Description
China’s Urban Christians looks at how massive urbanisation is redrawing not only the geographic and social landscape of China, but in the process is transforming China’s growing church as well. The purpose of this book is to explore how Christians in China perceive the challenges posed by their new urban context and to examine their proposed means of responding to these challenges. Although not primarily political in nature, these challenges nonetheless illustrate the complex interplay between China’s Christian community and the Chinese party-state as it comes to terms with the continued growth and increasing prominence of Christianity in modern China.
About the Author
Brent Fulton is Co-founder and President of ChinaSource and the Editor of ChinaSource Quarterly.
Contents
Acknowledgments
1. Introduction
2. The Context for Change
3. New Wineskins
4. A Shifting Battleground
5. Into the Light
6. The Church’s Global Mandate
7. The Quest for Unity
8. Testing the Limits
9. Conclusion
Bibliography
Index
Endorsements and Reviews
As China continues to aggressively urbanise so does the church. This book provides well-considered, insightful information that helps those of us on the outside looking in to better understand the true state of the present-day church in China. A tremendous update that truly informs.
Marvin J. Newell, Missio Nexus
The daily reality for Chinese Christians has completely changed and yet many in the West are still viewing the situation through an outdated lens. No one knows this better than Brent Fulton, who has spent a lifetime engaged with the subject. Fulton presents the rapidly changing church as it actually is. China’s Urban Christians is compulsory reading for anyone trying to understand this extraordinary moment in the history of the global church.
Rob Gifford, correspondent for The Economist, author of China Road
Looking beyond tensions between church and the Chinese Communist Party-state, this book superbly draws together scholarship and firsthand interviews in a highly readable fashion to present how today’s most innovative Chinese Protestants are grappling with a wide range of complex issues. It shows that Christianity in China is far more nuanced than common black-and-white depictions of church-state conflict, even more complex than subtle greys could capture. If you read this book, you will marvel at the dazzling colours of a church in transformation.
Carsten T. Vala, Visiting Fulbright Scholar, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile
Compared to previous works on the growth of Christianity in China, this project makes two understanding contributions. Firstly, Tulton draws upon extensive research and uses first-hand data of urban Christians. … Secondly, Fulton faithfully depicts what it is like to live in a post-totalitarian regime that both suppressed civil society and seeks performance legitimacy through economic growth.
Mary Li Ma, in Ching Feng, Vol 15.1-2
This slim volume presents a highly readable study of urban church life in contemporary China.
Chloe Starr, in Journal of Ecclesiastical History, Vol 69, Issue 2
Fulton’s accessible yet thorough work is a poignant and current picture of China’s church.
Ryan Murphy, in Theological Book Review, Vol 28, No 2
The book adopts a positive tone about the way in which Chinese churches and Christians can move from the margins to the centre of society, seeing that the Chinese government’s attention ‘has moved from ideological purity to economic development’.
Gerda Wielander, in Modern Believing, Vol 60, No 4, October 2019
