How Do Chinese Christians Draw Boundaries among Themselves? Reassessing the Question of Chinese Christianities

Abstract

This paper explores how Christians have established six communities in Nanping, Fujian, to discuss the unity and diversity of Chinese Christianity. The research provides a historical and ethnographic account of local churches, revealing the evolution of their modes of being religious and their organizational patterns over time. It argues that the negotiation of inter-ecclesial boundaries depends on specifically Christian features that foster a certain unity within the diversity of the Christian phenomenon. Aware of their different interpretations, all Christian communities still relate to the historical figure of Jesus Christ as their unique God and interact with the Church, a semi-transcendent being standing beyond their own congregation. Therefore, the diversity of churches, practices, and teachings should not be reduced to a juxtaposition of social groups promoting their own values and norms, but requires a multidimensional model of Christianity that encompasses the variety of human and non-human actors and their evolving interconnections.