教會作為「婦女群體」：當代中國基督教的女性化

Church as 'Women's Community': The Feminization of Protestantism in Contemporary China

本文探討中國基督新教教會中具高比例的婦女所引發之「女性化」之現象與特色。改革開放以來中國基督教在鄉鎮的快速成長中，婦女佔了明顯的多數。然而，至目前為止幾乎沒有已出版的研究對此現象提出解釋或討論。依據福建平潭縣的田野調查資料，本文指出教會內婦女形成緊密的互助群體，參與各項日常的宗教與社會活動，展現出吳爾芙（Margery Wolf）在研究漢人農村婦女社會空間時所提出「婦女群體」的特色。基督教婦女將此種傳統婦女社會空間挪為己用並予以神聖化，扭轉傳統性別關係，以獲得對抗父權秩序的轉化性力量。對男性而言，加入教會則意味著加入一個以婦女的關切與利益為主導的群體，這使男人對深入參與基督教活動望而卻步。本文進而將此基督教婦女群體的起源追溯至中國基督教在文化大革命時期的轉變。在文革中，社區性、以男性主導為中心的宗教型態遭受最為嚴厲的摧毀，而以家庭為中心、以婦女為主要參與者的宗教活動得以保存。現今基督教會中的婦女群體可說是文革時秘密家庭聚會的延續。

This paper explores the feminization of Protestantism in China today. Although the predominant presence of women in Protestant churches is well known by scholars, few researchers have explained and explored this phenomenon. Based on field data from Pingtan, Fujian, this paper indicates that Christian women's social networks and religious activities constitute the vitality of the local Protestant life. They inhabit a social space similar to what Margery Wolf calls the 'women's community'. Sanctifying this social space, Christian women acquire the means to transform traditional gender relations and challenge a patriarchal order. For men, Protestant religious life has become an increasingly female domain irrelevant to their concerns and interests. This article further argues that the women's community had its inceptive stage under the Cultural Revolution when communal, male-dominant religion was harshly repressed, and privatized, women-dominant religion was able to survive. Women's community, therefore, can be seen as a continuation of Protestant underground house groups under the Cultural Revolution.