Why christianity is thriving in china today

He also serves as vice president for global engagement at Georgetown University and as professor in the Department of Government and the Walsh School of Foreign Service. Thomas Banchoff's Profile. He holds a Ph. Fenggang Yang's Profile. Why Christianity is Thriving in China Today. Now Showing. In December, Christmas celebrations were banned in several schools and cities across China. In Chengdu, Early Rain has not vanished. Before the raid, a plan was in place to preserve the church, with those who were not arrested expected to keep it running, holding meetings wherever they could.

Slowly, more Early Rain members are being released. As of 9 January, 25 were still in detention. They maintain contact through encrypted platforms. Others gather in small groups in restaurants and parks. One member, a student who was sent back to Guangzhou, said he preaches the gospel to the police who monitor him. The church continues to send out daily scripture and posts videos of sermons.

Therefore they are doomed to lose this war. The Observer China. Rush hour in the centre of Chengdu, home to the Early Rain Covenant Church, which has just been closed. Lily Kuo in Chengdu. Sun 13 Jan To see this, let's try a different form of the same argument:. Now the problem should be pretty easy to see. The third point does not follow from the first two, both of which are true.

God may well have other purposes that would lead him to allow some of his people to remain poor. So we can't just assume that he will act in precisely the same way at all times and with all people. The same applies to our argument. Assuming for a moment that the church does thrive under persecution at times more on that in a moment , we can't simply draw the conclusion that it will always do so.

Our theological optimism would like us to believe that this is true. But what we'd like to be true and what actually is true aren't always the same. A Selective History The main reason the argument seems to work is that we're most familiar with those instances where the church appears to have thrived under persecution. And that makes sense. We like to tell those stories. Who wants to talk about when things went badly? That's no fun.

So we forget about the church in North Africa That was once the thriving heartland of Christianity, but after the Muslim invasions, the church slowly receded into the background before fading entirely. And we fail to talk about Asia Minor especially after the 14th century and Japan after Christianity was outlawed in the 17th century , other instances where persecution had disastrous consequences for the church.

I often have my students read a letter that Pliny wrote to the Emperor Trajan in the second century. After describing a variety of oppressive measures used to persecute early Christians, Pliny describes what happened. There is no shadow of doubt that the temples, which have been almost deserted, are beginning to be frequented once more, that the sacred rites which have been long neglected are being renewed, and that sacrificial victims are for sale everywhere, whereas, till recently, a buyer was rarely to be found.

From this it is easy to imagine what a host of men could be set right, were they given a chance of recantation. As Pliny describes things, it sure doesn't sound like the church is thriving.

Instead, persecution has limited the growth of the church, bringing people back to paganism. These examples don't prove that Christianity can't thrive under persecution any more than the other examples prove that it always does.

The point is just to demonstrate that the historical realities aren't as simple as we often suggest. A Weak View of "Thriving" Another reason the argument appears to work is that we don't take the time to talk about what it means for the church to thrive.

Sometimes people just mean that the church grows numerically under persecution e. We just saw that this isn't always true. But, even if it was, surely numerical growth alone isn't enough to constitute thriving. Otherwise, the largest churches would always be the healthiest, which would be a difficult argument to sustain.