From “Children of the Devil” to “Sons of God”: The Reconfiguration of Guanxi in a Twentieth-Century Indigenous Chinese Protestant Group
Guanxi is the Chinese system of ideas and practices constituting social relationships and can be considered the foundation of Chinese societies. Protestant Christianity spread over guanxi networks from its first introduction to China, changing both guanxi and Christianity in the process. This paper...
| Published in: | Review of Religion and Chinese Society |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Brill
2017
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| In: |
Review of Religion and Chinese Society
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| Further subjects: | B
關係
B 文化處境化 B cultural contextualization B Chinese Protestantism B Guanxi B Local Church B 中國新教 B 地方教會 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (Verlag) |
| Summary: | Guanxi is the Chinese system of ideas and practices constituting social relationships and can be considered the foundation of Chinese societies. Protestant Christianity spread over guanxi networks from its first introduction to China, changing both guanxi and Christianity in the process. This paper proposes a causal model of guanxi and then analyzes how it was reconstituted in the indigenous Chinese Protestant group, the Local Churches. It is based on published writings by Local Church founders and members and on the author’s thirty years of experience with the group. This case contributes to the academic understanding of guanxi and Chinese Christianity, finding that extension of family, supply of resources, and social interaction are the core aspects of guanxi, but that specific practices change in the Christian context to preserve biblical commandments. Because guanxi networks are bonding rather than bridging, Chinese Christian groups will tend to diverge more than they converge. |
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| ISSN: | 2214-3955 |
| Contains: | In: Review of Religion and Chinese Society
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1163/22143955-00401004 |