffering isolation and persecution during the Maoist era, the Catholic Church in China has reemerged with astonishing vitality in recent years. Richard Madsen focuses on this revival and relates it to the larger issue of the changing structure of Chinese society, particularly to its implications for the development of a "civil society." Madsen knows China well and has spent extensive time there interviewing Chinese Catholics both young and old, the "true believers" and the less devout. Their stories reveal the tensions that have arisen even as political control over everyday life in China has loosened. Of particular interest are the rural-urban split in the church, the question of church authority, and the divisions between public and underground practices of church followers. All kinds of religious groups have revived and flourished in the post-Mao era. Protestants, Buddhists, Daoists, practitioners of folk religions, even intellectuals seeking more secularized answers to "ultimate" concerns are engaged in spiritual quests. Madsen is interested in determining if such quests contain the resources for constructing a more humane political order in China. Will religion contribute to or impede economic modernization? What role will the church play in the pluralization of society? The questions he raises in China's Catholics are important not only for China's political future but for all countries in transition from political totalitarianism.
Overview
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Madsen also mentions interference by Chinese Religious Affairs Bureaus and the role of bishops, clergy, and laity as factors.
“Elsewhere, though, Madsen also mentions other factors: interference by the Chinese Religious Affairs Bureaus with the affairs of the church, and the role of bishops, clergy, and laity, although he does not dwell on them (Madsen 1998:23, 49, 73, 142-145).”
From Catholicism and Its Civic Engagement: Case Studies of the Catholic Church in Hong Kong, Macau, Taipei, and Shanghai (2014) · cites this paper as Madsen 1998:23, 49, 73, 142-145
Madsen thinks the Chinese Catholic Church's lack of civic engagement is mainly due to Chinese Catholic culture, which is similar to Italian Catholic culture and retains Counter Reformation heritage emphasizing ecclesiastical hierarchy and traditional virtues of obedience and acceptance of one's station in life, which is negatively correlated with civic engagement.
“When explaining the Chinese Catholic Church's lack of civic engagement, Madsen thinks that it is mainly due to Chinese Catholic culture, which is similar to that of the Italian Catholic Church, as Putnam observed: it 'still retains much of the heritage of the Counter Reformation, including an emphasis on the ecclesiastical hierarchy and the traditional virtues of obedience and acceptance of one's”
From Catholicism and Its Civic Engagement: Case Studies of the Catholic Church in Hong Kong, Macau, Taipei, and Shanghai (2014) · cites this paper as Madsen 1998:135
One of the main features of Catholicism in China is the hierarchical structure of the church, and it meshes well with the Chinese culture's emphasis on imperial hierarchy.
“One of its main features is the hierarchical structure of the church, and it meshes well with the Chinese culture's emphasis on imperial hierarchy (Madsen 1998:29).”
From Catholicism and Its Civic Engagement: Case Studies of the Catholic Church in Hong Kong, Macau, Taipei, and Shanghai (2014) · cites this paper as Madsen 1998:29
Citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Hao, Z., Kuo, W.-B., Chan, S. H., Jing, M., & Tam, Y. F. (2014) · Review of Religion and Chinese Society · doi:10.1163/22143955-04102005 · Cited by 5
Metadata
- Authors
- Madsen, R.
- Corresponding author
- Madsen, Richard
- Venue
- University of California Press eBooks
- Publisher
- University of California Press
- Published
- 1998-12-31
- OpenAlex
- W4250129811
- Cited by
- 141
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 6 · 2020: 3 · 2019: 6 · 2018: 8 · 2017: 5 · 2016: 8 · 2015: 1 · 2014: 5 · 2013: 2 · 2012: 6
- FWCI
- 0.70
- Type
- book
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- University of California Press eBooks (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › History › Chinese history and philosophy
- Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › China's Socioeconomic Reforms and Governance
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Religion and Society Interactions
- Keywords
- Chinese Catholics, Catholic Church in China, religious revival, post-Mao era, civil society, religious pluralism, ecclesiastical authority, underground church, religious persecution, political transition, spiritual quest
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
