Lightning from the East

Emily Dunn is an Associate of The University of Melbourne's Asia Institute. She was awarded her Ph.D. in 2010 by that Institute, where she now teaches part-time. She can be contacted at ecdunn@unimelb.edu.au.

"Dunn delivers a circumspect and instructive assessment of a key actor of the PRC’s contemporary new religious landscape. While the doctrinal dimension and context of Eastern Lightning is tangible through the large corpus of writings, the group’s historical and sociological aspects remain fragmentary and cursory due to the specific (i.e., being informed by the official government discourse) nature of the sources. Dunn certainly makes the best of it. This is a compulsory reading for the student of East Asian new religious movements." Lukas Pokorny, University of Aberdeen, Religious Studies Review, Vol. 42.2, June 2016

• ACKNOWLEDGMENTSNOTES LIST OF FIGURES LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMSCHAPTER ONE:Eastern Lightning and Religion in ChinaCHAPTER TWO:Protestant-Related New Religious Movements in Contemporary ChinaCHAPTER THREE:The Teachings of Eastern LightningCHAPTER FOUR:The Heritage of Eastern Lightning's Teachings: A Case StudyCHAPTER FIVE:The Chinese Government's Response to Protestant-Related New Religious MovementsCHAPTER SIX:The Art of Persuasion: Eastern Lightning's Recruitment StrategiesCHAPTER SEVEN:Chinese Protestant Depictions of HeresyCHAPTER EIGHT:CONCLUSION: Eastern Lightning in Local and Global PerspectiveAPPENDIX 1: Annotated Bibliography of Eastern Lightning (Church of Almighty God) Chinese TextsAPPENDIX 2: Annotated Bibliography of Eastern Lightning (Church of Almighty God) English TextsBIBLIOGRAPHYINDEX