Xingyang True Church Of Jesus Christ, Faith Studies,

Christianity has many sects, whose spread and development in China catch the attention of Chinese academy. The True Jesus Church is a small sect. Attempts are made to study the True Jesus Church in Xingyang, Henan province by means of anthropological fieldwork. It is concluded that under the influence of political and economic factors the True Jesus Church in Xingyang has underwent a tortuous and long development since it was spread here 60 years ago and its characteristics have been formed, which has far-reaching impact on the believers.Qualitative method is used in this paper to study the development of the True Jesus Church in Xingyang by interviewing the believers. Its status quo is described and analyzed from the make-up, conversion, participation,dedication and religious services of the believers. The characteristics of its spread are summarized by reviewing its history and status quo. Functional analysis approach is adopted to study its social function. The history, development and social function of the True Jesus Church in Xingyang are thoroughly shown.Besides the introduction, this paper consists of six parts. The first part introduces the background information of the True Jesus Church, including its origin and founders. The second part reviews its history of spread and development in past 60 years. The third part analyzes the status quo from the make-up, the conversion, participation and dedication and religious services of the believers. The forth part focuses on the characteristics of its spread. The fifth part analyzes its social function. The sixth part is the conclusion that the development of the True Jesus Church in Xingyang is contradictory. On one hand, it adopts the development model of western Christianity. On the other hand, it gets rid of the bond of western Christianity. The True Jesus Church is in an embarrassed situation. Compared with the local religions of China, it seems that it has many alien characteristics so that it is misunderstood as the Protestant. However, it has more characteristics of the local religions of China. Because of its likeness, it is repelled. That is the reason why The True Jesus Church survives between the Chinese and western religions.