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Confucian Zhongyong, Religious Commitment, Church Identification, and Church Commitment: A Moderated Mediation Model

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Abstract

Although Confucian zhongyong (the doctrine of the mean) has an important influence on Chinese Christians’ religious affections, due to the sensitivity of matters related to religion in China, there is a serious lack of empirical knowledge on this topic. To fill this gap, we have developed and tested a moderated mediation model based on Allport and Ross’s religious motivation theory and Meyer et al.’s organizational commitment theory, linking Confucian zhongyong to Christians’ religious affections (i.e., religious commitment and church commitment). Overall, using data from 387 Protestants in China, we found support for our moderated mediation model. In particular, our findings indicate that church identification partially mediates the relationship between religious commitment and church commitment. Furthermore, Confucian zhongyong appears to moderate the relationship between religious commitment and church commitment as well as between church identification and church commitment. The article concludes with a discussion of the findings, recommendations for future work, and practical implications.

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Notes

  1. Anonymous. (2004). The King James Version of the Holy Bible. Available on http://www.holybooks.com, March 6, 2021. All Scripture quotes in this study come from this e-book.

  2. The official Chinese Protestant church is comprised of the Three-Self Patriotic Movement Committee (TSPMC, colloquially the Three-Self Church) and its ecclesiastical extension, the China Christian Council (CCC). The TSPMC reports to the Religious Affairs Bureau, a government of the Communist Party, and is more overtly political while the CCC functions in a more pastoral capacity. The Three-Self refers to three principles, that is, self-governance, self-support (i.e., financial independence from foreigners) and self-propagation (i.e., indigenous missionary work).

  3. Jingchu Culture comprises an important component of the Chinese National Culture, and it is a kind of regional culture that emerged in the Jianghan River Valley from Zhou Dynasty to Spring and Autumn Period. Presently, it mainly refers to the ancient Jingchu historical culture in Hubei province, which involves the following fundamental culture characteristics: love for the country and hometown, advocating innovation, compatibility and openness, and so on (Jiang 2011).

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Acknowledgments

This study is jointly supported by the Project of the National Social Science Foundation of China (16BGL092) and the Project of Hubei Provincial Department of Education (13g127).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Business School, Hubei University, No. 368, Youyi Avenue, Wuchang District, Wuhan, 430062, Hubei, China

    Jianfeng Li & Zhiwen Guo

  2. School of Economic and Business Administration, Central China Normal University, Hongshan District, No.152, Yuyu Road, Wuhan, 430079, Hubei, China

    Hongping Liu

  3. Institute for Management Research, Radboud University, P.O. Box 9108, 6500 HK, Nijmegen, the Netherlands

    Beatrice Van der Heijden

  4. Open University of the Netherlands Kingston University, London, UK

    Beatrice Van der Heijden

  5. Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium

    Beatrice Van der Heijden

  6. Hubei University, Wuhan, China

    Beatrice Van der Heijden

  7. Kingston University, London, UK

    Beatrice Van der Heijden

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  1. Jianfeng Li
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Li, J., Liu, H., Van der Heijden, B. et al. Confucian Zhongyong, Religious Commitment, Church Identification, and Church Commitment: A Moderated Mediation Model. Pastoral Psychol 70, 273–293 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11089-021-00946-5

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