What I Do
Alex Mayfield is a Assistant Professor of History at Asbury University. His research utilizes digital methodologies to reconstruct historical networks and movements within global Christianity. His current research and teaching interests include global history, pentecostal and charismatic movements, mission history in East Asia.
Education
Doctorate
2021
Ph.D. in Global Christian History from Boston University, School of Theology.
Masters
2016
M.Div. from Boston College.
Bachelors
2007
B.A. from Oral Roberts University.
Teaching & Research Experience
| Since 2022 | Assistant Professor of History, Asbury University
|
| 2021-22 | Postdoctoral Researcher, Center for Global Christianity and Mission, Boston University |
| 2017-21 | Graduate Teaching Fellow, Boston University School of Theology
|
Publications
Monographs
| 2023 | The Kaleidoscopic City: Hong Kong, Mission, and the Evolution of Global Pentecostalism (Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2023). |
Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles
| 2024 | Alex Mayfield, Margaret Frei, Daryl Ireland, Eugenio Menegon "The China Historical Christian Database: A Dataset Quantifying Christianity in China from 1550 to 1950," Data 9.6, https://doi.org/10.3390/data9060076. |
| 2022 | "Leaping the Digital Gorge: Datasets, Aesthetics, and the China Historical Christian Database," Digital Humanities 數字人文 4, 123-34. |
| 2018 | "The Question of Power in African Pentecostalism," Spiritus: ORU Journal of Theology 3.1, 87-107. |
| 2018 | "Galleons from the “Mouth of Hell:” Empire and Religion in 17th Century Acapulco," Journal of Early Modern Christianity 5.2, 221-245. |
| 2017 | "Spiritual Exceptionalism?: An Ethnographic Survey of Transnational Pentecostal Communities in Boston's Inner Core," Missiology 45.3, 299-321. |
| 2016 | "Seal of the Spirit: The Sacrament of Confirmation and Pentecostal Spirit Baptism," Journal of Pentecostal Theology 25.2, 222-241. |
Book Chapters
| Forth. | "North America," in Volume 10. Compact Atlas of Global Christianity. Edinburgh Companions to Global Christianity, ed. Kenneth R. Ross, Gina A. Zurlo and Todd M. Johnson (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press), xx. |
| Forth. | "A Statistical Analysis of the Early Pentecostal Movement in China," in Volume 3: East Asia. Brill's Encyclopedia of Global Pentecostalism Supplements, ed. Connie Au and Reginal Alva (Leiden: Brill), xx. |
| Forth. | "Fighting for Souls in the Latter Rain: Eschatology and Early Chinese Pentecostal Witness," in Chinese Christian Witness: Identity, Creativity and Transmission, ed. Xiaoli Yang and Daryl Ireland (Leiden: Brill), xx. |
| 2024 | "Pentecostals Among the Plagues: Early Chinese Pentecostal Theologies of Sickness, Healing, and Pandemics," in The Pandemic & the Holy Spirit: From Lament to Hope and Healing, ed. Wonsuk Ma, Opoku Onyinah, and Rebekah Bled (Tulsa, OK: Oral Roberts University Press), 67-82. |
| 2023 | "Arrows Flying to the Five Continents: Hong Kong and Structures of Pentecostal Print Culture, 1907-1942," in The Pentecostal World, ed. Michael Wilkinson and Jörg Haustein (New York: Routledge), 67-81. |
| 2022 | "Shanghai Brothels, Spirit Baptisms: The Door of Hope Women as a Source for Pentecostal Ressourcement," in Sisters, Mothers, Daughters: Pentecostal Perspectives on Violence Against Women, ed. Michael Palmer, Mark Cartledge, Kimberly Alexander, and Melissa Archer (Leiden: Brill), 135-153. |
Book Reviews
| 2024 | Tobias Brandner, Christians in the City of Hong Kong: Chinese Christianity in Asia's World City, (London: Bloomsbury, 2023), xx. In Ching Feng: A Journal on Christianity and Chinese Religion and Culture 22, xx. |
| 2023 | Ji Li (ed.), Missions Étrangères de Paris (MEP) and China from the Seventeenth Century to the Present, (Leiden: Brill, 2022), 888 - 890. In Journal of Ecclesiastical History , 888 - 890. |
| 2022 | Amos Yong, Mission After Pentecost: The Witness of the Spirit from Genesis to Revelation, (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2019), 447-448. In International Bulletin of Mission Research 45.4, 447-448. |
| 2020 | Joel Cabrita, David Maxwell and Emma Wild-Wood, eds., Relocating World Christianity: Interdisciplinary Studies in Universal and Local Expressions of the Christian Faith, (Leiden: Brill, 2017), 102. In Religious Studies Review 44.1, 102. |
| 2019 | Melissa Wei-tsing Inouye, China and the True Jesus: Charisma and Organization in a Chinese Christian Church, (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2018), 336-338. In Pneuma 41.2, 336-338. |
| 2017 | Margaret English de Alminana and Lois E. Olena, eds., Women in Pentecostal and Charismatic Ministry: Informing a Dialogue on Gender, Church, and Ministry, (Leiden: Brill, 2016), online. In Reading Religion , online. |
Encylopedia Articles
| 2020 | "Messianic Age | World Christianity," in Encyclopedia of the Bible and its Reception, ed. Christine Helmer, Steven L MacKenzie, Thomas Römer, Jens Schröter, Barry Dov Walfish, and Eric Jozef Ziolkowski, (Boston: De Gruyter, 2017-2020), online. |
Digital Projects
Co-Principal Investigator
Since 2018
Digital Architect & Technical Advisor
Since 2017
Digital Architect & Technical Advisor
