Download or read book House Church Christianity in China written by Jie Kang and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-11-04 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Download or read book A Star in the East written by Rodney Stark and published by Templeton Foundation Press. This book was released on 2015-05-02 with total page 161 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Download or read book I Stand with Christ written by Zhang Rongliang and published by Whitaker House. This book was released on 2015-07-01 with total page 251 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "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.

Download or read book The Registered Church in China written by Wayne Ten Harmsel and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2021-03-09 with total page 140 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In The Registered Church in China, Wayne Ten Harmsel pulls back for Western readers the shroud of mystery surrounding Chinese registered churches. Through interviews with Chinese pastors, evangelists, and lay Christians, he provides a rare view of what it means to live in the shadow of both the government and the well-known house churches. Registered churches have received criticism from both of these sources, as well as from many churches in other countries, particularly the United States. Ten Harmsel examines the charges leveled against registered churches and presents a balanced picture of the complexity of the church situation in China. (Such complexity arises, for instance, in the registered churches' struggle to respond to new religious regulations and the controversy over Sinicization.) China has become a major center of twenty-first-century Christianity, and, despite how little is known about registered churches in the West, these congregations play a significant role in shaping Chinese Christianity today.

Download or read book Religious Entrepreneurism in China s Urban House Churches written by Li Ma and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-06-27 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Download or read book The Church in China written by Carl Lawrence and published by Bethany House Pub. This book was released on 1985-01-01 with total page 169 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Christian China and the Light of the World written by David Wang and published by Baker Books. This book was released on 2013-11-01 with total page 154 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Light Shines in the Darkness There is more to China's story than its rise as a global economic power. The Holy Spirit has birthed a vibrant, rapidly growing house church movement in China's cities. For years, Christians in the West have heard rumors of house churches in the rural countryside with believers numbering in the tens of millions. Now the underground movement has emerged among China's upwardly mobile, globally connected urbanites--and there will be no turning back! In Christian China and the Light of the World, you'll meet believers serving God's people in the People's Republic of China. Learn about the political, social and economic pressures faced by the urban Chinese church, and find out how you can pray for and support your sisters and brothers in Christ who are following Him no matter the cost. Their true stories of the Holy Spirit's miraculous move across the most populous nation on earth will thrill and inspire you . . . and lead you to worship the Light that darkness cannot overcome.

Download or read book Jesus in Beijing written by David Aikman and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2012-03-27 with total page 459 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This 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.

Download or read book Safely Home written by Randy Alcorn and published by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.. This book was released on 2011-07-29 with total page 502 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Is this the day I die? Li Quan asks himself this question daily, knowing that he might be killed for practicing his faith. American businessman Ben Fielding has no idea what his brilliant former college roommate is facing in China. He expects his old friend has fulfilled his dream of becoming a university professor. But when they are reunited in China after twenty years, both men are shocked at what they discover about each other. Thrown together in an hour of encroaching darkness, both must make choices that will determine not only the destinies of two men, but two families, two nations, and two worlds.

Download or read book God s Double Agent written by Bob Fu and published by Baker Books. This book was released on 2013-10-01 with total page 377 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tens of millions of Christians live in China today, many of them leading double lives or in hiding from a government that relentlessly persecutes them. Bob Fu, whom the Wall Street Journal called "The pastor of China's underground railroad," is fighting to protect his fellow believers from persecution, imprisonment, and even death. God's Double Agent is his fascinating and riveting story. Bob Fu is indeed God's double agent. By day Fu worked as a full-time lecturer in a communist school; by night he pastored a house church and led an underground Bible school. This can't-put-it-down book chronicles Fu's conversion to Christianity, his arrest and imprisonment for starting an illegal house church, his harrowing escape, and his subsequent rise to prominence in the United States as an advocate for his brethren. God's Double Agent will inspire readers even as it challenges them to boldly proclaim and live out their faith in a world that is at times indifferent, and at other times murderously hostile, to those who spread the gospel.

Download or read book China and the True Jesus written by Melissa Wei-Tsing Inouye and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2018 with total page 409 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The history of the True Jesus Church, a Pentecostal church founded in Beijing in 1917, reveals dynamic interaction between charismatic experience and organizational processes. Believers' lived experiences provide grassroots perspective on developments in China's modern history, including transnational exchange, gender roles, models for legitimate governance, clandestine culture, and church-state relations"--

Download or read book The Souls of China written by Ian Johnson and published by Pantheon. This book was released on 2017 with total page 480 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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).

