CONFERENCES I ORGANIZE AND CONVENE
Scholarly gatherings I convene or co-organize, with their programs and papers.
Forthcoming: Further Talks on Deification
A one-day conference on deification, continuing the conversation begun in Transformed into the Same Image. Papers are collected in advance and published as an edited volume, Further Thoughts on Deification.
Draft Program
Hosted by the Asia Research Center (ARC) and The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Convenors: Abraham Ho and Prof. Pan-chiu Lai. This is a provisional rundown and may change.
- 9:00–9:15 a.m. · Welcome and opening
- 9:15–10:15 a.m. · Session 1: Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen; Lai Pan-chiu
- 10:15–10:30 a.m. · Break
- 10:30–11:30 a.m. · Session 2: Myk Habets; Michael M. C. Reardon
- 11:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m. · Session 3: Jacob Chengwei Feng; launch of the volume Further Thoughts on Deification (English and Chinese editions)
- 12:30–1:30 p.m. · Lunch
- 1:30–2:30 p.m. · Session 4: Paul S. Chung; Songzan Xu
- 2:30–2:45 p.m. · Break
- 2:45–3:45 p.m. · Session 5: Paul Copan; Brian Siu Kit Chiu
- 3:45–4:30 p.m. · Closing discussion
Papers
Deification and the “Pneumatic Christ”: Witness Lee’s Reciprocal Christological-Pneumatological Approach to Trinitarian Theosis
Reads Witness Lee’s discourse on the “pneumatic Christ” and the “consummated/compound Spirit” as a single, reciprocal Christological-pneumatological structure unfolding through eight stages toward the “mingled spirit,” arguing that this two-way reciprocity offers a more integrated trinitarian account of deification than a Christ-only or Spirit-only vocabulary can give alone.
Conformation and Glorification with Deification as Their Telos: Witness Lee’s Pneumatological Ordo Salutis
Reads Romans 8:29–30 as the passage Protestant theology has always claimed for its order of salvation, and argues that Witness Lee’s own annotations supply what that order has left unexpounded — an exegetical account of how conformation issues in glorification, with deification as their shared telos.
The Seed of David Becoming the Son of God: Understanding Regeneration and Sanctification in View of Christological Deification in Witness Lee
Reads Witness Lee’s own exegetical notes on Romans 1:3–4 and 8:29 as a coherent participatory Christology, arguing that Christ’s own designation as Son of God in resurrection is the prototype and ground of believers’ regeneration and sanctification as deification begun and deification continued.
Ecclesial Deification in Romans 12 in Dialogue with Witness Lee’s Understanding of Renewal and Transformation
Argues that Romans 12:1–21 supplies a decisive exegetical foundation for ecclesial — rather than merely individual — deification, and brings that reading into constructive dialogue with Witness Lee’s account of the believers’ renewing and transformation as stages within organic salvation.
Justification as Union and Christ’s Presence: A Lutheran Perspective
Retrieves the Finnish “New Perspective” on Luther’s doctrine of justification as union with and the real presence of Christ, argues for its material convergence with the ancient doctrine of theosis, and presses the account further toward a more robust pneumatological-trinitarian shape and an active reception of the gift of grace.
Deification in Sino-Christian Theology
Maps the Chinese reception of deification — written largely by scholars outside the Orthodox churches — and traces its pre-history in Chinese theology through comparison with Confucian and Buddhist thought, before arguing that the doctrine opens a distinctive prospect for Sino-Christian theology.
Faith and Deification within a Comparative Framework: An East Asian Theological Contribution
Retrieves deifying dimensions already latent in Luther’s own doctrine of justification, then extends the argument through Lutheran–Orthodox dialogue into a comparative encounter with Shin Buddhist thought and the spiritual legacy of Watchman Nee.
Theosis for Everyone: Evangelical Resourcement Through Biography
Answers the Protestant hesitation over theosis and then presses further — arguing that the doctrine has to be lived to be understood, and reading it out of four lives, from Macrina the Younger to C. S. Lewis.
Defense and Deification: Biblical Apologetics as Participation in the Divine Life
Takes participation in the divine life into a domain rarely connected to theosis — Christian apologetics — and argues that the defense of the faith is itself a form of sharing in the life of God.
2025 Ecumenical Symposium on Deification
A one-day ecumenical dialogue on deification on Fuller Seminary’s Pasadena campus. Presenters discuss deification as an ecumenical topic with perspectives representing various Christian traditions, such as the Lutheran, Reformed, Evangelical, Orthodox, and Chinese Christians such as Watchman Nee.
Symposium on Chinese Christianity, Its Centennial Mission, and Chinese Bible Translation
Nearly twenty scholars from mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Israel, Canada, and the United States met to consider the modern development of Chinese Christianity and its centennial mission, with particular attention to the role of Bible translation, above all the Holy Bible Recovery Version read alongside the Chinese Union Version and other contemporary Chinese versions. Jointly sponsored by Fuller’s Center for Missiological Research and Chinese Studies Center and by the Asia Research Center.
