A Study On University Student-Christian's Identity And Analysis Of Cause In Shanghai

It has been concerned recently that there are many university students believe in Christianity. This study will focus on why and how the students become the Christian, and what its influence on the higher education is.The qualitative and quantitative methods are adopted synthetically in the study, such as the interview, the observation and the questionnaire. The study reveals the process in which the university students contact, establish and corroborate the identity of Christian from the viewpoint of identity. The three criterions are used to judge the identity. Firstly, the individuals can define themselves as the members of a certain group. Secondly, the individuals are obvious of the roles and statuses in the group, and corresponding duties and rights. Thirdly, the individuals can agree with the value of the group.Because of the crisis and the interest, the university students contact the identity of the Christian by the interpersonal relationship. The Christianity helps they to understand "who am I" by regulating the member qualification and some special behaviors. It makes the individuals obey the social goal beyond the individual advantages and form the duties. It encourages them to share some ultimate values and faith which strengthen the identity .Moreover the evaluations of the other non-christian promote them to confirm the self-identity.In the traditional viewpoint, there exists some misunderstanding that the Chinese have not the orthodox religion but the utilitarian motivation. Some people think that the religion of the university students equals the ideology and politics. This study disagrees that. In fact, the university students realize the identity of the Christian and have the orthodox religion. At the beginning of the religion, they are stimulated by some utilitarianism .But the exterior religion is transformed gradually to interior religion, which shows the identity of the sin, the hope of the redemption and the selection of the value.The emergence of the university students' religion has the close relation with the social background. The social transformation brings about the disaggregation of the community centering the family relations, the absence of the faith and the increase of the anomie, which weaken the identity of the university students. Besides, the higher education can't help them to identify themselves. As the result of the identity crisis, the university students are bound to seek a new identity.The higher education should have the right attitude of the phenomenon and guide it positively. Firstly, the freedom of religion should be respected. Secondly, the faith education should be strengthened to the university students,. Thirdly, the identity of the university students should be formed. Due to the emergence of the subculture in the modern social structure, the identity of the individual inclines complication. In the circumstances, the prominence should be given to the function of the identity of religion.