User:CWH/Yang Fenggang

Yang Fenggang is a China born American sociologist who specializes in the history and sociology of religion in China. He is Professor of Sociology, founding Director of The Center on Religion and Chinese Society, Purdue University, and founding editor of the Review of Religion and Chinese Society.

Career and honors
1982 BA in Politics and Education, Hebei Normal Univ., Shijiazhuang, China 1987 MA in Philosophy, Nankai University, Tianjin, China 1992 MA in Sociology, Catholic University of America, Washington, DC 1997 Ph.D. in Sociology, Catholic University of America, Washington, DC

Influence and innovations
Yang is known for his argument that official policies and acts of suppression from 1949 to the 1970s did not wipe out religion in China.

The sociologist of religion Peter L. Berger called Yang's analysis the "Chinese paradigm,"

Vincent Goossaert in reviewing Religion in China commented that this was "very short book" that was "airless,"  without notes and bibliography. The book is a synthesis that gives a "more precise formulation and spread even more widely his theory than his previous articles," one of which is the central chapter. Goossaert called it "already a classic quoted everywhere." . The book is more like an essay than a research work. He found that the brief summary of the history of religious policies of the communist government since 1949 was done well, but criticised the book for its lack of social facts and descriptions. He concluded that only those who have read nothing on the topic would benefit from reading it, but "sociologists with a taste for theory certainly derive a significant benefit".

In 2014, Yang made a widely circulated prediction that if the current rate of growth continued, there would be 250 million Christians by around 2030, making China’s Christian population the largest in the world. Yang compared this rate of growth with that of fourth-century Rome just before the conversion of Constantine, which paved the way for Christianity to become the religion of his empire. Official sources in China quickly disagreed.

Selected publications