Religious Conversion Embedded In Everyday Life

Studies on the conversion of Christians are not only different in disciplines, butalso in theoretical paradigms, Chinese experience and methodologies, which are indualism:1) in sociology of religion theory, there is binary opposition betweenfunctionalism paradigm and cognitivism paradigm;2) in the China studies ofChristians conversion, there is binary opposition between western theories and Chineseexperience;3) in cultural analysis of Christians conversion, there is binary oppositionbetween western civilization(Christianity) and Chinese culture.This paper tries to overcome the shortcomings of the informed research, andanalyses conversion from the perspective of relations of religion and society. Religionis a kind of social embeddedness in classical sociology study, which believe religion isembedded in social order and the reflection of the essentials of social phenomenon.However, with the development of modern society, theories of secularization disprovedthe assertion that religion is embedded in society, and which claims that in modernreligions have already disembedded from social structure completely, and social orderis no longer formed in sacred manner. The theory of secularization is still insightful，but there is also fallacy which see the separation of religion from the political andeconomical order of the society as a split of religion and the whole social structure.Actually, religion does not disembedded from social structure entirely, but just frompart of the social order, and embedded everyday life, another part of social order.Embeddedness in everyday life of religion appeals a turning of everyday life inreligion sociology, which means that modern sociology of religion should conductresearch of religious phenomenon and behavior in the perspective of everyday life. Referring to the issue of this paper, the author advocate that it should be in the contextof everyday life to understand the motivation, mechanism and procedure of religiousconversion:1) the study of religious conversion should descend from the grand socialstructure to microcosmic everyday life;2) and it should focus on the world of everydaylife;3) it should pay attention to the everyday life context and circumstances ofreligious conversion;4)it should inquiry the Christian’s life history for interpreting themotivation and procedure of conversion;5) embeddedness in everyday life transcendsthe structure-agent analysis of religious conversion.There are there discoveries in the investigation of J church: firstly, the myth offaith in the transition period provides the ideological condition; secondly, requirementof everyday life is the reason of conversion; thirdly, Social network is the primarymeans for individuals engaging in Christianity. Studies on Christian conversion,including this paper indicates that one of the main and direct reason for conversion isdisease. From the perspective of embeddedness in everyday life, this paper analyzesdisease and conversion in the context of Chinese’s everyday life. By interpreting theChristians’ narration, the author found that to Chinese disease is not a personal matterat all. Fundamentally, Christians comply with the logic of family. This does not meanthat the Christian conversion of Chinese is utilitarianism. On the contrary, conversionfor family expresses the value and logic of Chinese’s life. As the Christian often says,“Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved--you and your household”. Believein the Lord Jesus is not for oneself, but for the whole family.The conversion of Christian must depend on social network, and successfulpreach actually happened in everyday lives. In secondary conversion, the conversion ofhusband was realized through satisfaction and appreciation for family life by hisChristian wife. In originating conversion, evangelist Showed the potential covert theeveryday life bring out the resonance and hope, and then realize his conversion.On the whole，the transformation of urban life could be understood in the conceptof social atomization. For individuals in cities, both of residents and migration areexperiencing the fracture of everyday life，which mean they are away from the highly stable and low risk lives，and their lives transforms into atomized condition. Facing theunexpected risks in life chances and social welfare，along with the anxiety about socialidentity and self identity and the lack of emotional bond and public life，people incities often fell hopeless. To make up the fracture of everyday life caused by thetermination of Danwei system，many urban individuals chose to convert to Christians,thus to regain the stability and continuance of everyday life.All religious conversions need the participation in ritual to make believersapproaching and felling its faith. Therefore, the study on the believe and theconversion of Christians would be unable to proceed without ritual analysis. This papersuggests that the religious ritual the fundamental significance of which is more thanpotential believers’ external practice and perform, itself is a kind of constructive action,and which is accomplished by emotional arousal in ritual. The main reason why canritual arouse enthusiasm is that ritual can change people’s attitude and feelings on lives.If for making a living in hardship, people’s everyday life emotion is depressed byutilitarian; then religious ritual means emotional release which is based on the changeof feeling about normal life. It is the function of Christian ritual either. Through theobservation of Christian ritual, the author find that, if everyday life make peoplefeeling powerless, disappointed and anxiety, then the transformed felling on everydaylife by ritual is full of enthusiasm about liberation and participation.All in all, Christian conversion is embedded in everyday life.