Fuller Theological Seminary

This qualitative single-case study examines how spirituality promotes mental health within a stigmatized occupation by analyzing an in-depth interview with “Perla,” a 62-year-old Mexican woman with decades of experience in sex work. Guided by Virginia Satir’s Transformational Systemic Therapy (STST), specifically the Self-Mandala and Iceberg Metaphor, we conceptualize spirituality as a universal human dimension of meaning, moral orientation, and relational connection that may be expressed within or beyond formal religion. Narrative thematic analysis identifies processes through which Perla cultivates congruence (alignment of inner experience and outward conduct), safeguards dignity, and sustains hope amid systemic constraints. Her Catholic practices (prayer, ritual boundaries regarding Eucharist) coexist with a broader spiritual agency that supports self-worth, emotional regulation, boundary-setting, and coherent identity, factors associated with mental well-being. Interdisciplinary implications bridge marriage and family therapy, psychology, pastoral care, and cultural studies. Clinically, we translate Satir’s constructs (yearnings, perceptions, expectations, coping stances) into practical assessment and intervention steps that can be applied in secular settings without religious presuppositions. Analytic rigor was supported through reflective memoing, a structured three-level coding process, constant comparison, and verification by a second coder. The case challenges pathologizing frames of sex workers by demonstrating how spirituality can function as a protective, growth-oriented resource that fosters agency and moral coherence.

Abstract This introductory chapter sets out the primary task of the book, namely, to (re)investigate the history of Chinese Christianity from the perspective of the Holy Spirit. Dubbed Pentecost historiography , this methodology takes its inspiration from the renewal/renewalist historiography initially proposed by Stanley Burgess and then developed by Amos Yong and Dale Coulter. By studying the history of Chinese Christianity, the history of Chinese Christian thought, and Chinese Christian historical theology, the chapter aims to rectify the prevalent misconception in Chinese scholarship that Ling’en yundong 靈恩運動 (Spiritual Gifts Movements) are entirely foreign to and inconsistent with Chinese Christianity and culture. Instead, the rich spirit world that has been occupying the Chinese culture since its inception has been an active ‘dancing floor’ to the Holy Spirit, leaving her traces in various forms, be they written, inscribed, emotional, experiential, and lived. After presenting the significance of the book, a brief history of research, and defining a few key terms, the chapter spends its major part on crafting the Pentecost historiography by identifying its source, contour, task, and goal.

Abstract This chapter aims to construct a Chinese Pentecost theology for the third millennium in the context of a rapidly modernizing yet spiritually vibrant China beyond the Pentecostal sphere of churches. It argues that the embodied, sensory experiences of the Pentecost—manifested through phenomena such as the sound of wind, tongues of fire, and dynamic practices—resonate with traditional Chinese concepts like qi and ling . Despite historical challenges, including secularization and periods of repression, China’s enduring religious vitality presents a unique opportunity to rearticulate a Pentecost theology in culturally relevant terms. By retelling the history of Chinese Christianity—from early Church of the East encounters to Jesuit and Protestant engagements and indigenous and global Christianity—the work challenges Western dualistic paradigms and proposes a holistic anthropology. This constructive theology not only foregrounds the transformative work of the Holy Spirit as expressed in the Pentecost but also fosters inclusive interfaith dialogue and a global mission that reclaims the agency of indigenous spiritual experiences.

Abstract China, often referred to as Shenzhou 神州, meaning ‘the continent of the spirits,’ has been inhabited by a myriad of spirits, deities, ghosts, and ancestors since the dawn of its culture. This chapter sets the groundwork for the entire book by positing that the rich and multifaceted spirit world of China acts as the ‘dancing floor’ for the Holy Spirit. To establish this premise, the chapter begins by defining several essential terms: shen 神 (spirits), ling 靈 (spirits), gui 鬼 (ghosts), and zuxian 祖先 (ancestors), which collectively shape the Chinese spiritual landscape. The majority of the chapter will then conduct a brief survey of China’s three-millennia-long history, divided into seven distinct stages, paying special attention to how spirits and ghosts have been embraced and enriched by various Chinese traditions, including Confucianism, Buddhism, Daoism, shamanism, and folk/popular traditions, among others.

