英文摘要 |
There're 2 specific approaches in the studies of church history. One is the approach of the Givers / Preachers, focusing on 5 Ws (Who When Where What How) issues of the evangelization process, dealing with historical figures and events, and analyzing interactive relations in between these two factors mainly caused by or related to the side of the Gospel Conveyers. The other is the approach of the Receivers I Converts, an approach that the researchers will also use the 5W s, concentrate on the converts instead of focusing on the conveyers. This approach is more and more common these days especially for the Chinese scholars. This thesis is not only an examination from the receivers' point of view of how new Christian converts carried out the missionaries' message by proceeding the actual practices of church discipline toward local converts in their cultural-religious context, but also an attempt of tracing the history of the Quemoy I Kinmen Churches. First of all, I have surveyed the biblical context with the Church Laws like the Canon Law (the Roman Catholic Church), the Book of Church Order (the Reformed Church in America), the Book of Forms (The Presbyterian Church in Canada), Bylaws (the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan) about church discipline and other cultural sources dealing with the secular treatments to these subjects. Secondly, I have abstracted related Minutes of church discipline from the consistorial records of Au-Po congregation (between 1900 and 2000 C.E.), and found the period when the church discipline being processed most frequently, was the time during 1903-1912 C.E.: the most fruitful and powerful period of Christian Churches in China. My comparison of the Au-Po's Records to the Handbook of South Formosa Mission (both were mainly established and helped by the English Presbyterian Mission) also get to the same conclusion that the church discipline could only be rightly performed within the congregation under the condition of: 1. Faith being deeply internalized, 2. Firm religious solidarity of love, and 3. Mighty capability to resolve problems related. However, the impressive manner shown in these records could be an illustration of the depth of the internalized messages for Protestant believers in Quemoy. |