Study Of Rural Christian Faith And The Spread Of The Status Quo

Since the Reform and Opening-up, Christianity gets a rapid development in China, especially in the rural areas, becoming a social phenomenon that should not be neglected. Based on the Christianity in Gaomiao village in western Shandong province and using the folklore perspective, this thesis focuses on the local Christian, seeking to offer a real image of their belief. In the thesis, the author relied on fieldwork method, such as take participation observation and going down to interview, giving a deep investigation and description on their social background, conviction process, religious life, daily life changes after their conversion, in order to present a broad view about the interaction between the Christianity and the local culture.In the beginning, the thesis takes a look at the transition of the production mode and life style, as well as the changes of the faith climate, providing specific space-time backgrounds for the Christian. Due to the climate changes, being religious becomes a personal affair. Then in the following, the author analyzed the conversion process of the Christian. The emphasis on the effectiveness during the conversion motivation and process reflects the accordance between Christianity and the traditional faith. And finally, an inspection on the religious and daily life is taken. Their religious life conforms to the production and life in the aspect of time schedule and religious services. Both holiness and personal option exist in the process. Considering the daily life and society tolerance, the Christian has made limited alternation to the traditional custom. Although, this leads to obvious changes to the folklore, these changes only affected the Christian with limited width and depth.