God and Caesar in China : policy implications of church-state tensions / Jason Kindopp, Carol Lee Hamrin, editors.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Kindopp, Jason.

Hamrin, Carol Lee.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Church and state--China.

Church and state.

China--Religion.

China.

Religion.

Physical Description:

vii, 200 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Washington, D.C. : Brookings Institution Press, 2004.

Summary:

In the Late 1970s, as Mao's Cultural Revolution came to an end and China's reform era was just beginning, religion played a small social role. There were few symbols of religious observance, and the practice of religion seemed a forgotten art. Yet by the new millennium, China's government reported that more than 200 million religious believers worshiped in 85,000 authorized venues, and estimates by outside observers continue to rise. sThe numbers tell the story: Buddhists, as in the past, are most numerous, with more than 100 million adherents. Muslims number 18 million with the majority concentrated in the northwest region of Xinjiang. By 2000 China's Catholic population had swelled from 3 million in 1949 to more than 12 million, surpassing the number of Catholics in Ireland. Protestantism in China has grown at an even faster pace during the same period, multiplying from 1 million to at least 30 million followers. China now has the world's second-largest evangelical Christian population -- behind only the United States. In addition, a host of religious and quasi-spiritual groups and sects has sprouted up in virtually every corner of Chinese society.

Religion's dramatic revival in post-Mao China has generated tensions between the ruling Communist Party state and China's increasingly diverse population of religious adherents. Such tensions are rooted in centuries-old governing practices and reflect the pressures of rapid modernization. The state's response has been a mixture of accommodation and repression, with the aim of preserving monopoly control over religious organization. Its inability to do so effectively has led to cycles of persecution of religious groups that resist the party's efforts. American concern over official acts of religious persecution has become a leading issue in U.S. policy toward China. The passage of the 1998 International Religious Freedom Act, which institutionalized concern over religious freedom abroad in U.S. foreign policy, cemented this issue as an item on the agenda of U.S.-China relations. sGod and Caesar in China examines China's religion policy, the history and growth of Catholic and Protestant churches in China, and the implications of church-state friction for relations between the United States and China, concluding with recommendations for U.S. policy.

Contents:

Policy dilemmas in China's church-state relations: an introduction / Jason Kindopp

State policy: control of religion

A tradition of state dominance / Daniel H. Bays

Control and containment in the reform era / Mickey Spiegel

Accession to the world trade organization and state adaptation / Kim-Kwong Chan

Church-state interaction

Setting roots: the Catholic Church in China to 1949 / Jean-Paul Wiest

Catholic conflict and cooperation in the People's Republic of China / Richard Madsen

"Patriotic" Protestants: the making of an official church / Yihua Xu

Fragmented yet defiant: Protestant resilience under Chinese Communist Party rule / Jason Kindopp

Religion in U.S.-China relations

Unreconciled differences: the staying power of religion / Peng Liu

Advancing religious freedom in a global China: conclusions / Carol Lee Hamrin.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0815749368

0815749376

OCLC:

54046229