The Empirical Study of Values in China (ESVIC) 
A grant in the amount of $1,730,000 from the John M. Templeton Foundation has recently been awarded to the Institute for Studies of Religion to conduct the first series of nationwide empirical studies on values in China.

Probably the most significant current religious development in the world is the very rapid growth of Christianity in China. When the Marxists came to power in 1949 and expelled all foreign missionaries it was estimated that there were perhaps 2 million Christians in China. Now, after decades of repression, a renewed Chinese Christianity has burst forth and their numbers are variously estimated at 50 to 120 million, and growing. The Institute for Studies of Religion (ISR) at Baylor University is launching a major initiative dedicated to promoting the scientific study of values in contemporary China. With the generous support of the John M. Templeton Foundation, the Empirical Study of Values in China (ESVIC) will create a new program dedicated to generating ground-breaking scholarship and thus build a new field of empirical research on values in contemporary China. The emphasis will be on enabling Chinese scholars to do the primary research. To this end, ESVIC proposes to be a catalyst by pursuing the following objectives:
(1) providing ongoing training and support to a number of highly qualified post-doctoral and research fellows;
(2) hosting in China an annual summer institute on the social scientific study of religion;
(3) hosting at Baylor an annual winter workshop on advanced research methodology;
(4) translation into Chinese of influential Western works and providing free access to a major on-line journal dedicated to comparative studies of religion;
(5) in collaboration with the Gallup Organization, conducting a nationally representative survey in China, whose focus is on religion, religious practices, beliefs, and values;
(6) providing support for small-scale research projects in China; and
(7) drawing upon the expertise of Chinese and American scholars we will publish journal articles, book chapters, and widely accessible books on the role of values in contemporary China.

These objectives will produce the synergy to accurately document and understand the changing role of values in China.

Dr. Carson Mencken, associate professor of sociology, is the ESVIC project director. Assisting Mencken will be associate project directors Byron Johnson and Rodney Stark, along with co-principal investigators Anna Xiao Dong Sun, Fenggang Yang, and Christopher Marsh.