EMQ » July–September 2021 » Volume 57 Issue 3
By Massimo Introvigne
Oxford University Press, 2020
168 pages
US$29.95
Reviewed by Richard Cook, Associate Professor of Church History and Missions at Logos Evangelical Seminary in El Monte, California. He served as a missionary in Taiwan for over ten years and has a PhD in Modern Chinese History from the University of Iowa.
This small book on a prominent new religious movement in China offers surprising value for readers of EMQ. The Church of Almighty God, also known as Eastern Lightning, is an unorthodox movement that has recently garnered as much attention and persecution in China as the Falun Gong. In this succinct study published by Oxford University Press, Massimo Introvigne, an Italian sociologist and advocate for tolerance for new religious movements, provides a valuable picture of religion and religious persecution in contemporary China. The elusive group maintains an idiosyncratic theology, including the central belief that Jesus Christ returned in our time in the shape of a Chinese woman.
The study is solid, with an ample bibliography of thirteen pages of entries, including English, Chinese, and other European languages. But Introvigne’s unique contribution is his access to many church members around the world. He builds the story on extensive interviews, conducted both inside and outside of China, putting together the story of the beginning of the movement from the early 1990s. Sources include numerous church documents (which makes up two pages of the bibliography) and discussions with some of the police who have been tracing the group for years. The Church of Almighty God is not an orthodox Christian church, and they have been specifically targeted for unusual persecution; thus, they are not representative of the Protestant house churches. Nonetheless, the extensive and up-to-date discussion of the religious policies in China is beneficial to all China observers.
The book begins with the casual discussion of the author’s various “adventures” with the group, suggesting that the book might provide a fun story. The descriptive chapter titles in the table of contents further promises a well-organized and carefully crafted narrative. Chapter 1 starts with the “Suicide of Ms. Liu and Other Chinese Persecution Stories.” The second chapter moves on to, “China’s Struggle against the Xie Jiao,” that is, the religious sects, and chapter 3 covers the church’s “Origins and Beliefs.” With that background, chapter 4 addresses the question of why people would join the organization, trying to understand its phenomenal growth. Again, Introvigne provides several testimonies from his interviews. Chapter 5 delves into life within the church, discussing, for instance, demographics, the “minimalist but rich worship,” the “theology of beauty,” and the visual arts in the church.
Chapters 6 and 7 extensively interact with the two best known cases of the alleged criminal activities of the church. One case involves a murder in a McDonald’s restaurant in China in 2014, and the second includes the accusation of the kidnapping of evangelical pastors in 2002. In both cases, Introvigne provides context and a defense of the church. Chapter 8, “Escaping China: The Refugees,” tells the story of church members who have fled China to escape the fierce persecution. The final chapter concludes with the author’s reflections and some comments on the new policies in the era of Xi Jinping.
Easy and enjoyable to read, Massimo Introvigne has provided compelling and valuable stories. Unfortunately, the narrative is mostly from one side presented by a sympathetic observer. Granted, that side needs to be heard, but there is still much to learn about the group. Evangelical house churches will continue to struggle with whether they should align themselves with the government to persecute and root out this heretical group, or whether they should stand in solidarity with a persecuted minority religion.
