{"id":127403,"date":"2026-04-15T14:45:46","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T18:45:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/?p=127403"},"modified":"2026-04-15T14:45:46","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T18:45:46","slug":"field-report-pentecostal-christianity-and-global-modernity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/2026\/04\/field-report-pentecostal-christianity-and-global-modernity\/","title":{"rendered":"Field Report: Pentecostal Christianity and Global Modernity?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

I\u2019ve been interested in a sort of apparent paradox over the last few months. You can see the thread in all of the posts dedicated to pentecostal\/charismatic Christianity and technological adoption. How is it that a movement so interested in reliving the past was so enmeshed in newer forms of technology and media production? How did that \u201cold-time religion\u201d produce modern media moguls and folks living on the bleeding edge of technological adoption?<\/p>\n

So far, I\u2019ve focused a lot of effort on the Western context. Why? On one level, this focus is really about ease. Online digital repositories make early Pentecostal periodicals easy to access, and these monthly posts have hard deadlines, so I can keyword search my way to interesting insights relatively quickly. On another level, this makes sense because most technologies tend to flow in a unidirectional way in the early 20th century: West to the rest. The West gets railways, then the world gets railways. The West gets planes, then the world gets planes. The USA gets cars\u2026 you get the picture.<\/p>\n

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A Train on the South Manchuria Railway, Wikimedia Commons.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The problem I\u2019ve been having, though, is that the early Pentecostalism<\/a> that I am so intent on understanding goes beyond just \u201cthe West.\u201d Indeed, the leading historical paradigm tends to explicitly focus on how it is a global phenomenon from the beginning. What then of my question? Does it still apply? At this juncture, I think it is clear that at least some Western Pentecostals had a faith that was deeply entangled in the advances of media production and technological innovation. But what about the Pentecostals everywhere else?<\/p>\n

Well, I don\u2019t have a great answer at this juncture. Instead, I just have some interesting anecdotes from my recent research on Chinese pentecostal groups, specifically the Hong Kong Pentecostal Mission and the True Jesus Church. I\u2019ve been slowly working through their periodicals, looking at how newer technologies show up.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve called this a \u201cField Report\u201d because I don\u2019t really have conclusions at this point. Just notes. So, I\u2019ll follow an unusual format. I\u2019ll list out a few of my little finds, then I\u2019ll wrap up with some thoughts. As this is very much a work in progress, I would really appreciate any thoughts that you, dear reader, might offer. So please offer them up in the comments.<\/p>\n

Finds from the \u201cField\u201d<\/h2>\n