A scholar shared six images of rural Christianity in China through a literature review.
Themed "Indigenization and Discourse Construction in the Study of the Sociology of Religion in the New Era", the 2021 Academic Annual Conference of the Chinese Sociological Association was hosted at Southwest University in Chongqing, from 16 to 18 July.
In the sub-forum of the theory of religious sociology in the 2021 conference, hosted by the Chinese Sociological Society held on July 17, Huang Haibo, an associate researcher at the Institute of Religious Studies, Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, gave a lecture titled “Research on an Academic Construction of the Contemporary Christianity Image in China - A Comprehensive Text Analysis Based on Empirical Research in 21st Century”.
“Image construction is not a simple reproduction of something,” Huang explained. “It is an image formed by selecting and strengthening, shielding and highlighting the various characteristics of real things under the existing knowledge framework in combination with the purpose of communication.”
The deputy secretary-general of Religious Sociology Committee of Chinese Society of Social Sciences shared his research from three aspects: the history and reality of Christianity image construction, the empirical study of contemporary Chinese Christianity, and the contemporary Christian image constructed in the empirical study.
“Since Christianity was introduced into China, there have been different manifestations in different historical eras,” he briefly reviewed the construction of the image since Christianity entered China.
Since the Ming Dynasty, foreign missionaries took Jesus as a symbol and wanted to show the original appearance of Jesus to the Chinese people. The anti-clerics and clerics expounded their understanding of Christianity in Confucianism. There were many variations of the image of Jesus in civil society.
By the 1920s, with the development of media, various rich changes had taken place in the image of Christianity. Especially in the anti-Christian movement, Christian intellectuals created the image of Jesus for the defense of Christianity. Especially during the Anti-Japanese War, Christian intellectuals reinterpreted and demonstrated the image of Jesus as a “patriot” with nationalism. But the non-teaching elements also received criticism. In literary works, some authors expounded and shaped the image of Christianity.
With the main research interests in Marxist religious theory research, religious sociology theory and empirical research, religious charity research, and contemporary Christianity, Huang selected rural images of Christianity as the key image and summarized the six different categories of images from relevant research papers on contemporary rural Christian experience.
The first was the positive image. The positive functions of Christianity have attracted great attention, including the aspects of psychological or spiritual adjustment, morality, communication or integration, ignorance demand satisfaction, cultural entertainment, and order stability.
The second image was the utilitarian image of religious belief driven by practical reason. Why rural believers believed in religion was the second most concerned topic. All the discourses about the reasons for conversion pointed to utilitarianism and it was thought that the conversion of the rural population was mainly based on the consideration of practical interests.
The image of localized practitioners who strived to balance between self-improvement and self-maintenance led to how Christianity was adapted to the traditional customs, lifestyles, and relationship patterns in the rural environment.
The fourth image was of marginal people in local society. Although Christianity had a certain scale in rural areas, its influence and attraction were very limited. In fact, it could not replace the existing organizations in rural areas, and it could not change many root causes of religious belief.
As an image of “folk religion”, there was no essential difference between rural Christians and folk religious believers in their belief psychology, and they all regarded efficacy as the core belief element.
The image of a harmful thing interpreted that on the personal level, rural Christians showed superstition and irrationality. Too often Christianity affected normal production and life and the adverse effects and harms of social strata were more concerned.
- Translated by Charlie Li
在宗教社会学理论主题讲座中，上海社会科学院宗教研究所副研究员黄海波分享了题为“中国当代基督教形象的学术建构研究——基于新世纪以来实证研究成果的综合性文本分析”的讲座。
黄海波，副研究员，上海社会科学院宗教研究所当代宗教研究室主任，中国社会学会宗教社会学专业委员会副秘书长。他的主要研究方向是马克思主义宗教理论研究、宗教社会学理论与实证研究、宗教慈善研究、当代基督教研究。
“形象建构并不是对某种事物形象的一种简单的复制，”黄海波解释说：“而是在现有的知识框架下结合传播的目的，对真实存在的各个事物的各个特征进行选择和强化、屏蔽和突显等操作，形成的形象。”
黄海波从基督教形象建构的历史与现实、对当代中国基督教的实证研究和实证研究中建构的当代基督教形象三个方面来进行分享。
“在基督教传入中国以来，传播的不同历史时期有不同的表现。”黄海波简单地回顾了一下从基督教入华以来的基督教形象建构。
从明代的传教士开始，以耶稣为符号象征，想要把耶稣的原貌展现给中国人；而反教士人和奉教士人则在儒学中阐述了自己对基督教的理解；民间社会则流传很多关于耶稣形象的各种变形。
到了20世纪20年代，随着媒介的发达，基督教的形象发生了各种很丰富的变化。特别是在反基督教的运动中，基督徒知识分子为基督教的辩护而塑造耶稣的形象。特别是在抗战时期，基督徒知识分子用民族主义重新诠释并论证了耶稣的“爱国者”形象；而教外的只是分子也有一些批判。在文学作品中，也有一些作者对基督教的形象进行了阐述和塑造。
