Identity Forming Of Local Christian

Identity is an important concept which can connect the individual and the society. Identity is the knowledge for individual of his/her location within the society and its formation could be influenced by many social powers. For various reasons, there was a saying in Chinese history, going like that "A more Christian, a Chinese fewer". And the Chinese Christians had difficulties on their identifications of Christian identity. Basing on the case study on the Christians living in Y County of the central area in China, this dissertation tries to explore their identification and formation of their religious identity in contemporary China.The main paths for the Christians to convert to the Christianity including the followings: the family believing tradition, diseases, difficulties in life and converting in safety. Christianity is an institutional religion, and Christian has definite identification with their group identity, which can be discovered in their language, their thinking style, the relations with others and their life style. Receiving baptism is the symbol to be a Christian, and believing in the Jesus or not is the standard for the Christian to distinguish "we" group from "they" group. The Christian evaluate "we" group higher in comparing, thus promoting their identification.The religious life of Christian, including keeping chapels, fellowship activity and prayers enforced their group identity of being Christian. Religious ritual is the main part of religious activity, is a symbol and an outside representation of the Christian identity. Through these religious ritual and activity, the Christian understand Christianity deeper and enhance their belonging to the Christian group.The localization of Christianity is an inter-active process between Christianity and local traditional culture. The spiritual songs (Ling ge) are the Christian local belief pattern, which had adopted the local arts of saying and singing but added Christian content into the local arts. Reconstructing the local traditional culture made the expression of Christian identity has local characteristics.Ancestors worship is the focus of the conflict between the Christianity and Chinese tradition. Death ritual is the main part of ancestors worship. The Christian death ritual kept the basic frame of traditional one, but changed some parts according to the Christian teachings. Although the Christian death ritual has not formed its system, it has been an effectual way for the Church to go into public life, and been a stage for the Christian to express their religious identity.For the Christian, their religious identity is one of their kinds of identities. The Christian identity can be the main identity or not, is dif ferent for different people, or depending on the situation. With the developing of local Church, the expression of Christian identity has a tendency from individuality to sociality. The forming of Christian identity is a kind of group pattern.