Abstract
In this paper, we conducted an empirical analysis of the reasons for belief in Christianity in Wuhan, China. The data in this paper is from Chinese Urban Research Center for Ethnic and Religious Affairs Management, collected in 2015. We focus on the group characteristics of Christians in urban areas, and its influencing factors. It is found that the Christians in Wuhan are typically older, female, and less educated. Other patterns we have found include powerful influence by family members and friends, pragmatic reasons for following Christianity, family parties as a common way of religious assembly, and discretional admission and exit. Logistic regression is employed here to analyze the determinants of Christian belief. Gender, age, marital status, average annual income, education degree, and health conditions have significant effects on believing in Christianity.
Highlights
In recent years, the modern Chinese society has witnessed a rise of Christianity (Jay 1997).Since the implementation of economic reform and opening-up in 1979, many religions have been restored to life and flourished, among which Christianity expands by leaps and bounds (Yang 2010a, 2010b)
First, women are more likely to be influenced by family and friends and believe in Christianity
Considering the research samples, the main reasons for urban residents to believe in Christianity are influence from religious family members, and the illness of their family members and their own
Summary
The modern Chinese society has witnessed a rise of Christianity (Jay 1997). To summarize the aforementioned studies, scholars in China and abroad have addressed the group characteristics and the religious activities of Chinese Christians, and a major part of the literature focuses on the rural residents, the elderly and the females among Christians as well as the reasons of Christian belief. Cao Nanlai (Cao 2013) on the other hand, tried to explain the reason why Christianity could spread rapidly within different social classes in highly commercialized urban areas in China through his study in Wenzhou, Zhejiang He has revealed that a modernizing state, lax local governance, emerging capitalist consumer economy, and greater spatial mobility among individuals are important factors. Jie Kang (Kang 2015) has investigated the Christian social network development in China through studying the home churches in Linyi, Shandong in both rural and urban areas. Protestantism is the focus of our study, and “Christianity” refers to Protestantism in this article if not specified otherwise
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