Is there life? Is there spirit? Debating belief and being a good Christian in Watchman Nee’s ‘Little Flock’

Christine Lee; Yujing Ma; Jianbo Huang

doi:10.3390/rel14070844

Is there life? Is there spirit? Debating belief and being a good Christian in Watchman Nee’s ‘Little Flock’

Christine Lee, Yujing Ma, Jianbo Huang^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Social Anthropology

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Christian, especially Protestant, identity is often framed through the lens of belief, particularly belief understood as an interior orientation. Through an examination of the non-denominational Protestant group, the ‘Little Flock’, founded by Watchman Nee in the early 20th century, we trace enduring aspects of Little Flock theology in contemporary Chinese Protestant practice. In particular, we attend to conceptions of and debates surrounding belief and how to determine the quality of one’s faith—whether or not one might be considered not just a Christian, but a ‘good’ one.

Original language	English
Article number	844
Number of pages	13
Journal	Religions
Volume	14
Issue number	7
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14070844
Publication status	Published - 27 Jun 2023

Keywords

Little flock
Watchman Nee
Christianity
Belief
China

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10.3390/rel14070844Licence: CC BY

Lee-2023-Is-there-life-Religions-14-00844-CCBY
Copyright: © 2023 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
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Cite this

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title = "Is there life? Is there spirit? Debating belief and being a good Christian in Watchman Nee{\textquoteright}s {\textquoteleft}Little Flock{\textquoteright}",

abstract = "Christian, especially Protestant, identity is often framed through the lens of belief, particularly belief understood as an interior orientation. Through an examination of the non-denominational Protestant group, the {\textquoteleft}Little Flock{\textquoteright}, founded by Watchman Nee in the early 20th century, we trace enduring aspects of Little Flock theology in contemporary Chinese Protestant practice. In particular, we attend to conceptions of and debates surrounding belief and how to determine the quality of one{\textquoteright}s faith—whether or not one might be considered not just a Christian, but a {\textquoteleft}good{\textquoteright} one.",

keywords = "Little flock, Watchman Nee, Christianity, Belief, China",

author = "Christine Lee and Yujing Ma and Jianbo Huang",

note = "Funding: This research was funded by the Shanghai Social Science Innovation Research Base, for {\textquoteleft}Research on Transitional Sociology with Chinese Characteristics{\textquoteright}.",

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AU - Lee, Christine

AU - Ma, Yujing

AU - Huang, Jianbo

N1 - Funding: This research was funded by the Shanghai Social Science Innovation Research Base, for ‘Research on Transitional Sociology with Chinese Characteristics’.

PY - 2023/6/27

Y1 - 2023/6/27

N2 - Christian, especially Protestant, identity is often framed through the lens of belief, particularly belief understood as an interior orientation. Through an examination of the non-denominational Protestant group, the ‘Little Flock’, founded by Watchman Nee in the early 20th century, we trace enduring aspects of Little Flock theology in contemporary Chinese Protestant practice. In particular, we attend to conceptions of and debates surrounding belief and how to determine the quality of one’s faith—whether or not one might be considered not just a Christian, but a ‘good’ one.

AB - Christian, especially Protestant, identity is often framed through the lens of belief, particularly belief understood as an interior orientation. Through an examination of the non-denominational Protestant group, the ‘Little Flock’, founded by Watchman Nee in the early 20th century, we trace enduring aspects of Little Flock theology in contemporary Chinese Protestant practice. In particular, we attend to conceptions of and debates surrounding belief and how to determine the quality of one’s faith—whether or not one might be considered not just a Christian, but a ‘good’ one.

KW - Little flock

KW - Watchman Nee

KW - Christianity

KW - Belief

KW - China

U2 - 10.3390/rel14070844

DO - 10.3390/rel14070844

M3 - Article

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JO - Religions

JF - Religions

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M1 - 844

ER -

Is there life? Is there spirit? Debating belief and being a good Christian in Watchman Nee’s ‘Little Flock’

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Keywords

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