FW: A new article on spiritual capital

[Fenggang Yang]

Hello, everyone,

I’m pleased to share my new open-access article (co-authored with Jiayin Hu) just published in the Review of Religious Research:

“Christian Human Rights Lawyers in Authoritarian China: A Spiritual Capital and Social Capital Explanation”
👉 https://doi.org/10.1177/0034673X251379032

The study explores how Christian lawyers in China combine professional ethics, faith commitments, and moral courage to defend clients under political repression. Drawing on interviews and case studies, it reveals how spiritual capital helps to motivate and sustain these lawyers.

For scholars of religion, this article’s theoretical contribution is the definition of spiritual capital as something different from social capital and religious capital, and the suggestion of how to measure spiritual capital empirically.

Comments and criticisms are welcome.

Warm regards,

Fenggang Yang

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Fenggang Yang
Professor of Sociology
Director, Center on Religion and the Global East

(https://www.globaleast.org)

Purdue University

100 N University St, BRNG Suite 1114
West Lafayette, IN 47907

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[McCarthy, Susan]

McCarthy, Susan reacted to your message:

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From: 'Fenggang Yang' via ChineseSSSR <chine...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, October 21, 2025 1:15:11 AM
To: Chine...@googlegroups.com <Chine...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: [ChineseSSSR] FW: A new article on spiritual capital

 

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[Robert Montgomery]

Fenggang Yang

Professor of Sociology and Director of the Center for Religion in The Global East

Dear Fenggang,

Thank you so very much for sending me your article on "Christian Human Rights Lawyers in Authoritarian China: A Spiritual Capital and Social Capital Explanation."  I find it very consistent with my work to understand the Christian movement of the indigenous people on Taiwan.

I found help from the Social Psychologist, Henri Tajfel, and his work with social group identity theory. In the case of the indigenous people, by becoming Christian they obtained new identities as children of God, instead of being regarded as backward mountain people. The new identity was not simply or only a social or even a religious identity but fit the term you used "self-perceived relationship with the divine." (From 2% of the population, they became 40 % of the church). I discovered that their experience was not unique. For example, in northeast India, two states have majority Christian populations. This is because the indigenous people there are mostly Christian. For example, the Naga People are mostly Baptist Christians. I will continue to study your excellent article to understand it more fully. I think you have discovered a way to avoid only a secular approach by using the term "self-perceived relationship with the divine." 

I am so glad to have had the opportunity to meet you and know of your work. I add to that what come first - the "self-perceived relationship with the divine" that we both have. PS Thank you for showing my grand-son Purdue University. He has continued his study of Chinese at Virginia Tech and will graduate next year. He wants to be an airplane pilot.  

With Warm Greetings,

Bob

Rev. Robert L. Montgomery PhD

 

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