SEEKING THE COMMON GROUND: PROTESTANT CHRISTIANITY, THE THREE-SELF MOVEMENT AND CHINA'S UNITED FRONT

This study is concerned with Protestant Christianity and the Three-Self Movement in the People's Republic of China since 1949. The Christian experience in China is interpreted in terms of the relationship between the Three-Self Movement and the Communist Party's united front. This approach seeks to interpret what Chinese Protestants have been saying about themselves in historical and theological perspective. It is our thesis that the united front principle of "seeking the common ground while reserving differences" is the fundamental category with which to understand both religious policy and the Protestant response in contemporary China.; A consideration of religion and society in the Chinese context is presented in Chapter I as different interpretations of Christianity in contemporary China are discussed in relation to various factors which have shaped Chinese Protestantism. Chapters II and III deal with the development of the united front and Chinese religious policy. Here, our concern is with ideology and organization as they have been defined by the Communist Party.; In Chapters IV and V, Three-Self is treated as a Chinese movement, a mass organization of Protestants within the united front. This is discussed with regard to the criticism of imperialism, ideological remoulding and the organization of a patriotic movement. The renewal of institutional Christianity since 1979 is also analyzed in light of the rejection of Three-Self from the Right and the Left.; Attention shifts in Chapters VI and VII to Three-Self as a Christian movement. In order to create a self-governing, self-supporting and self-propagating Christianity and to promote Christian unity, the Three-Self Movement has encouraged Christian witness in and through the Chinese revolution. This generated the beginnings of a theological reorientation in the 1950's, and it has shaped the restoration of the Three-Self Movement in the 1970's and 80's. Despite its many problems and setbacks, Three-Self has thus made Christianity more accessible to the average Chinese, and the Church more acceptable in Chinese society.