Jesus in Beijing: How Christianity is Transforming China and Changing the Global Balance of Power / Edition 1

by David Aikman

Overview

Politics are being transformed by religion, namely in China—within the next thirty years, one-third of this potential superpower could be Christian.

If this religious transformation occurs, China would be one of the largest Christian nations in the world.

David Aikman, former Beijing bureau chief for Time, unveils this spiritual revolution, detailing the impending political-religious conversion of the People’s Republic of China and potential overthrow of its Communist Party through Jesus in Beijing: How Christianity is Transforming and Changing the Global Balance of Power.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780895261281
Publisher:	Regnery Publishing
Publication date:	09/28/2003
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	6.33(w) x 9.31(h) x 1.15(d)

Editorial Reviews

Aikman, former Beijing bureau chief for Time, starts his impressive analysis of the state of Christianity in China with a solid review of its early history, from the Nestorians and Jesuits to the Taiping and Boxer Rebellions. Most of this book, however, is devoted to the current scene, which consists of Communist Partysponsored Protestant and Catholic churches and thousands of "home churches" that are technically illegal but often have large, conspicuous buildings. Indeed, the authorities are more than a little ambivalent about how to treat Christianity: the party faithful continue to regard all religion as a threat, whereas researchers at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences assert that it was Christianity that made the West strong. Aikman builds his analysis around a diverse array of individual Christians, from entrepreneurs and entertainers to foreign service officers and party officials. He estimates that "Christian believers in China, both Catholic and Protestant, may be closer to 80 million than the official combined Catholic-Protestant figure of 21 million" and that "it is possible that Christians will constitute 20 to 30 percent of China's population within three decades." Like the many observers who get carried away speculating about China's economic growth, Aikman proclaims that this spread of Christianity will ultimately change the global balance of power. But one does not have to agree with such a prediction to find much of interest in this book.

Foreign Affairs