Blog Entries on Church and Culture
Christmas Crowds in China | Part 3
Crowds of New Believers
In years past I have marveled at the large numbers of people who flow through China’s churches every year at Christmas. I know of one urban church that hosts over 10,000 visitors during its six Christmas services. Each year I see the church building bursting at its seams, bodies crammed along every aisle and stairway. Each year I watch as the area around the church is closed to traffic and swarmed by young people eager to catch a glimpse or hear a word of Christmas—compelled by a sense that Christmas must in some ways must be connected to the church.
Self-Reliance and the Chinese Male
During a recent conversation with a Chinese friend I listened as he recounted his conversion to Christianity and the difficulty he experienced overcoming his deeply ingrained tendency toward self-reliance.
Confrontation or Conversation? The Church and Confucianism in China
The Spring 2014 issue of ChinaSource Quarterly takes up the topic of Confucianism'S resurgence in China and its implications for the church. Certainly not a new topic, the relationship between China's dominant worldview and the Christian gospel has been a perennial subject of discussion since at least the days of Matteo Ricci. Successive generations of Christians in China have asked the pertinent questions in different ways, some choosing to find accommodation between the two, while others find them to be mutually exclusive.
A Conversation: Folk Customs or Pagan Customs?
I recently ran across a post called "Pagan Practice in China's Shanxi Province," which included some intriguing photos of traditional customs.
Same Same, But Different: Postmodernism in China
When shopping in street markets in Asia, I'd often hear the reply, "Same same, but different." The one item was the same as the other but somehow different. Maybe they didn't have the one I wanted but this other item would be just as good. Same thing but different.
The autumn issue of the ChinaSource Quarterly (due out next week) deals with the effects of postmodernism on China and the church.
Measures, Counter-measures, and Filial Piety
The Chinese have a saying: "shang you zhengce, xia you duice." A fairly literal translation is "the top adopts measures and the bottom adopts counter-measures. A more colloquial way of putting it is "the leaders make the policies and the people find a way around them."