Public, Political, and Puritan? Reformed Conformity and Ecclesiology in Urban China

Abstract This article examines the contested identity of the Reformed church in urban China and its diverse approaches to religious politics, particularly since the 2010s. Despite profound differences in church polity and political engagement among Reformed circles, a set of shared ideals unites these communities. Most notably, Chinese Reformed church leaders commonly appeal to Puritan history to frame their commitment to civil obedience, uphold evangelism as the core mission of the church, and justify their separation from the state-sanctioned Three-Self Patriotic Movement ( tspm ). However, these rehearsed categories also empower them to promote markedly different pastoral priorities, social imaginations, and attitudes toward political conflict. Assessing both the ecclesiological unity and diversity of Reformed Christianity in urban China, this article delineates a distinctively Chinese vision of Reformed catholicity: hidden yet public, Sino-centric yet global and cosmic, and finally, politically marginal yet spiritually central.