Cultural Intermediaries and Globalization: Transforming Pentecostalism in Post-Mao China.
详细信息
文摘
Pentecostalism in China is one of the most significant but understudied religious revivals in the world. The author chooses the True Jesus Church,a long,widespread and thriving Chinese Pentecostal church,as a case to provide a systematic investigation into how Pentecostalism in China has developed,particularly after the anti-religion campaign of the Cultural Revolution and in the post-Mao period. Eight-month ethnographic work and one hundred fifty-six interviews are conducted in seventeen Chinese provinces in 2010,2011,and 2012. The findings demonstrate that this religion,which used to be stigmatized as superstitious,has been reformed as a more rationalized,more institutionalized and less self-closured group. This "civilizing" process is argued to be enacted,negotiated,and resisted through four encounters among actors from different groups,which are related to globalizing conditions in contemporary China: (1) overseas religious elites,particularly from Taiwan,entering coastal urban churches,(2) rural-to-urban migrants meeting coastal urban church elites,(3) coastal urban missionaries attempting to reform rural churches,and (4) religious elites encountering local religious officers. The author analyzes how coastal urban religious elites serve as the key role of cultural intermediary to make the religious transformations possible. Local religious officers also assist the religious elites to realize the reforms in order to exchange for the latter's cooperation to realize political projects,including "constructing a harmonious society," "promoting spiritual civilizations," and "contributing to the reunion of Taiwan." Through this case study,the author also demonstrates how a meso-level approach of cultural intermediary,combining cultural sociologists,microsociologists,Max Weber and Pierre Bourdieu's concerns,possibly sheds lights on the different areas of sociology,including sociology of culture,sociology of religion,and microsociology.