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撮要

眾所周知，基督教在當代中國的發展，呈現著農民多、文化程度低者多、老人多及婦女多的「四多」傾向。「四多」從側面說明了基督教在中國社會發展的特色，並引發了一些值得進一步探討的問題。筆者選取了農民、文化程度低及老人三者，作為討論的基礎。全文包括三部分，作者首先勾劃出上述三者佔當前中國社會整體人口的比例，作為基督教「三多」現象的參照。其次是討論現時學者解釋中國基督教發展過程中呈現的「同質性」，並評檢其中兩個較流行的解說。最後，作者探討三多對中國基督教發展的制約與挑戰。

ABSTRACT

It is not difficult to arrive at the conclusion that four major groups of Christians in China are farmers, people with lower education, elder people and women. This phenomenon has become a focus of attention, not only indicating the major characteristics of the development of Chinese Protestantism, but also arousing some interesting issues. This paper is divided into three parts. It focuses on the first three groups of Chinese Christians. First, it provides a general account of the demographics in China and the Chinese Church. Second，it explores and evaluates different explanations of the homogeneous units of Christians by some scholars. Finally it focus on the constraints and challenges of the development of Christianity in China brought by this phenomenon.

原載於《建道學刊》15期（2001年1月），頁285-318。