Cette thèse examine les conditions d’implantation, de diffusion et d’acclimatation du protestantisme en Chine depuis l’apparition des premières missions protestantes à nos jours. Elle retrace, dans le long terme, la manière dont les communautés ecclésiales sont devenues autonomes et ont spécifié ces critères d’autonomie. La partie la plus dynamique et porteuse d’avenir se trouve dans les Eglises de maison, fortement imprégnées de la théologie évangélique et pentecôtiste qui remonte aux faith missions du 19ème siècle, elles-mêmes issues des revivals anglo-saxons. Chaque chapitre illustre l’un des grands moments qui ont scandé l’histoire du protestantisme chinois, avec pour objectif d’intégrer ces périodes et leurs acteurs dans le mouvement global de son installation en Chine, pour montrer que la dynamique d’acculturation qui l’accompagne a pu se maintenir précisément en vertu de sa rapidité - le sort du protestantisme en Chine semble s’être joué en quelques décennies seulement. Les enchainements chronologiques (missions, processus d’autonomie, Réveils chinois, communisme et création d’une Eglise d’état, etc.) ont fait sens et ont permis au protestantisme de s’enraciner en tant que religion populaire grâce à des patriarches de l’Eglise chinoise devenus des icônes en résistant aux répressions du gouvernement communiste. La vitalité des Eglises de maison en marge de l’Eglise gouvernementale réside dans la volonté des différents réseaux d’Eglises de maison d’harmoniser leur théologie dans l’objectif d’un projet missionnaire commun à vocation transnationale. / This thesis examines the conditions of implementation, dissemination and acclimatization of Protestantism in China from the appearance of the first Protestant missions to the present. It traces, in the long run, the way the communities have become self-governing and have specified the criteria of independence. The most dynamic and promising future is in the house church movement, strongly impregnated with evangelical and Pentecostal theology dating back to the 19th century faith missions, themselves derived from Anglo-Saxon revivals. Each chapter illustrates one of the great moments that have punctuated the history of Chinese Protestantism, with the aim of integrating these periods and their actors in a global dynamic, in order to show that the protestant acculturation was realised in only several decades. The chronological sequences (missions, autonomy process, revivals, communism, creation of a state church, etc.) hastened Protestantism to take roots as a popular religion. Patriarchs of the Chinese church became icons by resisting the communist government repression. The vitality of the house church movement resides in the will of the various networks to harmonize their theology for the purpose of a transnational missionary project.

Univ., Diss.--München, 1999. / Literaturverz. S. [315] - 351.

Cette Thèse propose d’expliquer le succès du christianisme au sein de populations urbaines deChine en analysant les processus d’affiliation-conversion, non comme des ruptures radicalesmais comme des résultats d’évaluations et de choix relativement rationnels et contextualisés.Y sont examinés les évolutions institutionnelles, les dispositions culturelles, les facteursconjoncturels, ainsi le processus d’initiation religieuse conduisant certains Chinois à adhérer àdes croyances et des organisations chrétiennes, à partir d’entretiens et d’observations conduitsprincipalement dans diverses organisations chrétiennes à Shanghai. Rappelant la graduellelégitimation socio-politique d’une offre chrétienne diversifiée en Chine depuis plus d’unsiècle, Cette thèse montre d’abord que l’adhésion des acteurs à des représentations etaspirations cosmopolites ainsi que l’expérience d’une mobilité géographique etprofessionnelle rendent possible les affiliations. Celles-ci résultent ensuite de l’identificationdans une organisation religieuse de ressources orientées vers le développement personnel etfamilial dans une structure innovante et moralement conservatrice. La conversion repose enfinsur l’expérience vécue par les acteurs au cours de l’initiation religieuse, dotant l’organisationet ses croyances d’une nouvelle légitimité, divine de leur point de vue, et par laquelle ilsachèvent une subjectivation communautaire. L’homogénéité constatée des processusd’affiliation-conversion ne doit cependant pas masquer la diversité des identités et stratégiesadoptées par les organisations et les acteurs pour accroitre leurs marges de manoeuvres et leurreconnaissance sociale. / This dissertation offers to explain the growth and success of Christianity among urbanpopulations in China, by analyzing affiliations and conversions as the results of relativelyrational and contextualized choices. Institutional evolutions, cultural dispositions, situationalcontingencies and the process of religious initiation leading to the endorsement of Christianbeliefs and organizations are examined mostly from interviews and observations conducted indiverse Christian organizations in Shanghai. Reminding of the gradual socio-politicallegitimation of Christianity since more than a century, this dissertation firstly shows thataffiliations are made possible because of individual’s adhesion to cosmopolitanrepresentations and aspirations, as well as their experience of geographical and socialmobility. Affiliations are then resulting from the identification of resources for personal andfamily development within an innovating as well as morally conservative religiousorganization. Conversion finally results from the individual experiment of a religiousinitiation, through which both the organization and its beliefs gain a new kind of legitimacy,appearing as divine in the eyes of the convert, and through which converts are achieving acommunity-centered subjectivation. Despite strong homogeneity, affiliation-conversionprocesses lead to great diversity of identities and strategies put up by organizations andindividuals struggling to increase their range of motion and social recognition.

The focus of this practical theological study is the analysis of the life and worship of the Perth Asian Christian Community in the New Life City Church, where we note fast maturation of Christians with a desire to complete the Great Commission. As participant observer using the qualitative method, I was able to identify how the NLCC is wall-less by interviewing different groups within the church and two Western sample groups. To accomplish this, Chapter two analyses the Western and Asian churches’ understanding of the concepts ‘church’ and ‘church growth’. The evaluations showed a difference in understanding. This prompted an inquiry in chapter three into their understanding of the Great Commission from the Western and Asian viewpoint against the Biblical understanding thereof. The intention of NLCC groups interviewed in Chapters four to eight was to detect what they perceived as helping them mature as Christians, considering many are first-generation Christians. The groups interviewed included founder members, first-generation Christians, youth group leaders, returned NLCC missionaries and the pastor. By Chapter nine it was established that the Asian Christian understood worship in a broader context. Chapter ten summarises the interpreted data of the groups interviewed and identifies stimulants for maturation of individual Christians in a post-Christian environment. The broader understanding of worship is discussed. These guidelines form the building blocks for a practical theological theory of church growth. / Practical Theology / D. Th. (Practical Theology)

The focus of this practical theological study is the analysis of the life and worship of the Perth Asian Christian Community in the New Life City Church, where we note fast maturation of Christians with a desire to complete the Great Commission. As participant observer using the qualitative method, I was able to identify how the NLCC is wall-less by interviewing different groups within the church and two Western sample groups. To accomplish this, Chapter two analyses the Western and Asian churches’ understanding of the concepts ‘church’ and ‘church growth’. The evaluations showed a difference in understanding. This prompted an inquiry in chapter three into their understanding of the Great Commission from the Western and Asian viewpoint against the Biblical understanding thereof. The intention of NLCC groups interviewed in Chapters four to eight was to detect what they perceived as helping them mature as Christians, considering many are first-generation Christians. The groups interviewed included founder members, first-generation Christians, youth group leaders, returned NLCC missionaries and the pastor. By Chapter nine it was established that the Asian Christian understood worship in a broader context. Chapter ten summarises the interpreted data of the groups interviewed and identifies stimulants for maturation of individual Christians in a post-Christian environment. The broader understanding of worship is discussed. These guidelines form the building blocks for a practical theological theory of church growth. / Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology / D. Th. (Practical Theology)