Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Colophon
- Contents
- Contributing Authors
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction: Christianity and Freedom in the Contemporary World
- 1 Persecution in the Context of Religious and Christian Demography, 1970–2020
- 2 Patterns and Purposes of Contemporary Anti-Christian Persecution
- 3 Where the Spirit Leads: Global Pentecostalism and Freedom
- 4 Christianity among the Marginalized: Empowering Poor Women in India
- 5 Transnational Christian Networks for Human Dignity
- 6 The Growth and Dynamism of Chinese Christianity
- 7 Christianity and Religious Freedom in Indonesia since 1998
- 8 Christianity and Freedom in India: Colonialism, Communalism, Caste, and Violence
- 9 Vietnam: Christianity's Contributions to Freedoms and Human Flourishing in Adversity
- 10 The Challenge and Leaven of Christianity in Pakistan
- 11 Christianity and the Challenge of Religious Violence in Northern Nigeria
- 12 Copts of Egypt: Defi ance, Compliance, and Continuity
- 13 Between the Hammer and the Anvil: Indigenous Palestinian Christianity in the West Bank
- 14 Christians in the State of Israel: Between Integration and Emigration
- 15 Arab Muslim Attitudes toward Religious Minorities
- 16 They That Remain: Syrian and Iraqi Christian Communities amid the Syria Confl ict and the Rise of the Islamic State
- Index
9 - Vietnam: Christianity's Contributions to Freedoms and Human Flourishing in Adversity
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 February 2016
- Frontmatter
- Colophon
- Contents
- Contributing Authors
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction: Christianity and Freedom in the Contemporary World
- 1 Persecution in the Context of Religious and Christian Demography, 1970–2020
- 2 Patterns and Purposes of Contemporary Anti-Christian Persecution
- 3 Where the Spirit Leads: Global Pentecostalism and Freedom
- 4 Christianity among the Marginalized: Empowering Poor Women in India
- 5 Transnational Christian Networks for Human Dignity
- 6 The Growth and Dynamism of Chinese Christianity
- 7 Christianity and Religious Freedom in Indonesia since 1998
- 8 Christianity and Freedom in India: Colonialism, Communalism, Caste, and Violence
- 9 Vietnam: Christianity's Contributions to Freedoms and Human Flourishing in Adversity
- 10 The Challenge and Leaven of Christianity in Pakistan
- 11 Christianity and the Challenge of Religious Violence in Northern Nigeria
- 12 Copts of Egypt: Defi ance, Compliance, and Continuity
- 13 Between the Hammer and the Anvil: Indigenous Palestinian Christianity in the West Bank
- 14 Christians in the State of Israel: Between Integration and Emigration
- 15 Arab Muslim Attitudes toward Religious Minorities
- 16 They That Remain: Syrian and Iraqi Christian Communities amid the Syria Confl ict and the Rise of the Islamic State
- Index
Summary
INTRODUCTION
To understand Christianity and its contribution to freedom in Vietnam, one first needs to consider Vietnam's political history, as well as Christianity's intersection with an ancient culture. This chapter examines the interplay between Christianity and the state, and how this affects the human flourishing that accompanies freedom during three main periods: from the inception of Catholic Christianity through the colonial period; then from independence (1954) and the division of Vietnam between a Communist North and a republican South through the Vietnam War; and finally, since the 1975 reunification under Communism.
Today, roughly 10 percent of Vietnam's 90 million people are Christians. Although government census figures for Christians are considerably lower and Christian churches themselves find it very difficult or inconvenient to publish their own figures because of Vietnam's political/social situation, consensus points toward 8 million Catholics and 1.6 million Evangelicals in Vietnam. Rather than discussing Christianity as a whole, the very diverse histories of Catholicism and Evangelicalism in Vietnam require that they be described separately. Catholic missionaries established a continuing presence in Vietnam early in the seventeenth century and Evangelicals early in the twentieth century. The remarkable stories of the growth of the indigenous churches they established, despite adversity, are not widely known.
Social, cultural, and political factors determined that both major Christian traditions often encountered opposition and periods of persecution, sometimes intense. Nevertheless, both traditions took firm root in Vietnamese soil and contributed significantly to the modernization of Vietnam, even though they sometimes clashed with traditional culture or were at odds with the governments of the day.
ROMAN CATHOLIC MISSIONS AND CHURCH: HISTORY, INCULTURATION, AND DEMOGRAPHICS
The establishment of a Jesuit mission in Faifo in the year 1615, near present-day Danang, began a permanent Catholic presence in Vietnam. In 1624 the missionaries at Faifo were joined by a French Jesuit, Alexandre de Rhodes, who was to outshine them all in influence. The church sent de Rhodes to open a mission in Tonkin in present-day northern Vietnam in 1627, and he baptized sixty-seven hundred believers within three years.
One of the singular accomplishments of de Rhodes was completing an excellent Latinized Vietnamese alphabet, first used in his famous Eight-Day Catechism for new believers. This alphabet, called quốc ngũ’, was eventually employed for common use and became a key tool for Vietnam's modernization.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Christianity and Freedom , pp. 254 - 283Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2016
- 1
- Cited by