Since 2017
Digital Architect
2019
Presentations
Invited Lectures
| 2024 | "Empowered for Mission: Early Pentecostal Paradigms and China's Protestant Missionary Heritage," China Servant Leadership Center. |
| 2023 | "Christianity as a Women's Movement: Hard Data from China," Center for Global Christianity and Mission at Boston University. |
| 2021 | "New Digital Humanities Resources on Sino-Western Cultural Relations - The China Historical Christianity Database: Structure and Prospect," Sino-Western Relations and Culture Exchange Series, No. 2. Institute of Qing History, Renmin University of China. |
Conference Presentations
| 2024 | "Pentecostal Bible Women: Opportunity and Autonomy in a New Religious Network," Christian Missions in China: The Role of Chinese Assistants and Converts. A Workshop Hosted by Ca' Foscari University in Venice and Boston University.. |
| 2024 | "Pentecostal Missions in China: A Demographic Overview, 1908-1940," Annual Meeting of the Society for Pentecostal Studies. |
| 2024 | "Do Bible Schools Count?:Revaluating Statistical Surveys of Theological Training in China, 19-20th c.," Annual Meeting of the American Society for Church History. |
| 2023 | "Pentecostals on Justification and Evangelization: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives," Evangelical-Catholic Dialogue of the United States. |
| 2023 | "Testing the Claim: The Sino-Foreign Protestant Enterprise as a Women's Movement," Annual Meeting of the Wesleyan Theological Society. |
| 2022 | "Leaping Bridging the Digital Gorge: The China Historical Database as a Case Study in Digital Humanities Development," 3rd Digital Humanities Forum. Sponsored by Tsinghua University and the Institute of Literary Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. |
| 2021 | "Digital Frontiers: The China Historical Database," New England Regional Meeting of the Association of Asian Studies. |
| 2021 | "The China Historical Christian Database: A Multi-faceted Resource for Network Analysis," Historical Network Research in Chinese Studies Conference. Hosted by the Fairbank Center for China Studies at Harvard University. |
| 2021 | "“Not one of us are a bit afraid:” Plague, Judgment Day, and Divine Healing among Pentecostals in Hong Kong, 1907-1919," Dubai Scholars Consultation, Empowered 21. |
| 2021 | "Printing Pentecost in Hong Kong: Winners and Losers in the Transnational Pentecostal Print Culture, 1907-1942," Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion. |
| 2021 | "Arrows Flying to the Five Continents: Hong Kong and the Structures of Pentecostal Print Culture, 1907-1942," Yale-Edinburgh Conference. |
| 2021 | "A Pentecostal Prisoner of War: Resistance and Obedience in Occupied Shanghai," Annual Meeting of the Association of Professors of Mission. |
| 2021 | "Shanghai Brothels, Spirit Baptisms: Pentecostal Women at The Door Of Hope as a Source of Theological Resourcement," Annual Meeting of the Society for Pentecostal Studies. |
| 2021 | "Comparative Pentecostal and Asian Embodied Philosophy, co-panelist with Enoch Charles and Amos Yong," Annual Meeting of the Society for Pentecostal Studies. |
| 2020 | "Local and Transnational Relationships of Pentecostals in Hong Kong (1907-1942): A Social Network Analysis," Mapping Christianity in China, 1550-1950 - Developing Relational and Geospatial Tools for the Study of Christianity in China. |
| 2019 | "What's So Global about Pentecostalism?: Mapping the Pentecostal Network of Hong Kong, 1907-1941," Annual Meeting of the Society for Pentecostal Studies. |
| 2018 | "'Time Would Fail to Tell of Heroic Sister Dean:' Hong Kong's Anna M. Dean and the Progressive Pentecostal Myth," Annual Meeting of the Society for Pentecostal Studies. |
| 2017 | "'A Gloriously Free Work:' Pentecostal POWs and Spirit-filled Resistance," Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion. |
| 2016 | "Seal of the Spirit: The Sacrament of Confirmation and Pentecostal 'Spirit Baptism'," Annual Meeting of the Society for Pentecostal Studies. |
Scholarships & Awards
| 2023 | Planning Grant, Council of Christian Colleges & Universities |
| 2021 | Digital Humanities Advancement Grant, National Endowment for the Humanities |
| 2016-21 | Ph.D. Fellowship, Boston University School of Theology |
| 2019 | Springboard Funding, Boston University School of Theology |
| 2018 | Research Incubation Award, Rafik B. Hariri Institute for Computing Science & Engineering, Boston University |
| 2016 | Young Scholars Best Student Paper Award, Society of Pentecostal Studies |
| 2016 | Best Paper, Annual Orlando E. Costas Consultation on World Mission & Ecumenism |
| 2013-16 | Weston Jesuit Tuition Remission Fellowship, Boston College School of Theology and Ministry |
Service to Profession
| 2023-2024 | Associate Editor, Pneuma: The Journal of the Society for Pentecostal Studies |
| 2020-2022 | Managing Editor, Pneuma: The Journal of the Society for Pentecostal Studies |
| 2018-2020 | Student Director, New England-Maritimes Region of the American Academy of Religion |
Professional Affiliations
| Since 2017 | American Academy of Religion |
| Since 2014 | Society of Pentecostal Studies |
| Since 2023 | American Society of Church History |