Currents
in World Christianity: Boston University Seminars
Twentieth-Century American Missions and Gender
At the close of the twentieth century, many people believe
that Christianity is dominated by western civilization . Yet
the realities of global Christianity contradict such assumptions.
Active Christian profession is at a far higher level in Africa,
Oceania, Latin America, and significant parts of Asia than
it is in Europe. Whereas in 1800 over 90% of the world's professing
Christians lived in Europe and North America; today
over 60% live in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Pacific.
Far from withering away as a relic of the colonial era,
Christianity in the South and the East has developed its own
vibrant identities that are challenging both the Christian
and secular assumptions of the North
and West.
The "Currents
in World Christianity Project" (CWCP), sponsored by The
Pew Charitable Trusts, is designed to affect both scholarly
and public perceptions of the role and mission of Christianity
in the modern world. The project involves an international
network of scholars conducting research over the next
few years.
Boston
University Seminars: Twentieth-Century American Missions and
Gender
Among the questions being considered by the project is the
role Christian missions has played in stimulating new thinking
about the place of women in church and society in in the twentieth
century, both in the northern and southern hemispheres. Christianity
has been a major force in defining
gender relations in both "sending" and "receiving" countries.
To explore these issues, Professor
Dana Robert is leading a series of seminars on the theme of
"Twentieth-Century American
Missions and Gender." The seminars will investigate the variety
of ways in which the category of gender affected mission thought
and practice across the whole spectrum of the American missionary
movement in the twentieth century.
The Boston Theological Institute Orlando E. Costas
Consultation on World Mission
The fourth and final event in this series, scheduled for Friday,
March 3rd and Saturday, March 4th, will perhaps
be the most exciting of all. The Missions and Ecumenism
Committee of the Boston Theological Institute is merging this
year's Orlando E. Costas Consultation on World Mission with
the final Boston University Seminar. The Friday evening
program will take place at Gordon-Conwell Theological
Seminary, while the Saturday morning program will take place
at Andover Newton Theological School. This event
will bring together students and academics from the Boston
area as well as farther afield.
The registration fee of $15 per person must be received on
or before February 15. For further information, please
contact Chance Hunter at (617) 52704880 or by e-mail at mainoffice@bostontheological.edu.
Presenters and Respondents
Ms. Catherine Allen, formerly Associate Executive
Director of the Woman's Missionary Union, SBC, and former
President of the Women's Department of the Baptist World Alliance,
author of A Century to Celebrate: History of Woman's Missionary
Union (Woman's Missionary Union, 1987).
Dr. Margaret Eletta Guider, O.S.F., Associate
Professor of Religion & Society, Weston Jesuit School
of Theology, author of Daughters of Rahab: Prostitution
and the Church of Liberation in Brazil (Trinity Press
International, 1997).
Dr. Bonnie Sue Lewis, Assistant Professor
of Mission and Native American Christianity, University of
Dubuque Theological Seminary.
Dr. Alice Mathews, Lois W. Bennett Distinguished
Associate Professor of Educational Ministries and Women's
Ministries, author of A Woman God Can Lead: Lessons from
Women of the Bible Help You Make Today's Choices (Discovery
House, 1998).
Dr. Dana Robert, Truman Collins Professor
of World Mission, Boston University School of Theology,
author of American Women in Mission: A Social History
of Their Thought and Practice (Mercer University Press,
1996).
Dr. Ruth Tucker, Visiting Professor of Mission,
Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, author of Guardians
of the Great Commission: The Story of Women in Modern Missions
(Zondervan, 1988).
CWC Boston University Seminar / Costas Consultation
Schedule
March 3, 2000 : Gordon-Conwell Theological School
3:00 p.m. Coffee and Registration
3:30
Opening Remarks and Prayers
3:40
Dr. Dana Robert, "Women in Missions: Historical Trends
and Current Realities"
4:30
Break
4:45
Ms. Catherine Allen, "Shifting Sands for Baptist Women
in Missions"
6:00
Dinner
6:45
Dr. Ruth Tucker, "Helen Barett Montgomery and a Lost Vision
for Missions."
7:35
Dr. Alice Mathews, respondent
March 4, 2000 : Andover Newton Theological Seminary
8:30 a.m. Coffee
9:00
Dr. Bonnie Sue Lewis, "Women Missionaries and the Formation
of Native Pastors in the Pacific Northwest"
10:00 Faculty
and student papers and discussion groups
11:30 Lunch
and Panel Discussion -- Dr. Margaret Guider, chairperson
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