Pentecost Historiography and Watchman Nee’s Pneumatology — Society for Pentecostal Studies (2025)

At the 2025 Annual Meeting of the Society for Pentecostal Studies I presented a methodological paper and joined a panel on Watchman Nee.

Papers

1. “Pentecost Historiography: Methodology for Retelling the History of Chinese Christianity from the Perspective of the Spirit.”

From the abstract: “Academic studies of Chinese Pentecostal history and theology usually begin with the Pentecostal movement imported to China in the early twentieth century… [This paper] identifies such a lacuna and argues that the deep-seated religious and cultural setting in the spirited world of China, featuring a pantheon of ghosts and spirits, is conducive to the acceptance and development of the modern Pentecostal movement and theology… The proposed methodology for retelling the history of Chinese Christianity is Pentecost historiography, which builds on the renewal historiography advocated first by Stanley Burgess (2011).”

2. “Watchman Nee’s Pneumatology and the Pentecostal Movement” (panel on Watchman Nee, with Michael Reardon and Brian Chiu).

From the abstract: “Based on historical investigation of Watchman Nee (1903–1972)’s experience in 1935 after his personal encounter with Ling’en yundong 灵恩运动 (the Spirit-Gift movement), [this paper] argues that Nee developed a nuanced Spirit Christology emphasizing ‘the Christ in the Spirit,’ while at the same time a christological pneumatology.”

Event

• Event: Society for Pentecostal Studies (SPS) Annual Meeting 2025
• Dates: Spring 2025