Author: CAO Nanlai, Professor, Institute for the Study of Buddhism and Religious Theory, Renmin University of China.
LEI Lei, PhD Student, Department of Religious Studies, School of Philosophy, Renmin University of China.
Abstract:
For newly emergent religious charity organizations in China, the question of how to resolve the tension between religious and social identities often presents a difficult dilemma. Based on fieldwork conducted in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces among two types of Protestant Christian charities, this paper investigates the construction of Christian charitable subjectivity within the current ecology of religious development in China. The analysis of empirical cases shows that Chinese Christian charity organizations increasingly take charity as an integral part of their religious identity, through which the process of a conscious Christian philanthropic awareness and culture that combines faith and charity has emerged. This new Christian philanthropic culture constitutes an essential means for Christian groups to overcome a sense of “otherness" in society and construct a public identity for a contextualized Chinese Christianity within existing policy conditions, one that is not only in line with the spirit and practice of Christian charity promoted by early missionaries in the “social gospel” movement but also embodies a new inclusive culture of volunteerism that facilitates the integration of Chinese Christian charity into national and international systems of public social services
Keywords:
Religious Philanthropy, Social Identity, Subjectivity, Christian Philanthropic Culture, Christianity in a Chinese Context
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