人口流动对基督教全球传播的影响

The Migrant Factor in the Making of Global Christianity

基督教流动人口是基督教在全球传播过程中的关键因素。在基督教存在的前五个世纪,广泛的人口流动将基督教变成了全球化的信仰。广泛的人口流动在其它主要的世界宗教在世界各地的传播过程中也发挥了重要作用,但是,就基督教来说,流动可能是这种信仰固有的因素。基督教超越罗马帝国成为全球性信仰是个非常复杂的过程,包含许多不同类型的人口流动。跨国界的领袖们、俘虏、难民和流浪者、商人是人口流动的四种主要类型。虽然,东部教会传教的成功是短暂的,但是东部教会在第一个千年形成的移民传教模式无疑为21世纪的基督教提供了典范。基督教在过去的两三个世纪里再次全球化,基督信仰作为新的中心在非洲、拉丁美洲和亚洲的某些地区出现,表明"人口流动"在基督教全球传播过程中的作用比以前更加明显。当代基督教的全球化与早期基督教的全球化在发展道路上有很大不同,但有一点是不变的,即基督教的全球化仍将主要依靠流动者的行动和决策。

This paper argues that the migration of Christians has been a critical factor in the global spread of Christianity.It makes the case that extensive migrant movement transformed Christianity into a globalized faith in the first five centuries of its existence.Extensive migrations have played a major role in the worldwide expansion of other major world religions like Islam and Buddhism.But in the case of Christianity,migration can be said to be innate to the faith.But the spread of Christianity beyond the Roman Empire into a global faith was a more complex process that involved many different categories of migrants.Four in particular stand out: 1) transnational leaders;2) captives;3) refugees and exiles;4) merchants.Even though Eastern Christianity tragically collapsed and suffered extensive eclipse,it is the form of mission by migration modeled by the Eastern churches in the first millennium that arguably provides the best model for assessing Christian missions in the twenty-first century.The re-globalization of Christianity over the last two-three centuries has seen the emergence of Africa,Latin America,and parts of Asia as the new centers of the Christian faith and rendered the role of migration in Christian expansion more conspicuous than ever before.The present era of a globalized Christianity is different in important ways from the earlier era.What remains unchanged is fact that how the story unfolds will largely depend on the actions and decisions of people who move.