This article asks what the development of the field of “world Christianity” means for “mission studies” or “missiology” in the context that the former has replaced the latter in many universities and in some theological seminaries. I observe that, although world Christianity could be regarded as the savior of mission studies in academia, it is not without its difficulties, while missiology also has important features that may not be encompassed under world Christianity. Moreover, although “mission” is problematic in the academy, there has been a resurgence of mission activity and thinking in churches, especially in the majority world. I draw on recent work for The Oxford Handbook of Mission Studies (2022) and on Christianity as a World Religion (third edition, 2025), and on current discourse on world Christianity in the US particularly to argue that there is still a role for mission studies as distinct from, but complementary to, the study of world Christianity and to suggest what that might look like. As preliminary to this, I will reflect on my experience of the antecedent of today’s Cambridge Centre for Christianity Worldwide—the Henry Martyn Centre, a center for mission studies that was named after a western missionary and founded on a legacy of evangelical missions from Cambridge, but that also played a significant role in the origins of the study of world Christianity.

This article examines the Qurʾānic portrayal of Jesus (ʿĪsā al-Masīḥ) and the naṣārā in comparison with Samaritan and Nazarene/Ebionite profiles, situating them within the Arabicised debatespace of Late Antiquity and early Islam. Building on recent studies of Qurʾānic Christology and interconfessional exchange as well as Macdonald’s work on Samaritan theology and Thomas’s research on Christian–Muslim polemic, the study argues that overlaps in prophetology, law-centred piety, and divine transcendence reflect shared category availability rather than genealogical dependence. Methodologically, the analysis combines close readings of Qurʾānic passages (e.g., Q 4:171; 5:72–75; 4:157) with textual variants from the Samaritan Pentateuch (SP), the Septuagint (LXX), and the Masoretic Text (MT), alongside patristic notices of Jewish–Christian groups. Evidence from Sinai Arabic MS 154, an early Christian apologetic treatise preserved at St Catherine’s Monastery, illustrates how Arabic-speaking Christians engaged Qurʾānic categories in staged dialogue. The findings clarify where conceptual overlaps (titles, law, divine unity) coexisted with decisive non-overlaps (worship, sonship, atonement), showing that the Qurʾān’s Christology participated in a common discursive field while maintaining distinct theological boundaries. On this basis, the article proposes a historically grounded “Bridge-First” model for Muslim–Christian dialogue, beginning with Qurʾān-affirmed titles for Jesus and advancing toward contested claims in sequence.

Abstract The present article observes that Psalm 50 foregrounds mouth activities of speaking and eating. More than that, logics of proximity and possession drive the psalm’s rhetoric, and the mouth is the center of both. Speech closes a spatial gap, and the mouth is the arterial. God is up high, and his speech moves downward to humans; rightful human speech moves upward to God. But animals are already proximate to God on the heights, so the divine mouth is closed to them. The mouth is the arterial for possession as well: God possesses both humans and animals, and on that basis, God speaks to the former, and God declines to consume the latter. Wicked humans are illicit possessors bonded by common eating. The article explores the psalm’s mouthiness specifically in the context of translation. It toggles between MT Ps 50 and LXX Ps 49 to test the significance of verbal form to the poetics of the psalm.

Abstract This essay explores a pneumatology of spontaneity in corporate worship, drawing upon a vivid example from the author’s pastoral experience and integrating biblical, theological, and liturgical insights. It argues that the Holy Spirit creates spontaneity in worship as both the Spirit-of-the-Moment and the Improvising Spirit. The essay challenges binary understandings of order versus freedom and offers a constructive model where spontaneity is seen as a Spirit-enabled, trinitarian dynamic. Ultimately, the Spirit’s gift of spontaneity is not for spectacle but for the edification of the Body, the formation of Christlikeness, and the glorification of the triune God.

The Church of the East embarked on the earliest mission to China, sending monks to a vibrant land steeped in ancestral worship and a diverse pantheon of deities. This paper will delve into their extant Chinese documents, particularly the xuting mishisuo jing (Book of Righteous Mediator), to explore how the Gospel was contextualized in a culture centered on filial piety and imbued with spiritual beliefs. The argument posits that, as God-fearers ( tarsāk , Sogdian), they effectively contextualized their vernacular piety by tapping into Tang China’s spirited world, demonstrating the creative and transformative power of the Holy Spirit.