Sublime Sociality: An (Auto)Ethnographic Theory of Chinese Christianity with Gareth Breen (LSE Press, 2026)

October 17, 2026

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5 min read

In a Taipei neighborhood called Jingmei, one of the oldest Christian quarters in the city, anthropologist Gareth Breen spent years studying a global religious movement most readers have never heard of—and which he himself grew up in before losing his faith as a teenager. The movement traces back to two early 20th-century Chinese preachers, Watchman Lee and Witness Lee, and is now considered the only indigenous Chinese Christian group to become a genuinely global phenomenon. Breen’s new book, Sublime Sociality: An (Auto)Ethnographic Theory of Chinese Christianity (LSE Press, 2026), asks a deceptively simple question: what makes Chinese Christianity Chinese? His answer, based on deep fieldwork and personal history, centers on a concept the group calls “organic oneness”—a form of social life that is neither pure conformity nor pure individualism, but something more paradoxical and demanding.

The Distinction Between Diversity and Differentiation

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What you'll learn

1 (00:00) **Introduction and Guest Background** - Host Suvy Rauzio introduces Gareth Breen and his new book *Sublime Sociality: An (Auto)Ethnographic Theory of Chinese Christianity* (LSE Press, 2026).
2 (01:47) **Personal Origins and Motivation for the Research** - Breen explains how he grew up in the group and later left it, which shaped his anthropological approach.
3 (06:01) **Founding History of the Movement** - Breen traces the group's origins to Watchman Lee and Witness Lee, and the critical role of British missionary Margaret Barber.
4 (12:17) **Migration to Taiwan and Fieldwork Setting** - The movement relocated to Taiwan with Witness Lee after Watchman Lee was imprisoned in 1952.
5 (14:28) **Differentiation vs. Diversity: A Key Theoretical Distinction** - Breen introduces the core conceptual framework of the book through the sounds and rhythms of Taipei church life.
6 (21:11) **The Interludes: Auto-Ethnography and Positionality** - Breen discusses the first-person interludes woven through the book, which reveal his own deconversion and evolving relationship with the group.
7 (27:53) **Social Flow as Religious Experience** - Breen introduces "flow" as the central idiom and practice of the movement, arguing it should replace "presence" as the prototype for religious experience in anthropology.

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Show Notes

On the podcast today I am joined by Gareth Breen, Assistant Professor in anthropology at University of Sussex. Gareth is joining me to talk about his new book, Sublime Sociality: An (Auto)Ethnographic Theory of Chinese Christianity, out now with LSE Press.

Sublime Sociality follows the deeply influential, nameless religious movement formed by a transnational Sino-Taiwanese community of followers of Witness Li. The movement is now considered one of the first indigenous Chinese Christian groups of the twentieth century and the only one to become a global phenomenon in the twenty-first.

In this book, anthropologist Gareth Breen asks: what is ‘Chinese’ about ‘Chinese Christianity’? He locates its distinctiveness in followers’ pursuit of what they call ‘organic oneness’, which Breen describes as a form of ‘sublime sociality’ that combines spontaneous social interaction with countervailing tendencies towards conformity and routine. By examining how unity is sustained through the everyday rhythms of church life—from meetings and daily prayer to communal meals and social groups—Breen offers a compelling portrait and penetrating analysis of Chinese Christianity, while bringing a new perspective to the anthropology of religion.

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