摘要
Christian buildings in Shaanxi already have more than 1,300 years development history since the first church was built in Chang＇an in 635 AD. The Rapid development of Christian buildings started from 1840 due to the entry of foreign missionaries. Various types of Christian buildings rose up in the province, were constructed by local builder, but designed and funded by foreign missionaries. In comparison to other Christian buildings, churches have unique historical value, cultural value and also special meaning in architecture art. However, their cultural heritage value has not yet been sufficiently considered. They are facing the prospect of being damaged and demolished, even in nowadays. It is incumbent that their architecture to be historically evaluated and that ways to be found to preserve them. In this paper, the author will focus on the neoteric Christian churches and illustrate the architecture by taking examples from the churches in Shaanxi, along with the intention to clarify the relationship between social background and the history of evolution of these churches. In addition, the authors have taken the chance to understand more comprehensively about the fascinating history of these Christian churches by way of field surveys and taping into archival documents.
