Religious Market Theory and China’s Rural Christianities: Sociological Case Studies of Catholicism in Middle Hebei

LIU Fang

Lecture, Sociology, Shanghai University of Political Science and Law

Faced with the complex situation of rural Christianity in China, this project focuses on key concepts such as “competition” and “tension” and takes a second look at the plausibility of religious market theory and “civil society” theory in rural Catholicism in China in order to extend the sociological research into Chinese religion in the 21st century.

Based on the methodology of the congregation model and comparative case study, this project mainly focuses on the ethnographical field work in rural north China, middle Hebei province, and uses a qualitative approach including participant observation, in-depth interview, and some quantitative and historical methods such as structured interview and chorography.