Ideas

Editorial reflection and analysis on issues shaping Chinese Christianity.

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Heart vs Surface-level Reconciliation

Pursuing heart-level reconciliation can be hard, humbling work. A labor of love. Yet when our love is infused with God’s love—our source of strength to reconcile—we can persevere in the process.

Beyond the Standard Narrative

Legislation may technically render a host of Christian activities illegal, but these activities do not suddenly cease. While we may hear that “China” is clamping down on unregistered meetings or websites or online gatherings, the reality on the ground may tell a different story.

Pressure on the Church, Pressure on the Party

When pressure comes, Christians generally respond in one of three ways: fight, flight, or somewhere in the middle…. When praying for the Chinese church, we must not fail to pray...for the unity of Christians under pressure.

Are You in Conflict?

As Christians in China study biblical peacemaking, many have had personal aha moments…they now see that conflict starts in the heart and that avoiding addressing the root heart issues in order to “avoid conflict,” only results in the heart conflict remaining.

Church Development and Theological Education

Doubtless the vigorous development of theological education since the 1990s is one of the important evidences of the growth of Christianity in China. Besides reflecting the growth of the church, it was itself a factor in the further expansion of the church.

Chinese Christians in the New Era—Hope and Overcoming

The winter 2022 issue of ChinaSource Quarterly offers perspectives like a plane dropping from thirty thousand feet to ground level, as they shift from high-level and mildly optimistic…to close up, personal, and much more pessimistic. Together, they offer helpful insight on what’s happening in China after ten years of…political leadership by Xi Jinping.

Who Moved My Church?

The key to the Western church’s ongoing effectiveness may well be its ability to learn from majority world believers, many of whom have experience in living out their faith in the face of political and cultural restrictions.

China’s New Civil Religion

China is…in the midst of a religious boom, which the government is trying to use to further its grip on power… But can authoritarianism and religious life coexist?

This Changes Everything

The promise of Christmas is not that everything changes tomorrow, but that change is possible through Christ…It begins with the transformation of human hearts.

Drinking from a Deep Well

A taste of the 2022 winter issue of ChinaSource Quarterly, "Chinese Christians in the New Era."

Examining Patterns in Chinese Religiosity

Chinese religiosity’s orientation toward cultivating the goodness of human nature in the everyday, societal, and cosmic spheres of life can be found in the diverse threads that make up modern Chinese Christian movements.