Christian Faith In Rural Life

Concerning rural Christians in China, many scholars have list these labels, such as polytheism, recruitment without conversion, utilitarianism, traveling belief. They have succeeded in telling the truth, but it is one-sided to stick with these labels. Based on a filed work in Beitou Village, a coastal village in Shandong Province, the paper finds that in order to be embedded in the rural society, which is filled with pragmatism,family tradition,and various folk religions, Christianity must be constructed as a local faith expression. During this process,some classical faith resources have been used,while other original culture has been reinvented. So, sacred belief and secular life have been two lines in Christian life, which seem like contradictory but can be symbiotic.The study focuses on atypical religious activities instead of the religious organization or management, and gives priority to the way in which believers construct and understand their religious experience and secular life in concrete rural society. So it is necessary to analyze the relation between religious phenomena and local knowledge, such as the interaction between religious practice and living logic,secular ethics, and folk religions.There is one clue inserted in the content, which is the relation between faith and life. Following this clue, paper mainly explores two questions, which are " the approach of Christianity embedded in rural society" and " encounter between Christianity and folk religions".Chapter I of this article clarifies some basic questions about the research,such as the origin of study,literature review,methods and standpoint of research,article structure. Chapter II makes a short introduction about Beitou Village and Christian development in local, so readers can have an overall impression about the research background. The following three chapters mainly discuss the first question. In Beitou Village, Christians just account for 2% of the population. Most of them are self-achieved,and their religious belief is showed by individual worship,prayer and gathering. Under this background, the pivot point of recruitment is a reasonable and effective standing point to answer this question. In Chapter III,through the thick description of disease as the pivot point of recruitment, the secular keynote of Christian belief emerges generally, which is the pursuit of family's existence and development. So there are further analysis about this secular keynote, and the discovery of life logic centered on core family in Chapter ?. Ethics of family is the keyword in Chapter ?. By analyzing the ethics of marriage and family of St.Augustine of Canterbury,Martin Luther and the ethics of family in present local church,the paper finds the distance and relation between "faith in text" and " faith in practice". That is the transformation from Christian to Confucian ethics, and shows the mix between Christian belief and secular life logic.Chapter VI focuses on the question of " religious encounter". Beitou Village is a rural society with various folk religions, such as ancestor worship and sea-god worship. The interaction between Christianity and folk religions is in a dynamic and structural framework instead of antagonistic. So the first part of this chapter is a short review about two theories,which are "clash of civilizations" and "religious ecology",and defines religious ecology as a process in which various religions and social factors shape their relations dynamically. Then, the seriatim analysis of two folk religions kicks off discussions about religious ecology in Beitou Village. This part not only explores their respective characteristics, but also shows multiple relations in the system. So the last part of Chapter ?, discusses two different paths when Church faces the tension of belief.To be specific, the answer to first question, " the approach of Christianity embedded in rural society", is that Christian belief embodies the sanctity of family.The pivot point of recruitment is the beginning to answer this question. In Beitou Village, disease, especially serious illness tends to be the major external reason for recruitment, when believers do not have sufficient understanding of doctrine. There are four stages between simple religious feelings to Christian faith, which are family crisis caused by disease, alternative medicine, efficacious result, and God's Election.This thick description shows pragmatic trend in belief, that the keywords of belief are prayer and efficacy. What's more, the description reveals that Christian belief serves for the pursuit of family's existence and development. Except the analysis of recruitment, the paper shows many methods of solving clash and conflict between Church and family. During these situations, rural Christians give more priority to their family roles than religious conversion.In Chapter IV, there is further analysis about this secular keynote. Christian secular life can be divided into three aspects, which are reproduction of family membership, human relationship and economic activity. They all point to the life logic centered on core family.Core family, is produced from the practice of family separation. New family owns economic and life autonomy, and is liberated from familism gradually. From the perspective of family structure, core family just covers "husband-wife-children"trigonal relationship, and has decision-making power. However, core family in Beitou Village shows two extra characteristics. From the perspective of family function's achievement, it cannot be as independent as real core family, and need emotion and resource support from kinship network just like a network family. And from the perspective of family significance, family is the unit where every family member get individual benefits and happiness, and the sequence of contenting benefits is first children, then parents.The life logic centered on core family is embodied in two aspects. On one hand,living habit is centered on the core family. No matter human relationship, or economic behavior, they are all family oriented and guarantee the integrity and stability of family. On the other hand, the ultimate expectation is rooted in the core family.Generational responsibility and affective Commitment based on consanguinity, lead to the situation that longitudinal development of children's family becomes the meaning of parent's life.In Chapter V, the paper goes back to the concept of doctrinal ethics, and reveals various Christian ethics of marriage and family of St. Augustine of Canterbury and Martin Luther, and ethics of family in present local church. That is the transformation from Christian to Confucian ethics, and shows the mix between Christian belief and secular life logic.Ethics of marriage and family means that believer considers his identity in the balance of family and belief. Based on the opinion of sacrament of marriage, St.Augustine dissociates individual identity from family and wants to build the fellowship between believer and the God. Marriage is the union of two strangers in their belief of the God instead of the family life. Martin Luther denies the opinion of sacrament of marriage, and put marriage back into the secular life. His viewpoint shows secular-rational