Klein_Conversion_2011_09_04.pdf (565.65 kB)
Conversion to protestant Christianity in China and the 'supply-side model': explaining changes in the Chinese religious field
In this article, I put the 'supply-side model' advocated by religious economists to an empirical test. The 'supply-side' model in some measure already constitutes a move 'beyond the market', as it seeks to expand and enlarge the economic interpretation of religion by linking it to a concept of networks and social tensions and integrating the concept of religious and cultural capital. In applying the model to the (dynamics of the) historical growth of Protestantism in 19th and early 20th-century China, I examine three distinct aspects of the conversion process: the supply-side (missionaries), the demand niches (Chinese converts), and the question of 'strict' churches. Arguing that the religious background of Protestant converts - their rootedness in Chinese popular religion - determined this process throughout, I seek to develop an understanding of religious competition, supply and demand that takes cultural interpretive frameworks into account.
History
School
- Social Sciences
Department
- Politics and International Studies
Published in
ReligionVolume
41Issue
4Pages
595 - 625Citation
KLEIN, T., 2011. Conversion to protestant Christianity in China and the 'supply-side model': explaining changes in the Chinese religious field. Religion, 41 (4), pp. 595 - 625Publisher
© Taylor & FrancisVersion
- AM (Accepted Manuscript)
Publication date
2011Notes
This article was published in the journal, Religion [© Taylor & Francis] and the definitive version is available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0048721X.2011.624694ISSN
0048-721XeISSN
1096-1151Publisher version
Language
- en