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What are China’s Protestants doing outside the walls of their homes and churches? This article is the result of collaboration between the three named authors, all of whom conducted fieldwork for it. It examines the range of community service and charity work (including poverty alleviation, disaster relief, education, nursing homes, medical care, and various forms of evangelism) that Chinese Protestants have in the past and still do undertake within the contemporary Chinese Communist Party-state (CCP). Drawing on extensive fieldwork over several years in multiple sites across the PRC, the researchers ask: (i) in what ways do CCP policies on religion help or hinder Protestant social service? and (ii) to what extent are Protestant efforts in harmony with or beyond the control of CCP religious policies? [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Religious groups can reinforce, complement, or undermine authoritarian domination. This article investigates whether high-status Protestant churches act as democratising civil society organisations by gathering hundreds of Protestants openly outside state structures to change church registration policies. In so doing, they also seek to curtail state domination over religion and, by extension, over all groups in society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Les communautés religieuses peuvent renforcer, compléter ou saper un régime autoritaire. Cet article cherche à examiner si les Églises protestantes fréquentées par les couches sociales supérieures agissent comme des organisations de société civile « démocratisantes » en rassemblant des centaines de fidèles sur la place publique en dehors des structures prévues par l'Etat pour changer les politiques d'enregistrement des Églises. En agissant ainsi, elles cherchent également à réduire le contrôle de l'État sur la religion et, par extension, sur tous les groupes sociaux. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]