Somewhere between Kunming and Beijing, between my father’s clickety-clack and this near-silent glide, I realized how much the world can change in a lifetime—and how faith, like memory, must find its voice again amid the noise and speed of progress.
Traditional China’s worldview—Confucianism, Daoism/folk religion, Buddhism, and the management of “heterodoxy”—shaped how Christianity was first seen: foreign, sometimes tolerated, and often misunderstood.
They patiently persevered as "people of the soil," knowing trees take a long time to grow and bear fruit.
Readers may be left with the impression that the Three-Self Church either willingly cooperates and blindly accepts the government’s agenda, or passively submits, powerless and resigned. But is that really the case?
Metaphors have the power to expand our imaginations or limit our thinking. May the lived experience of China’s Christians, both inside and outside China, inspire new images of what is possible in Christ’s kingdom.
I pray for more women and men from around the world, to view China—not through the lenses of journalists, internet celebrities or politicians, but as God sees it.
Developing Chinese religions is not a socio-cultural or religious concern but one of international relations and national security.
Christianity has endured over 1,300 years of history in China, weathering many challenges and undergoing a long course of “assimilation.”
Can Zhongguohua be equated with the notion of indigenization? An attempt to draw a comparison is pursued through the lens of three distinctive dimensions.
In recent years, the approach to religious affairs has shifted toward the “Sinicization of Christianity.” This strategy is rooted in two key objectives: “countering infiltration” and “going global.”
Sinicization is the UFWD’s agenda for Chinese religious associations. All religions are to be Sinicized, even Taoism. But the challenge of bringing “foreign religions” like Christianity and Islam into the Party’s agenda requires increased effort.
Xi’s directive to align all religions with Zhongguohua is not only rooted in academic and institutional history but is also deeply embedded in the traditions of the official Protestant church.