Faith And Connections:A Study On The Formation Of The Shantung Native Christian Community In Modern Shantung History

The spread of Christianity in Shantung in modern times can be seen from both spatial and temporal perspectives,and its dissemination overview is roughly as follows: The East-West line of missionary societies took Chefoo and Tungchow as their bases to preach to the peninsula and the mainland,while the North-South line took Tientsin as a springboard to expand southward all the way along the Grand Canal in the northwest and southwest of Shantung.Tsinan,as the capital of Shantung,was designated as a common missionary area by the missionaries.The two routes were distributed in a cross shape with Tsinan as the center.As the missions gradually gained a foothold in Shantung and more and more people joined the church,native Shantung Christians as a community gradually became visible in modern Shantung society.The development of the native Christians is inseparable from the development of Christianity in Shantung,as the group emerged along with the spread of Christianity in the country.As to why the local Christians joined the church,we know through analysis that they joined the church for four reasons: first,the loss of the spiritual comfort function of traditional religions and their hope in Christianity;second,Christianity,as a powerful religion introduced in modern times,has a huge advantage over other religions in terms of money power and political rights,and the people seek refuge and "eat their bellies" for secular reasons.And other secular reasons to join the religion;then there is the Christianity that attracts people to believe in Christ by holding a series of social causes;and finally,there is the true faith perspective,the heart to the Christ.Regardless of the reasons why Christians join the church,the result is the same,namely,to become a member of the native Christian community in Shantung.From the analysis of various church materials,it can be found that most of the native Christians in Shantung are the grassroots people,and there are far more male than female native Christians;from the viewpoint of geographical distribution,most Christians live in the northern and central areas of Shantung,while the number in the southern areas is far less than other areas,and the distribution of believers is more scattered.However,a few Christians have received High religious training,matured in their theological thinking,and gradually began to pursue the self-reliance of the native church.This part of the native Christians played a pivotal role in the formation of the community later.Chinese society can be seen as consisted of some relationships,and everyone lives in a connection of relationships.People living in the society can rely on the connection to build their relationship with others,which Fei Xiaotong called " the pattern of difference sequence".Since native Shantung Christians live in Chinese society,they naturally cannot escape from building a small group of Christians,the Christian family,through the most basic kinship.Through affinal relative between families,Christian families are interconnected through the in-law network to form a larger group of native Christians.In addition to the traditional interpersonal kinship,there was also an important presence of academic connection,as the missionaries established a complete education system in Shantung that encompassed kindergarten to university,with numerous church schools scattered throughout the region.Through the creation of church schools,especially Christian universities,Christians from the whole province were able to get together in the campus and call themselves alumni,and the schools continued to strengthen the sense of community identity of the school community in all aspects.In the process of expanding the Christian community,it is inevitable that it will interact with other groups,such as non-Christian groups,officials and gentry,and other Christian groups.As a newly emerged group,it broke the traditional social group power contrast,which inevitably caused social exclusion,so the interaction between local Christians and other groups was often accompanied by friction and conflict.However,with the development of the group’s power,conflicts still occur,but the overall situation has changed for the better.The reason for this change is that the Christian community has been adapting to Chinese society in its interactions with other groups,deconstructing Christianity to fit the Chinese context,and enabling the Christian community to be more active and less ostracized at the social level.In the process of interacting with other groups and reconstructing the Chinese deconstruction of Christianity,native Christians have been able to manifest their Christian identity and enhance their role identity and community cohesion by creating religious rituals,community religious activities,and religious culture that are different from those of other communities.With the combined effect of the above-mentioned factors,the Christian self-reliance movement in Shantung was carried out in various places in the early 20 th century until 1929,when the Presbyterian Church in American Presbyterian and the Baptist Missions joined together to form the Shantung Conference of the Church of Christ in China,which brought more than 80%of the native Christians in Shantung under the charge of the Shantung Conference and became a landmark event in the formation of the native Christian community in Shantung.Therefore,the native Christian community in Shantung was officially active in modern Shantung society and became an important social force.