Songzan Xu
Email: sx272@cam.ac.uk
PhD Candidate in Theology and Religious Studies (World Christianity)
Supervisor: Professor Jörg Haustein
College Affiliation: Selwyn College
Thesis Introduction
My doctoral thesis investigates the transnational mission flows and theological contextualisation of the Local Church movement, with a particular focus on its development in Los Angeles and New York and its interactions with American Evangelical and Charismatic renewals. Originating in 1920s China through the ministry of Watchman Nee—a world-renowned Christian leader and Bible teacher—the movement was introduced to the West in the 1950s by Nee’s immigrant co-workers and Euro-American followers. Since then, it has grown beyond its Chinese indigenous and diasporic origins, developing into a multi-ethnic, multi-lingual Christian network active in over 150 countries and encompassing more than ten million adherents.
While scholarship in World Christianity have predominantly focused on Western missionary expansions and Global South Christianities within (post)colonial contexts, little attention has been paid to the reverse influence of Chinese theology and church movements on Western Christianity. My research aims to address this gap and highlights the under-explored Chinese theological role in the Global South–North knowledge exchange in post-mission World Christianity. It further explores how contextual theology is re-conceptualised through multi-directional missionary flows, thereby challenging both Western-centric and indigenous-centred epistemologies and proposing a more fluid, entangled genealogy of global Christianity.
Publication List
Books
1. From Other to Self: Indigenous Practice and Intercultural Dialogues of Sino-Christianity (in Chinese), Taipei: Chinese Christian Literature Council & Taoyuan: Chung Yuan Christian University, 2021.
2. Songs of China’s Galilee: Canaan Hymns and Contemporary Chinese House Churches (in Chinese), Taipei: Chinese Christian Literature Council & Taoyuan: Chung Yuan Christian University, 2020.
Journal Papers
3. “Hymns and the Singing Community: The Formation of the Canaan Hymns in Contemporary Chinese Churches” (with Xiaoli Yang), Review of Religion and Chinese Society 9 (2022): 151–169.
4. “The Community Identity and Symbolic Construction of Intellectuals in China’s Christian House Churches: A Case Study in Chengdu,” Taiwan Journal of Religious Studies 17 (2018): 227–249.
5. “The Creation of ‘Sino-Christian Hymns’: From the Perspective of the Indigenization of Chinese Christianity,” Ching Feng: A Journal on Christianity and Chinese Religion and Culture 16 (2017): 225–240.
Book Chapters
6. “Reconfiguring the Holy Spirit Across the Pacific: Charismatic Dynamics in the Local Church Movement between Taiwan and California, 1960s–1970s.” In Brill’s Encyclopedia of Global Pentecostalism Supplements. Leiden: Brill, 2025 (forthcoming).
7. “Mysticism and Covenant: The Democratization of Chinese Pietism Tradition,” pp.134–155, in Light After Darkness: Essays on the 500th Anniversary of the Protestant Reformation and the Prospect of Chinese Church, edited by Zhiyong Wang and Jie Yu. Taipei: Lord Way Press, 2019.
8. “New Songs and Religious Mobilization: Exploring the Interactions of the Canaan Hymns and House Church Missionary Teams,” pp.326–347, in Transfiguration: 2017 International Symposium on Local and Global Development of Chinese Christianity, edited by Cheng-Tian Kuo, Fu-Chu Chou and Cheng-Hao Chang. New Taipei: CCLM Publishing Group Ltd, 2018.
Conference Papers
9. “When Hippies Met Chinese Pneumatology: Entanglements of the Jesus People Movement and Chinese Spiritual Theology in the ‘Elden Hall Revival’(1965–1973),” The 15th GloPent Conference on Global Pentecostalism: Peace and Conflicts. Uppsala University, June 13–14, 2025.
10. “Gospel Migration and Cold War Geopolitics: Tracing the Transpacific Flows of a Chinese-originated Church Movement, 1950s–1970s” Christianity and Social Change in the Global South Seminar, Emmanuel College, University of Cambridge, May 23, 2025.
11. “Reverse Mission and Transpacific Migration: A Case Study on Witness Lee and the Local Church Movement between Taipei and Los Angeles (1952–1997),” The 6th World Christianity Conference: Migration, Diaspora, and Transnationalism in World Christianity, Princeton Theological Seminary, March 10–14, 2025.
12. “The Conversion Experiences and Religious Narratives of the ‘Shouters’: A Case Study in Zhejiang Province in the 1980s,” The Oral History of Chinese Religions International Conference, National Chengchi University & Purdue University, June 29–30, 2019.
13. “Community Identities in Singing Hymns: A Case Study on ‘Singing Canaan Hymns’,” Chinese Christian Art and Literature International Conference, Purdue University, May 3–5, 2019.
14. “Constructing Gospel Soundscape: Gospel Singers, Popular Hymns and Mission Bands in Contemporary China,” The Annual Meeting of Taiwan Association for Religious Studies, National Chengchi University, June 31, 2017.