Download or read book The Battle for China s Spirit written by Sarah Cook and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2017-05-16 with total page 140 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Battle for China’s Spirit is the first comprehensive analysis of its kind, focusing on seven major religious groups in China that together account for over 350 million believers: Chinese Buddhism, Taoism, Catholicism, Protestantism, Islam, Tibetan Buddhism, and Falun Gong. The study examines the evolution of the Communist Party’s policies of religious control, how they are applied differently to diverse faith communities, and how citizens are responding to these policies. The study—which draws on hundreds of official documents and interviews with religious leaders, lay believers, and scholars—finds that Chinese government controls over religion have intensified since November 2012, seeping into new areas of daily life. Yet millions of religious believers defy official restrictions or engage in some form of direct protest, at times scoring significant victories. The report explores how these dynamics affect China’s overall social, political, and economic environment, while offering recommendations to both the Chinese government and international actors for how to increase the space for peaceful religious practice in a country where spirituality has been deeply embedded in its culture for millennia.

Download or read book Back to Jerusalem written by Brother Yun and published by InterVarsity Press. This book was released on 2012-01-04 with total page 169 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The powerful spiritual vision of the Chinese church to send 100,000 missionaries across China's borders to complete the Great Commission, even in this generation.

Download or read book The House Church Movement written by Tom Begier and published by Seedsowers. This book was released on 2001-08-01 with total page 155 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Shanghai Faithful written by Jennifer Lin and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2017-02-16 with total page 333 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Within the next decade, China could be home to more Christians than any country in the world. Through the 150-year saga of a single family, this book vividly dramatizes the remarkable religious evolution of the world’s most populous nation. Shanghai Faithful is both a touching family memoir and a chronicle of the astonishing spread of Christianity in China. Five generations of the Lin family—buffeted by history’s crosscurrents and personal strife—bring to life an epoch that is still unfolding. A compelling cast—a poor fisherman, a doctor who treated opium addicts, an Ivy League–educated priest, and the charismatic preacher Watchman Nee—sets the bookin motion. Veteran journalist Jennifer Lin takes readers from remote nineteenth-century mission outposts to the thriving house churches and cathedrals of today’s China. The Lin family—and the book’s central figure, the Reverend Lin Pu-chi—offer witness to China’s tumultuous past, up to and beyond the betrayals and madness of the Cultural Revolution, when the family’s resolute faith led to years of suffering. Forgiveness and redemption bring the story full circle. With its sweep of history and the intimacy of long-hidden family stories, Shanghai Faithful offers a fresh look at Christianity in China—past, present, and future.

Download or read book China s Reforming Churches written by Bruce P. Baugus and published by Reformation Heritage Books. This book was released on 2014-05-26 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a critical moment in the life of China’s reforming churches and the Presbyterian and Reformed mission to China. This book provides both a historical look at Presbyterianism in China and an assessment of the current state of affairs, orienting readers to church development needs and the basic outlines of Reformed Christianity in China today. While laying out the challenges and opportunities facing the church, the authors argue that assisting this reformation in China should be a central objective of the Presbyterian and Reformed mission to China in this generation. Table of Contents: Introduction: China, Church Development, and Presbyterianism - Bruce P. Baugus Part I—The History of Presbyterianism in China 1. A Brief History of the Western Presbyterian and Reformed Mission to China - Michael M. 2. Watson Hayes and the North China Theological Seminary - A. Donald MacLeod 3. A Brief History of the Korean Presbyterian Mission to China - Bruce P. Baugus & Sung-Il Steve Park Part II—Presbyterianism in China Today 4. In Their Own Words: Perceived Challenges of Christians in China - Brent Fulton 5. Why Chinese Churches Need Biblical Presbyterianism - Luke P. Y. Lu 6. “A Few Significant Ones:” A Conversation with Two of China’s Leading Reformers - Bruce P. Baugus Part III—Challenges & Opportunities for Presbyterianism in China 7. The Social Conditions of Ministry in China Today - G. Wright Doyle 8. China: a Tale of Two Churches? - Brent Fulton 9. Two Kingdoms in China: Reformed Ecclesiology and Social Ethics - David VanDrunen 10. From Dissension to Joy: Resources from Acts 15:1–35 for Global Presbyterianism - Guy Waters Part IV—Appropriating a Tradition 11. The Emergence of Legal Christian Publishing in China: An Opportunity for Reformed Christians - Phil Remmers 12. A Report on the State of Reformed Theological Education in China - Bruce P. Baugus 13. The Indigenization & Contextualization of the Reformed Faith in China - Paul Wang Conclusion: The Future of Presbyterianism in China - Bruce P. Baugus Appendices A. Robert Morrison’s Catechism - Introduced and Translated by Michael M. B. Shandong Student Protest and Appeal - Introduced by Bruce P. Baugus and Translated by Born