Since, the origin of the Christian religion there have been many changes that the Christian religion has gone through in terms of the social, cultural and economic status.  Christianity begun in the first millennium C.E in the Roman Empire in Palestine.  They believe in Jesus Christ who is their Jew, they also believe in life after death and they claim that since Jesus died and rose again, there is eternal life. The son of God Jesus was born in Bethlehem and by that time, Palestine was controlled by the Roman Empire in 65 B.C.E. However, some of the groups tried to resist the occupation of the Romans in their land but they managed (Stephen, 2008).    .

Spread and growth of Christianity

After a centaury after the origin of Christianity, the small communities in the Eurasia and Northern Africa also helped in the spread and development of Christianity. They were able to develop and preach about the Christian subjects, which with the help of the Christian missionaries and the followers helped to spread through many geographical parts of the world. The Christians adopted and practiced the moral ethics and cultural practices that started to change their way of life (Stephen, 2008).

The Jewish activists known as Zealots, which was a small group of the Jewish group, started a guerrilla war against the Roman Empire because of their occupation in the land but they were defeated. The Birth of Jesus led to great changes in the Christian community especially when he had attained the age of 30, he started preaching and converting people to Christianity. He preached about reformation, eternal life, to the Palestine that had many religious believes, and the cultural practices. He was against the performance of rituals and the worshiping of many gods. He was a Christian religious leader, He also preached about the end of the world, the dead and resurrection of the Lamb of God the Messiah. After some years of his preaching, the Christians put Jesus on temptation to know if was really the son of god, but he passed all the tests and became a challenge to them since he started to perform miracles (Stephen, 2008).

Purpose of the study

The reason for the study was to investigate how the Christian religion adopted to the social and cultural changes. This was performed on the Isan community in the Northeastern Thailand.  Isan community was among the communities that contributed to the Christian growth. The large community was building on the faith, which was carried on from one generation to the other. The integration of the Christian believes and faith together with the customs of the Isan community helped in the growth and believes of the Christian religion. The Isan community was united and loved each other according to the Christian believes and doctrines to love one another with the love of Jesus, as well as to love the neighbor the way they loved themselves. They still believed in the traditions and the rituals, these rituals were very easy to follow, but incorporated with the Christian values.  The resent social and cultural problems face are due to the adaptation of the moral, ethics and changes. The current Christians in Thailand are experiencing social and cultural changes (Stephen, 2008).

Research question:

How did the Christian religion adapt to the social and cultural changes?

Methodology and research approach

The qualitative research method was used to answer the question as to how the Christian community adapted to the social and cultural changes. The research was based on the Isan community in Northeastern Thailand since they were very devoted Christians. The research setting was chosen since most of the people there were Christians, therefore it could have been easy to gather and transfer data for analysis. Isan was one of the small communities that really contributed to the growth of the Christian community. Data was collected through interviews, surveys, questionnaires, group discussions and observations (Stephen, 2008).

Reason for a qualitative method

Researchers have found that qualitative research was more convenient since it is situational, and could answer the questions on the complex situations, which occur when differences in social cultural and economic changes among the Christian community. Time, location, and setting disturbances together or separately influence the outcome of the qualitative analysis. The research has tried to minimize complexities that can influence the findings of the study. It is also important to note that throughout the study numerous precautions could be taken care of to protect the authentic nature of the study and trustworthiness of the data collected.

According to Hopper, (2011), Qualitative exploration is a system for request utilized in numerous distinctive scholarly restrains, customarily in the social sciences, additionally in statistical surveying and further settings. Qualitative scientists expect to accumulate an in-profundity comprehension of human conduct and the explanations that oversee such conduct. The qualitative technique explores the why and how of choice making, not just what, where, when. Henceforth, the samples sued are usually of small size as compared to huge sample sizes for the research. This method can be applied in the field of educational research whereby it can be a method to investigate the reasons for poor performance in marginalized regions. The method of data analysis is done through non-statistical analysis (Stephen, 2008).

Findings and discussions

The Christian religion first begun in the Northeastern Thailand in 1767 in the province called Unban Ratchatani and spread to other provinces within two years. This made it to be very successful in the Northeastern. It was able to gather many followers and this helped in the rapid growth of the Christian religion. About 90% of the people were converted to Christianity where they believed in the Jesus and the son of God. The Christian community was initially full of rituals and animism; the early missionaries who preached about the word of God and reform converted them (Stephen, 2008).

