CONFERENCES I ORGANIZE AND CONVENE
Scholarly gatherings I convene or co-organize, with their programs and papers.
Further Thoughts 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.
Papers
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.
Dr. Jacob Chengwei Feng 