鄉村基督徒群體的社會認同──以對河南省衛輝市某鄉村基督教會的田野調查為例

The Rural Christians’ Social Identity—Based on the Field Survey on Rural Christians in Weihui City of Henan Province

鄉村基督徒在基督教教義的規導下，踐行了對父母的愛，就中國傳統文化當中「生養」的層面而言，他們也的確盡到了孝養父母的社會責任。然而，鑒於其聖化的自我認同，出於基督教聖愛的原則和不拜偶像的誡命，鄉村基督徒在葬禮上「不擺供、不燒紙、不燒香、不磕頭」的做法，使其與鄉村社區中其他具有民間信仰的居民之間產生了不小的張力與衝突。在具有聖化了的自我認同的鄉村基督徒看來，他們是聖潔的、不拜偶像的並且能夠上天堂的群體。在其他農村社區居民的心目中，除了「不擺供、不燒紙、不燒香、不磕頭」之類的某些生活方式有差異之外，鄉村基督徒同他們一樣是普通人，是普通農民，並沒有什麼特別不一樣或者說特殊的地方。在他視與自視二者觀點相重疊之處，基督徒群體的社會認同得以確立。鄉村基督徒的這種社會認同只是「不擺供、不燒紙、不燒香、不磕頭」的普通農民。這種社會認同同時也說明了當地群眾對基督教與基督徒的接納程度：在當地的農民看來，基督教跟他們所信的沒有太大的區別，只不過是信的神不一樣而已；基督徒與他們沒有什麼本質上的區別，不過是與他們一樣的普通農民而已。那麼，就當地社區輿論而言，信耶穌並不是一件丟臉的事情，成為基督徒也不會被當地社區所鄙視。這種「洋教」不再的社會認同，才是基督教在該地區得以勃興的最深層次的原因之一。儘管當地社區普通農民認為的「一樣」，並不一定意味著或者代表著整個社會和文化體系都認為的一樣，但是，本個案研究畢竟說明了一個新的社會認同的產生，儘管它可能不是全社會性的。因而，本研究可能引出的是一個重大的學術問題：對更大範圍內基督徒社會認同的探討，以及對新的社會認同形成機制及其轉變機理的探討。

During nearly one year’s field survey, by using participants’ observation, document study, and interview survey, and by analyzing the content of the rural choir’s plays and the interviews with rural Christians, the author mainly explores the rural Christians’ social identity. In rural Christians’ views, they confess their sins and they are repentant; they are more saintly than earthling; they can get redemption and enter paradise. This is only the rural Christians’ self-identity. However, as viewed from the other peasants, they are no more saintly than others; except for some differences in the lifestyle, such as they don’t kowtow, don’t burn joss sticks and joss paper, they are the same as the other common peasants. This is the rural Christians’ social identity. The meaning of the social identity lies in two aspects. In one aspect it spurs the rural Protestantism to be more saintly; in the other aspect it indicates the local society’s attitude to them. That is to say, as viewed from the other peasants, there is no difference between the rural Christianity and popular religion, and there is no difference in believing in God or other ghosts. In other words, the local people don’t despise the rural Christianity and the rural Christian. This is a significant reason why the rural Christianity is thriving. Moreover, the case study can also lead to a bigger and deeper study: can the social identity be a social identity in the whole mainland society? Why and how this social identity come into being?