This is an ethnographic study of the Confucian Congregation—an emerging religious group in Fujian Province, southeast China—with an account of the Congregation’s origin, belief and rituals, organization, and development strategy. The Congregation started with one person providing supernatural healings, and it developed into an “organized religion” with hundreds of members in seven franchised branches. Furthermore, by taking advantage of the contemporary trend of the revival of Confucianism in China, Congregation leaders were even able to achieve a seemingly impossible feat—a legitimate status for their “superstitious” group.

This is a study of the rapid development of religious beliefs and practices among middle-class Chinese in an urban environment. Its focus is recently arrived residents in the Special Economic Zone of Shenzhen on the border between mainland China and Hong Kong. Its findings indicate that the dynamics of economic modernization in Shenzhen have not led to a demise of religiousness. A current cohort of Shenzhen residents, having moved beyond an initial struggle for economic survival, now consciously confronts deeper questions of personal meaning. These residents are turning for spiritual nourishment to the deep resources of China's traditional spiritual heritage adopted and adapted to meet the demands of their new life context.