authority. However, the notion of Vocation still insists that familial identity and responsibility is the will of God.Through the preaching in local church, the paper finds the transformation from Christian to Confucian ethics. Although the preaching still shows the ethos of Martin Luther 's Vocation, it also reveals the emphasis on secular ethics. The ethic requirements for believers agree with rural common moral principles. Compared with non-believer, the Christian need to do better instead of different.Two examples about belief and family show the hierarchy between belief and family. When it comes to children's spouse-selection, the essence of belief problem is not belief but secular life. The incident of young believer's compromise shows that familial responsibility is external of belief, even advanced than Christianity. In other words, familial responsibility is based on the background of traditional Confucian ethics and emotional connection originated from living together. Family is more important than the fellowship between individual and the God.Chapter VI focuses on the question of "religious encounter". The relation between Christianity and folk religions should be considered in the dynamic religious ecosystem, not as the Clash of Civilizations.Respective discussion of ancestor worship and sea-god worship constructs the base of religious ecosystem in Beitou Village. As the symbol of ancestor worship,traditional ancestral temple has clan's and religious attributes. However,in recent years, the betterment of ancestral temple operated by going-out elites, results in the weakness of its religious attribute. Ancestor worship is selectively used as a kind of social capital now. Analysis of sea-god worship focuses of the sea sacrificial ceremony hold in the solar term of Guyu. The ceremony is rough and simple, but it is relevant to the role of function spirits closely. On one hand, it inherits the original religious and folk attributes in folk sacrificial rites. On the other hand, it reflects fisherman's hunger for survival directly. Sea sacrificial ceremony is a fisherman's"survival technique".Preceding analysis reveals three characteristics of religious ecosystem in Beitou Village. Firstly, folk religion constructs the base of religious ecosystem and its connotation is beyond the division of sacred and secular life, so Christian development must be connected to it. Secondly, to some degree, folk religion still retains religious attribute, such as worship sense and sacrificial ceremony. That is in conflict with Christian doctrine of monotheism. Thirdly, there are some limitations in the terms of folk religious form and expression, such as the weakness of ancestor worship's religious attribute, and female taboo. They provide opportunities for Christian development in turn.In this situation, Christianity takes two paths into the rural society, and makes different results. At the beginning, the church exaggerates the opposite relation between itself and original ecosystem, and ignores its dependence of the system.Following the path of" religious absolutism", the conflict in funeral leads Christianity to be marginalized by the rural society. Lately, church follows "cultural relativism"path. Through reinterpretation of funeral, marine taboo and female taboo, the harmonious status between Christianity and folk religion appears gradually.Christian circumstances in Beitou Village can be summarized in two aspects. First is the relation between belief and life. The most brief words to explain this relation, is that " belief is for the purpose of better life". Christianity just emerges in Beitou Village. Its optional, secular and flexible attributes, lead to the result that believers consider the belief as spirit fast food aimed to solve life crisis. In the pragmatic cultural soil, the existence and development of religion must be based on the life logic of core family. Popular interests in Christianity do not head from its theological doctrine or philosophical thought, but from the fact that religious mystery meet their emotional demands.Second is the relation between Christian universality and locality. During the process of dealing with the tension between religious orthodoxy and existent legitimacy, a local church is formed gradually. The question of that to what extent this local church conforms to western theological doctrine is still debatable. But more importantly, in the rural society filled with pragmatism, family tradition, and various folk religions,Christianity has attracted a number of followers successfully. On one hand, they build specific Christian identity; on the other hand, they can adjust flexibly the relation between belief and life, and between believers and non-believers. From this perspective, Christianity in Beitou Village has been free from the expression determined by western church, and shows cosmopolitan religious culture via heavy local color.In Chapter ?, there are two questions to be discussed further. First, based on field material, the paper enters into dialogue with three theories, which are secularization theory, religious economy model and religious ecology. After clarifying the beginning and conclusion of secularization theory, the paper tries to enrich and improve the theory in three aspects, which are discussion about development trend of religion, distinction between rational and non-rational, and analysis about mystery and secularity. The reasons why religious economy model is so popular are that the theory deconstructs former religious notion in China, and explains Chinese religious phenomena to some degree. However, based on filed study, there are some propositions need to be perfected in the theory, such as the emphasis on competitive religious relations, too broad definition of rational choice and neglect about voluntary and involuntary. At last, because of the match with Chinese various religions,religious ecology shows its high application value. Facing the question that "whether or not the religious ecology is balanced", different group makes different answer.Expect various empirical materials, there are two more reasons for the dissent. One is limitation of identity; the other is different definition of balance. Holding the principle of value neutrality, researchers should analyze religious phenomena from an overall perspective. What's more, expect objective evaluation, researchers can make concrete analysis of religious ecosystem in a certain situation.Second, as the continuation of Christian locality, the paper discusses the possibility of indigenization of Christianity in China. Sticking to the essence of Christianity is the life problem of church's development,and indigenization of Christianity is its survival problem. Based on the sticking to "Apostle's Creed" and"Nicene Creed", Christianity should not be existed in a single form. During the process of localization of Buddhism in China, there are many methods, such as translation, mystery, coherence, and rite. These methods have referential value for Christian development in China. Only following the principle of "self-government,self-support and self-propagation" with positive and constructive attitude,Christianity in China can make more meaningful social and cultural contributions.