| It has been hundreds of years from Christianity were introduced to China. So far, the rural Christians have become an important part of the Christian believers in China. According to the data, by the end of 2010, the rural Christian believers have occupied more than 80% of Christians. The development of Christianity in rural areas will inevitably have a great impact on rural communities and farmer believers. In the existing research, scholars focus mainly on the impact about political, economic and cultural aspects in rural areas it brought. From the perspective of individual Christians, detailed description of Christian influence upon personal life research is lacking. Therefore, starting from individual Christians, this study selected the southern Shandong N village as a case to discuss it. In the process of observation of the N village Christian, the most impressive is the expansion of their religious life circle and social communication network, From this perspective, whether Christianity has become a way for farmers Christians obtaining social capital? How the developments of Christianity affect the social capital impact of believers? This is the central topic of this research.The research takes the social capital theory as the theoretical foundation, social capital is an extremely complex theory, the study about social capital is also each according to his lights, there is not a clear standards and inspection system. Overall, in previous studies, the study of social capital considerations of individual major emphasis on the social network status of the individual, Study of collective social capital considered trust, network, group norms and other factors. Trust, norms of reciprocity and networks, the three are inseparable, interrelated and constitute the first order concept of social capital, Therefore, in the study of individual social capital, only considering individual network situation is one-sided, Based on this consideration, in the analysis of the Christian social capital from the three dimensions of view--the trust, networks, norms of reciprocity--and a comprehensive study is particularly important. So the study take "trust-network-norm" as the analytical framework to prove the view the development of Christianity can increase the social capital of the believers, and to describe how the increment was generated.Under the three dimensions of social capital, analyze the process of Christians maintain and access to social capital. In the Christian organization individual believers interact with other individuals in the premise of mutual trust. Believing in Christian and participate in religious activities make people get a higher reputation, expand the radius of trust, trust is incremental. On the basis of trust each other, after the multiple reciprocities, followers’ network is extended and strengthened, position in the network is improved, and the network properties changes from homogeneity to heterogeneity, social networks have increment. On the basis of trust radius extending and social network expanding, the object of the reciprocal exchange is wider, the content is richer, the frequency of reciprocal exchange is increased, the norms increment. At the same time, the improvement of the specification produces more trust between Christians and the trust level between the individual is also improved than before. Trust, network, and norm form a virtuous cycle mechanism. It is in this mechanism, the increase of believers’ social capital is produced.Based on the above analysis, this study argues that:firstly, the development of rural Christian improves the conditions of trust, network and norm, so the social capital of the believers is increased; secondly, with the perspective of social capital theory analysis China countryside Christianity is feasible, with the "trust-network-norm" this analysis framework analyze Social capital is feasible; Thirdly, rural Christian have become an important way of believers access to social capital, the reason of it is related to the lack of contemporary rural public space and public culture.Therefore, how to develop rural public utilities and how to guide the healthy development of rural Christian needs our continued concern. |