Cultural change

The Christian culture in this sense can be defined in the two senses. One it is that it is  the form of moral and ethical behavior that is practiced by the Christians. It can also mean the type of behavior, which is aggressive and acquisitively practiced by a certain religion. Therefore, social life of the Christians was based on the social faith of the Christian culture.  The spread of the Christianity and civilization was facilitated with the coming of the missionaries. Initially they were so much in tradition by then but they were bound to changes that came with the missionaries. There were some spiritual achievement among the Christians that changed the traditional way of thinking in the Christians. The spiritual achievement can now be seen in the current Christians where they no longer believe in the many gods but believe in one supreme God and his son called Jesus (Hopper, 2011).

The cultural change was as result of the economic revolution that was brought about by the coming of the Christian missionaries, changed the means of production. This happened n the period of 20 years where the economic status of the people changed radically as the. The cultural reform came as result of both social and economic changes. The people started changing from their means and values, they started viewing life I a different way and started to adapt to the true Christianity norms (Stephen, 2008).

Due to the poor economic status, the missionaries target the vulnerable community that were very poor, they gave them services such as food, clothing, health services, and even shelter. This attracted many people to join Christianity. the missionaries treated those patients with contagious diseases, this won the trust for the people . They started believing ion the missionaries. The Christian community grew and spread as people kept moving to different parts of the country. The missionaries also helped those freed slaves who had been evicted from their homes. They gave them houses and protected them. Through them, they gave them the Christian teachings and changed their economic status (Hopper, 2011).

In reference to the old Christian society, there have been great reforms due to civilization and modernization that was brought about by the Christian missionaries.  The world became more creative and civil. There have been many changes in the agricultural sector where the missionaries introduced the new methods of irrigation. The Christians adapted to the new irrigation schemes, which led to the growth of production. The availability of the material enabled toe introduction of the industries, which led to trade due to the availability of the manufactured goods in the Christian world. This changed the Christians economic status. In addition, more people were educated as they joined the mission schools were they were taught arithmetic and other basic skills that has enabled them to adapt to the new economic changes. (Dorrien, 2011).

Ethical considerations

            The research was based on some ethical considerations that consisted of seeking for permission from the authority before carrying out the research, the respondents were informed of the type and structure with the intention of the research before it took place. Only those who were willing to participate were involved. The anonymity was allowed for anyone who did not feel comfortable to reveal his or her identity. They were allowed to ask any questions that appeared contradicting. The social and economic context was also considered, as well as the ethnic background was put into consideration in this case so that the participants could answer the questions freely and voluntarily without feeling victimized. They were allowed to talk about the religion in general and not to base on their answers on the particular religion. The researchers made the questions clear enough to avoid any ambiguity and misunderstanding, and it made sure that the research was not based on the existing government .The respondents were assuring of their anonymity and that the research was not intending to victimize anyone or any nation. Therefore, this made them to participate and give their views freely (Champagne, 2007).

Conclusion

Since the origin of the Christian religion, there have been many changes in the Christian world. Christianity has gone through various revolutions in terms of the social, cultural and economic status. In reference to the old Christian society, there have been great reforms due to civilization and modernization that was brought about by the Christian missionaries.  Initially the Christians believed in many gods, later, they believed in Jesus Christ who is their Jew, they also believe in life after death and they claim that since Jesus died and rose again, there is eternal life. The son of God Jesus was born in Bethlehem and by that time, Palestine was controlled by the Roman Empire in 65 B.C.E. However, some of the groups tried to resist the occupation of the Romans in their land but they managed.

References

Champagne, D. (2007). Social change and cultural continuity among Native Nations. Lanham: Altamira Press.

Dorrien, G. (2011). Social Ethics in the Making: Interpreting an American Tradition. Chicester: John Wiley & Sons.

Hopper, D. H. (2011). Divine transcendence and the culture of change. Grand Rapids, Mich: William B. Eerdmans Pub.

Stephen, S. J. (2008). Caste, Catholic Christianity, and the language of conversion: Social change and cultural translation in Tamil country, 1519-1774. Delhi: Kalpaz Publications.