Toward an understanding of the prosperity of Protestantism in contemporary China.

Abstract

This dissertation answered the question: How did Protestantism survive and even flourish in contemporary China under the pressure of rigid religious policies issued by the atheist Chinese government? Three sociological theoretic frameworks were applied to test in the Chinese case: demand-side model developed from Weberian tradition, supply-side model incorporating economic model, and consideration of religious regulation. In a modernizing world, external factors are indispensible in this discussion, such as urbanization and globalization. This dissertation therefore analyzed the prosperity of Protestantism in contemporary China from three perspectives: individuals at micro-level as the demand-side, Protestant institutions at meso-level as the supply-side, and government regulations and other factors at macro-level as social context. This dissertation employed literature review, theoretical inference, and personal interviews as research methodology trying to demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of Protestantism in contemporary China. It reached the conclusion that the prosperity of Protestantism is a multi-dimensional phenomenon, and cannot be appropriately interpreted without taking all aspects into account.