"Foreign Religions Into Native":Christian Localization And Inclusive Politics

With the implementation of religious belief freedom policy, Christianity has obtained rapid development in China since the reform and opening-up to the outside world, especially in the rural areas. Of the five major religions in China, Christianity has now become the fastest growing one in population. Its fast development in China's rural areas has become an inevitable social phenomenon. It is worthy of our consideration that how Christianity, being a heterogeneous culture, realizes the localized process in the rural areas where native traditional culture had long took a deep root. Choosing an ordinary village as subject, through a thorough investigation and a description of both religious life and village life, the writer tires to show how Christianity entered the village and realized its localization. The thesis mainly includes the following aspects:The first chapter is mainly about how Christianity was spread into village Y. Three means are identified based on a deep study:marriage, the introduction of friends and relatives, missionary preaching. Meanwhile, confrontation and integration of the two cultures during the process of Christianity localization in village Y are demonstrated in this part.The second chapter is mainly about how Christianity influences the villagers'life. Three aspects are studied here:the external driving factors, intrinsic motivation in the villagers and specific ways of Christianity entering the village life.The third chapter is mainly about how Christianity enters the villagers'heart and mind. Four aspects showing the psychological experience are illustrated:first, villagers' eager to seek help due to their mental helplessness in extremity; second, spiritual experiences that meet God; third, doubts and confusion in real life resulting in the belief in a religious lingering; and finally the commitment to serve in the Church owing to God's love.The fourth chapter demonstrates how Christianity achieves its localization Y village Y. Architectural designs that assimilates Chinese and western styles, preaching concretized with daily life, free prayer life and local religious belief are discussed here.The fifth chapter mainly discusses the relation between the Christian localization and the inclusive politics. The governments have laid emphasis on ensuring people's rights of free religious belief, and have created a favorable environment for the Christian faith. This provides Christian localization in our country rural areas a protective umbrella in terms of policies and regulations. In the conclusion, it is pointed out that there are some problems in the process of Christian's localization in rural areas that can not be neglected. By guiding Christianity's development reasonably to take advantage of its positive effect and reduce its negative factors, our religious worker in rural areas can lead it into the adaptation with the New Rural Construction, thereby making contributions to our rural areas' development.