Reincarnated Religion? The Eschatology of the Church of Almighty God in Comparative Perspective

Abstract

The Church of Almighty God is a Chinese new religious movement. This article provides an account of the eschatology of the Church of Almighty God on the basis of its texts and considers this eschatology in comparison with other varieties of millenarianism in Chinese history, namely Christianity, the religion of the Taipings and Buddho-Daoist sectarianism. Many elements of the Church of Almighty God's teachings are familiar in the Chinese context, but its eschatology in fact differs from that of earlier religions. The Church of Almighty God adopts very little explicitly from the ‘three teachings’ of Confucianism, Buddhism or Daoism, invoking the bible and Christian vocabulary instead. It is therefore possible to overstate the historical precedent and to underestimate the innovative nature of the teachings of the Church of Almighty God.