The Redemption Of Gifts:A Study On The Group Integration Mechanism Of Christian House Churches

As one of the five major religions in China,Christianity is an important part of social culture.Correctly guiding the development of Christianity is of great significance to social stability and healthy operation.The number of house churches and believers is not only difficult to count,but also more than the Three-Self Church.Therefore,an in-depth understanding of the operation mode of house churches is of positive significance for understanding the development mechanism of Christianity.In order to explore the group integration mechanism of Christian house churches,this paper uses the "gift" paradigm in the sociology of religion to investigate and analyze the daily operation of Christian house churches,from the aspects of believers’ belief practice,the relationship between believers and believers,believers and God,and the construction of church community,etc,then refined its integration model into "gift redemption",that is,the gift circulation model that revolves around redemption.Believers convert to God because of the need for redemption,integrate into the gift cycle of spiritual practice,spirituality(salvation)and devotion,in the normalized "human-God" gift exchange and the "human-human" interaction of mutual assistance and cooperation,a church community serving the Christian faith and a moral life about "goodness" and "love" are formed,so as to realize the sustainable development of the Christian faith.On this basis,this paper attempts to compare and dialogue the Christian church integration model from the perspective of gift and the gift integration model of folk belief groups in existing research,and proposes that the difference between the two can be refined into the redemption model of gift and the grace of gift.There are differences between the two in the extension and connotation of "human-god" gift exchange,the form and content of "human-human" interaction,the formation mechanism and action mechanism of the community,etc,but they can all be explained in the gift paradigm,a general theory of sociology.Through the above comparison,this paper expands the application scope of the gift paradigm to a certain extent,and enriches the understanding of the operating mechanism of religion.