Chinese Protestant Christianity Today
Daniel H. Bays, History Department
The China Quarterly
Volume 174

Protestant Christianity has been a prominent part of the general religious resurgence in China in the past two decades. Today, on any given Sunday there are almost certainly more Protestants in church in China than in all of Europe. One recent thoughtful scholarly assessment characterizes Protestantism as “flourishing” though also “fractured” (organizationally) and “fragile” (due to limits on the social and cultural role of the Church). And popular media and human rights organizations in the West, as well as various Christian groups, publish a wide variety of information and commentary on Chinese Protestants. Here I intend first to trace the gradual extension of interest in Chinese Protestants from Christian circles to the scholarly world during the last two decades, and then to discuss salient characteristics of the Protestant movement today.

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