黄选取了农村基督教形象来进行重点分享，并从相关的当代农村基督教经验研究论文中总结概括出了6大类形象。
1.发挥积极功能的正面形象。基督教的积极功能得到了极大的关注，其积极功能包括：心理或精神调节功能、道德功能、交往或整合功能、无知需求满足功能、文化娱乐功能和秩序稳定功能六大类型。
2.实用理性驱使下信教的功利形象。乡村信徒为什么信教，是关注度排名第二位的话题。所有有关皈信原因的话语压倒性地指向功利性，认为乡村基督教皈信主要是基于实际利益的考量。
3.在自我改造与自我维持之间努力平衡的本土化实践者形象。基督教如何与乡村环境下的传统礼俗、生活方式以及关系模式等相适应。
4.乡土社会中的边缘者形象。基督教在乡村虽然人数有一定规模，但影响力和吸引力都非常有限，事实上无法取代乡村既有的组织，也没有能力改变诸多导致信教的根源性问题。
5.作为一种“民间宗教”的形象。乡村基督徒中很多人在信仰心理上与民间宗教信仰者并无本质差别，都将灵验作为核心信仰要素。
6.作为有害事物的形象。在个人层面，乡村基督徒表现出迷信和非理性的特征，参与基督教过于频繁也影响了生产生活，社会层的不良影响和危害更受关注。
宗教社会学者讲座分享：中国当代基督教形象的学术建构研究
A scholar shared six images of rural Christianity in China through a literature review.
Themed "Indigenization and Discourse Construction in the Study of the Sociology of Religion in the New Era", the 2021 Academic Annual Conference of the Chinese Sociological Association was hosted at Southwest University in Chongqing, from 16 to 18 July.
In the sub-forum of the theory of religious sociology in the 2021 conference, hosted by the Chinese Sociological Society held on July 17, Huang Haibo, an associate researcher at the Institute of Religious Studies, Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, gave a lecture titled “Research on an Academic Construction of the Contemporary Christianity Image in China - A Comprehensive Text Analysis Based on Empirical Research in 21st Century”.
“Image construction is not a simple reproduction of something,” Huang explained. “It is an image formed by selecting and strengthening, shielding and highlighting the various characteristics of real things under the existing knowledge framework in combination with the purpose of communication.”
The deputy secretary-general of Religious Sociology Committee of Chinese Society of Social Sciences shared his research from three aspects: the history and reality of Christianity image construction, the empirical study of contemporary Chinese Christianity, and the contemporary Christian image constructed in the empirical study.
“Since Christianity was introduced into China, there have been different manifestations in different historical eras,” he briefly reviewed the construction of the image since Christianity entered China.
Since the Ming Dynasty, foreign missionaries took Jesus as a symbol and wanted to show the original appearance of Jesus to the Chinese people. The anti-clerics and clerics expounded their understanding of Christianity in Confucianism. There were many variations of the image of Jesus in civil society.
By the 1920s, with the development of media, various rich changes had taken place in the image of Christianity. Especially in the anti-Christian movement, Christian intellectuals created the image of Jesus for the defense of Christianity. Especially during the Anti-Japanese War, Christian intellectuals reinterpreted and demonstrated the image of Jesus as a “patriot” with nationalism. But the non-teaching elements also received criticism. In literary works, some authors expounded and shaped the image of Christianity.
With the main research interests in Marxist religious theory research, religious sociology theory and empirical research, religious charity research, and contemporary Christianity, Huang selected rural images of Christianity as the key image and summarized the six different categories of images from relevant research papers on contemporary rural Christian experience.
The first was the positive image. The positive functions of Christianity have attracted great attention, including the aspects of psychological or spiritual adjustment, morality, communication or integration, ignorance demand satisfaction, cultural entertainment, and order stability.
The second image was the utilitarian image of religious belief driven by practical reason. Why rural believers believed in religion was the second most concerned topic. All the discourses about the reasons for conversion pointed to utilitarianism and it was thought that the conversion of the rural population was mainly based on the consideration of practical interests.
The image of localized practitioners who strived to balance between self-improvement and self-maintenance led to how Christianity was adapted to the traditional customs, lifestyles, and relationship patterns in the rural environment.
The fourth image was of marginal people in local society. Although Christianity had a certain scale in rural areas, its influence and attraction were very limited. In fact, it could not replace the existing organizations in rural areas, and it could not change many root causes of religious belief.
As an image of “folk religion”, there was no essential difference between rural Christians and folk religious believers in their belief psychology, and they all regarded efficacy as the core belief element.
The image of a harmful thing interpreted that on the personal level, rural Christians showed superstition and irrationality. Too often Christianity affected normal production and life and the adverse effects and harms of social strata were more concerned.
- Translated by Charlie Li
Lecture: Six Images of Contemporary Rural Christianity in China
