A Politically Shaped Theological Movement
In the past decade, the Sinicization of Christianity—a theological campaign shaped by political forces—has become one of the most prominent theological issues in contemporary China.
Looking back at church history, whenever a theological movement has been propelled by political powers, it has tended to produce a spectrum of internal responses. Within the Three-Self Church system, the Sinicization movement has been underway for years, featuring academic conferences and scholarly publications.
In contrast, many house churches—averse to regulatory religious policies—have responded with indifference. Some house churches even argue that their theological convictions and faith practices are already “Sinicized.”
Learning from Church History
To better understand today’s Sinicization campaign in China, it may be helpful to examine similar theological movements in church history.
In the early church period, Christianity had a tense relationship with the Roman Empire. The official Roman religious system clashed with Christian teachings.
As a result, early Christian apologists focused on two key concerns: First, that Christian ethics did not violate Roman moral standards and, in fact, surpassed them; and second, that Christian theology intersected with Greco-Roman thought and offered superior answers to philosophical and theological questions.
After Christianity was legalized, it gradually gained political influence, and the tension between Christianity and Roman culture began to ease. By the medieval period, Christianity had become a dominant religious force, and compared to surrounding “barbarian” tribes, Christian communities were viewed as more civilized. At that point, the church gave little thought to its relationship with non-Christian cultures.
Christian Encounters with Other Cultures
In the modern era, the global missionary movement brought Christianity into contact with non-Western cultures, making the relationship between Christianity and foreign cultures more pronounced. The Jesuits’ cultural accommodation policy in 17th-century China, 19th-century Protestant missionaries’ emphasis on medicine and education as strategies to prepare the soil, and the fierce cultural criticisms leveled by 20th-century American fundamentalist missionaries—all represent different approaches to navigating Christianity’s engagement with other cultures.
Why Is the Sinicization Agenda Still So Important?
Still, some may wonder: Protestant Christianity has been in China for over 200 years, and in many regions it has become deeply embedded in local communities. Why, then, is the Chinese government still so concerned with the Sinicization of Christianity?
Some suggest that this is a result of recent shifts in religious policy or changes in China’s relationship with the West, especially the United States. While these explanations are reasonable, they may overlook a deeper cultural factor: Among all the non-Christian cultures Christianity has encountered in its 2,000-year history, Chinese culture is among the oldest and most resilient. This has led to a lasting tension and continued interaction between Christianity and Chinese culture.
Why Rome Is Not a Parallel
Some have pointed to Christianity’s eventual triumph in Rome as evidence that it may likewise prevail in China. But this analogy lacks persuasive power. Although the Roman Empire had an official religion, its continued territorial expansion led to a highly diverse cultural landscape. There were inconsistencies between the state religion and grassroots mystery cults. Conquered peoples could gain Roman citizenship, and their cultural beliefs flowed into Rome’s broader cultural reservoir. The Roman Empire functioned more as a military-political community than as a coherent cultural one. In this context, Christianity, as a rising new faith, was able to wedge itself into Roman society and carve out a limited space for survival.
Why China Has Been a Historical Exception
After the Age of Discovery, Christianity expanded from being a Western faith to a global one. China, however, was a notable exception in this process. From the 16th to 17th centuries, large numbers of Jesuit missionaries came to China, using advanced scientific knowledge from the West to open doors and win the attention of Chinese intellectuals. But when the Rites Controversy erupted and Emperor Yongzheng lost interest in Christianity, many missionaries were expelled. In the 19th century, Protestant missionaries poured vast resources into China, yet Christianity never took root on a large scale. By 1949, Christians made up only 1% of China’s total population.
Two Paths in China’s Christian Revival
The rapid growth of Chinese Christianity over the past 40 years can largely be attributed to two key factors. First, the rise of grassroots Christianity in rural and remote areas helped bypass the label of Christianity as a foreign religion. These believers emphasized personal transformation, scripture reading, prayer, and evangelism. Second, the emergence of urban Christianity saw some regard the faith as a symbol of Western culture, an appeal that drew many intellectuals to Christ.
This is not to say that urban churches neglected spiritual formation.
Rather, it was precisely the close association between Christianity and Western civilization—and the dominance of the West in modern times—that helped ease the perceived tension between Christianity and Chinese culture for these intellectuals.
A Tension That Cannot Be Avoided Forever
From these two examples, we can see that the recent revival of Christianity in China has taken one of two approaches: either avoiding the question of Christianity as a cultural outsider or asserting the superiority of Christian civilization over Chinese civilization to sidestep the issue temporarily.
Yet, in the author’s view, these strategies are only effective in the short term. For grassroots Christianity, cultural tension can be ignored for a while. But as these communities grow and their second and third generations enter mainstream society, the cultural question will inevitably resurface.
For urban churches, even if Christianity seems culturally superior at certain moments in history, both Christian and Chinese civilizations are dynamic and evolving. The current cultural comparison between China and the West does not necessarily predict the future.
A Lasting Cultural Conversation
As traditional Chinese culture experiences a revival and China’s economy continues to grow, subtle shifts are taking place—particularly among political and economic elites—in how the West is perceived. While most Chinese people are still preoccupied with the pressures of daily life, the changing perspectives of China’s elites may reshape how Christianity interacts with Chinese culture. Thus, the issue of Sinicization will likely remain a vital topic for years to come. Even if political factors one day fade from this conversation, cultural dynamics will still prompt reflection and engagement across Chinese society and the church.
From this perspective, the Sinicization of Christianity is not merely a passing campaign, but a long-term issue that will continue to shape the church in China.
Editor’s note: This article was originally written in Chinese and was translated and edited by the ChinaSource team with permission.
