Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Palgrave Macmillan
Book cover

House Church Christianity in China

From Rural Preachers to City Pastors

  • Book
  • © 2016

Overview

Authors:
  1. Jie Kang

    1. Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity, Göttingen, Germany

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

  • Casts new light on China's urbanization
  • Broadens our understanding of the spread of Christianity in the People's Republic
  • Based on unique, in-depth fieldwork

Part of the book series: Global Diversities (GLODIV)

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this book

Log in via an institution
eBook USD 79.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 99.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 99.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access

Licence this eBook for your library

Institutional subscriptions

Table of contents (8 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-x
    Download chapter PDF

  2. Introduction

    • Jie Kang
    Pages 1-26

  3. Discovering Linyi

    • Jie Kang
    Pages 27-40

  4. Christianity and the Emergence of House Churches in Linyi

    • Jie Kang
    Pages 41-80

  5. The Christian Network

    • Jie Kang
    Pages 81-121

  6. Learning to Be a Good Christian

    • Jie Kang
    Pages 123-159

  7. From Preaching (chuandao 传道) to Shepherding (muyang 牧养)

    • Jie Kang
    Pages 161-201

  8. Paths to a New Life in the Urban Transition

    • Jie Kang
    Pages 203-240

  9. Conclusion: Process Versus Typology

    • Jie Kang
    Pages 241-259

  10. Back Matter

    Pages 261-296
    Download chapter PDF
Back to top

Keywords

About this book

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.






Reviews

“Jie Kang’s multisited ethnography offers a rare insider’s view of unregistered house churches in the Chinese city of Linyi and their informal connections to house churches elsewhere. It is an important contribution to our understanding of the fast-expanding house church Christianity in the context of China’s modern transformation.” (Nanlai Cao, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong)

“This is richest ethnography of Chinese house church Christianity I have ever read, framed by a subtle theory of networked religion that captures the fluidity of the faith’s transitions between countryside and city in a rapidly modernizing China.” (Richard Madsen, UC San Diego, USA)

Authors and Affiliations

  • Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity, Göttingen, Germany

    Jie Kang

About the author

Jie Kang is Project Coordinator for Cultural Diversity in South-West China and South-East Asia and Temples, Rituals and the Transformation of Transnational Networks at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity, Germany.

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: House Church Christianity in China

  • Book Subtitle: From Rural Preachers to City Pastors

  • Authors: Jie Kang

  • Series Title: Global Diversities

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-30490-8

  • Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham

  • eBook Packages: Social Sciences, Social Sciences (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2016

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-319-30489-2Published: 11 November 2016

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-3-319-80824-6Published: 07 July 2018

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-319-30490-8Published: 04 November 2016

  • Series ISSN: 2662-2580

  • Series E-ISSN: 2662-2599

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: X, 290

  • Number of Illustrations: 8 illustrations in colour

  • Topics: Sociology of Religion, Social Anthropology, Urban Studies/Sociology, Social Aspects of Religion, Area Studies

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Back to top

Search

Navigation