Staying Catholic: Catholicism and local culture in a northern Chinese village

This dissertation investigates the relationship between local culture and the inculturation of Catholicism in a northern Chinese village. The Christian revival in China since the early 1980s has aroused great interest among social scientists. Previous studies have focused to some extent on political, social, economic, geographical, and religious factors. This dissertation stresses local culture. I chose an entirely Catholic village, which Matteo Ricci converted to Catholicism in 1604 and which has remained Catholic until today. Even the local cadres are all Catholic. Based on culture-religion mutual influence and intra and inter group conflict theories and my ethnographic and historical research both in this Catholic village and in a neighboring non-Catholic village, I find that local culture is the underlying factor in the continuation of Catholicism in the Catholic village. Local life-cycle rituals, several centuries' legends of fengshui and of protection by local gods, certain local cultural symbols, intra and inter group conflict have become effective means of passing on Catholicism in this village. My findings are consistent with theories that culture and religion influence each other, intra and inter group conflicts create cohesive power, and illustrate that local culture can be the carrier of a western religion, in effect turning it into a Chinese religion. Since northern China has hundreds of largely Catholic villages, this case study reflects certain characteristics of the inculturation of Catholicism in that region, but generalization of the findings requires more and diverse cases.