Chinese Christianities Unit
The Chinese Christianities Unit at the American Academy of Religion invites papers for the 2025 Annual Meeting that speak to the ten-year anniversary of our unit.
Ten years ago, Chinese Christianities Unit began as a seminar in 2015. From 2015-2019, the seminar explored various ways in which Chinese Christianities cross boundaries in regional, social, religious, and ecclesiological ways. In so doing, scholars in Chinese Christianities have developed understandings of the field that challenge the consistency of both the terms ‘Chinese’ and ‘Christianities,’ as both may refer to a range of phenomena in our burgeoning field of study. As a unit, the Chinese Christianities Unit has explored how terms like ‘Bible’ and ‘Sinophone’ are also germane to the expansion of what the field could entail, opening up multiple worlds that Chinese Christianities may inhabit.
For our ten year anniversary, we seek proposals for state of the field panels and collaborations with other groups, especially the Chinese Religions Unit. In particular, we would welcome papers that focus on the following topics:
-Chinese Christianities and the changing geopolitics of mainland and diasporic Christianities, as well as the diversity of Sinophone languages
-the differentiations and convergences between Chinese Christianities and World Christianities as fields of study
-the place of the Bible and biblical studies in Chinese Christianities as an academic field
-field-wide reflections on gender and the place of women in Chinese Christianities
-the relationship Chinese Christianities as an academic field with new formations of "Sino-Christian" theologies and "Sino-theologies"
-field-wide reflections on interreligious dialogue, migration, and contextual theologies and spiritualities
This Unit provides a collaborative forum for scholars of different disciplines to engage in an academic discourse about the field of Chinese Christianities. Christianity is the fastest growing religion in mainland China today, and arguably the religion of choice for a growing number of diasporic Chinese. “Chinese” is an expansive term, including mainland China proper as well as a large, linguistically, and culturally diverse diaspora, encompassing more than a fifth of the world’s population; the Han Chinese people are sometimes described as the world’s largest ethnic group. Hence, with the increasing critical mass of Chinese Christians, there has likewise been a growing academic interest in various instantiations of Chinese Christianities, as understood across geographies (e.g., mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Southeast Asia, North America, etc.) and groupings (e.g., house and state-sanctioned churches, Catholic, Pentecostal, etc.). Chinese Christianities both transcend and hinder a number of regional, social, religious, etc. boundaries. Over the course of these five years, this unit will offer a unique opportunity for scholars to engage and to debate the implications of the multiplicity of Chinese Christianities with regards to the boundaries they engage.
Second, the Steering Committee meets on Zoom to discuss the papers. When there is agreement among our shortlists, we assemble panels. The cochairs take minutes and send the agreed-up on panels to the committee prior to assembling them on the PAPERS app.
If there are any changes, the cochairs write to the committee for consensus.