■ The current issue of Pneuma (46), the journal of Pentecostal studies, is devoted to higher education in Pentecostalism, a movement where tensions over higher learning persist despite institutional progress. While Pentecostalism has a reputation of discouraging higher education, denominations and even congregations in this tradition developed many Bible schools, seminaries, and most recently colleges and universities. Preparation for ministry has been a key concern for these different kinds of institutions, but the move to full-fledged universities (think Oral Roberts University and Regent University) is a leading trend, reflecting Pentecostal and charismatic rising social mobility. These schools can now be found globally in Africa, Asia, Latin America, Australia, and Europe, although it is in Africa (particularly Nigeria) where these institutions are growing strong, while this is less the case in Asia and Latin America, and hardly at all in Europe.
Contributor Allan Anderson notes that many of the same issues facing U.S.-based missions in the developing world are being experienced by Pentecostal colleges and universities in these regions. These schools have inherited a pre-millennial and conservative orientation that does not address ethnic and racial tensions and other social issues. The tension between academic freedom and theological freedom has often meant “relying on foreign academics to retain doctrinal purity.” The other concern with establishing Pentecostal colleges and universities is that they are exporting the dominant Reformed ethos, which is heavy on the intellect but less so on experiential learning. The watchwords in these new Pentecostal and charismatic colleges and universities are “head, heart, and hands,” pressing for a more holistic approach to education. For more information on this issue, visit:
https://brill.com/view/journals/pneu/pneu-overview.xml?language=en
■ Chinese students returning to China after study and Christian conversion in the U.S. and other Western countries have been facing a rise in nationalism and new pressures and restrictions on churches. The evangelical ChinaSource Quarterly devotes its December issue to evangelical returnees to China, noting that the total number of student returnees to China has grown sharply since Covid, reaching over one million in 2021. There are no clear statistics on how many of these returnees are Christian, with a conservative estimate being five percent, but the trend of conversions to evangelical Christianity among Chinese students studying abroad has been taking place for decades. However, these evangelical returnees are no longer replenishing and reviving their churches as much as yielding to pressures to keep their faith private.
The authors of one article, writing under pseudonyms, note that both Covid and the restrictive religious environment have led to the returnees’ reliance on online tools and resources and a tendency to stay away from the churches. This avoidance of the Chinese church is particularly apparent when returnees first return home and are uncertain and unfamiliar with the changed environment. But the first two years back are the most critical for these new Christians (and most of them are young in the faith) in terms of being able to adapt and keep their Christian commitments. Churches themselves have shifted from more open, public institutions to a new small-group, community-based approach, which makes them unfamiliar to returnees who converted to the faith through large-scale gatherings in formal church buildings overseas. To read this issue, visit: https://www.chinasource.org/resource-library/chinasource-quarterlies/journey-back-to-china/
