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Protestant Christianity and Civil Society in Authoritarian China: The Impact of Official Churches and Unregistered “Urban Churches” on Civil Society Development in China in the 2000s
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Religious groups can reinforce, complement, or undermine authoritarian domination. This article investigates whether high-status Protestant churches act as democratising civil society organisations by gathering hundreds of Protestants openly outside state structures to change church registration policies. In so doing, they also seek to curtail state domination over religion and, by extension, over all groups in society.
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“First, most studies focused on only one type of church, but the Protestant church in China is a broad category covering a disparate variety of churches.”
From Striving to Build Civic Communities: Four Types of Protestant Churches in Beijing (2014) · cites this paper as Vala 2012
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Research works printed but not linked: 13
- Richard C. Bush, Religion in Communist China, New York, Abingdon Press, 1970.
- Alan Hunter and Kim-Kwong Chan, Protestantism in Contemporary China, New York, Cambridge University Press, 1993.
- Kenneth G. Lieberthal et al. (eds.), Bureaucracy, Politics, and Decision Making in Post-Mao China, Berkeley, University of California Press, 1992. As Kindopp notes, the Christian Council was originally intended to replace the TSPM because the TSPM's reputation was so tarnished in the eyes of many Protestants by its harassment of Protestants in the Mao era. Jason Kindopp, "The Politics of Protes- tantism in Contemporary China: State Control, Civil Society, and Social Movement in a Single Party-State," Ph.D. Dissertation, George Washington University, 2004.
- On co-optation of religious and social organisations through state corporatism, see Mary E. Gal- lagher, "The Limits of Civil Society in a Late Leninist State," in Muthiah Alagappa (ed.), Civil Society and Political Change in Asia, op. cit., pp. 419-452. On state control of Protestants, see Carsten T. Vala, "Pathways to the Pulpit: Leadership Training in 'Patriotic' and Unregistered Chinese Protestant Churches Leaders," in Yoshiko Ashiwa and David Wank (eds.), Making Religion, Making the State, op. cit., pp. 126-150. Thanks to Roskilde University professor Lisbet Christoffersen for pointing out that state churches also can be sources of civil society.
- Yingjie Guo, Cultural Na- tionalism in Contemporary China, op. cit., p. 42; Carsten T. Vala, "Protestant Reactions to the Na- tionalism Agenda in Contemporary China," in Francis K.G. Lim, Christianity in Contemporary China, Socio-cultural Perspectives, New York, Routledge, 2012.
- Ibid. For the patriotic education textbooks, see Cheng-tian Kuo, "Chinese Religious Reform," Asian Survey, vol. 51, no. 6, 2011, pp. 1042-64.
- Nanlai Cao, Constructing China's Jerusalem: Christians, Power, and Place in Contemporary Wen- zhou, Stanford University Press, 2010, p. 7.
- Ka-lun Leung, Gaige kaifang yilai de Zhongguo nongcun jiaohui, op. cit., pp. 361-363. 87. Ibid.
- See Xie Xiahang, "Religion and Modernity in China: Who is Joining the Three-Self Church and Why," Journal of Church and State, no. 52, vol. 1, 2010, pp. 78-80, for the generational changes among young Protestants.
- Duan Qi and Tang Xiaofeng, "2008 Nian Zhongguo jidujiao xianzhuang ji yanjiu" (The current sit- uation and study of Chinese Protestantism in the year 2008), Annual Report on China's Religions (2009), Jin Ze and Qiu Yonghui (ed.), Beijing, Shehui kexue wenxian chubanshe, 2010, p. 139.
- Thanks to an anonymous reviewer for the point that many house churches in the city are popu- lated by lower middle class workers and migrant workers. On "boss Christians" and migrant worker churches in Wenzhou, see Nanlai Cao, Constructing China's Jerusalem, op. cit. On "worker churches" (mingongjuhui) and the urbanisation process, see Huang Jianbo, "Chengshihua jinchengzhong de Zhongguo jidujiao" (Chinese Protestant Christianity in the midst of the urban- ization process), in Yu Guoliang (ed.), Chaihuile zhongjian geduan de qiang (The walls of separation have been demolished), Beijing, Zongjiao wenhua chubanshe, 2007.
- Wei Dedong and Li Yi, "Dalu jiatingjiaohui de donglijizhi chutan -Yi Beijing S jiaohui weili" (A preliminary investigation into the power mechanism of mainland house churches -taking S church as an example), paper presented at 7 th Symposium on the Social Sci- entific Study of Religion in China, Beijing, 26-27 July 2010, p. 253.
- Jonathan Bonk, "Pressed but not crushed: The Shouwang Church and OMSC," The Hearth, no. 29, Spring 2011, pp. 1-2, 7. 107. Interview, August 2010. 108. Nanlai Cao, Constructing China's Jerusalem, op. cit., p. 27. 109. Interview, September 2010. 110. Idem. 111. Interview, August 2010. 112. Idem. 113. Interview, September 2010. 114. Interview, August 2010. Cultivating friendly relations with officials does not mean violating Biblical injunctions, cautioned the central China church leader, who cited verses enjoining Christians to submit to human authorities. Interview, September 2010. 115. Nanlai Cao, Constructing China's Jerusalem, op. cit., p. 27. 116. Interview, August 2010. 117. Idem. 118. "New Campaign to Eradicate House Churches," China Aid website, 20 April 2012, www.chinaaid.org/2012/04/chinaaid-special-report-chinese.html (consulted on 15 August 2012). 119. These churches are what Chinese researchers Duan Qi and Tang Xiaofeng call "independent [Three Self] churches." Duan Qi and Tang Xiaofeng, "2008 nian Zhongguo jidujiao xianzhuang ji yanjiu" (The current situation and study of Chinese Protestantism in the year 2008), art. cit., p. 141.
Cited by
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Striving to Build Civic Communities: Four Types of Protestant Churches in Beijing
Ying, F.-T., Yuan, H., & Lau, S.-L. (2014) · Review of Religion and Chinese Society · doi:10.1163/22143955-04102006 · Cited by 15
Metadata
- Authors
- Vala, C. T.
- Affiliations
- Loyola University Maryland (US)
- Corresponding author
- Vala, Carsten T.
- ORCID
- Vala, Carsten T.
- Venue
- China Perspectives
- Publisher
- OpenEdition
- Published
- 2012
- Volume
- 2012
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 43-52
- ISSN
- 1996-4617 (ISSN-L)
- 2070-3449
- OpenAlex
- W2982430958
- Cited by
- 18
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 2 · 2020: 1 · 2019: 3 · 2018: 2 · 2017: 3 · 2016: 2 · 2014: 1
- FWCI
- 1.05
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- China Perspectives (publishedVersion)
- OpenEdition (OpenEdition) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- 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
- Protestant church, civil society, authoritarianism, church-state relations, church registration, religious freedom, democratization, state domination, religion and politics, China
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