Announcing the Festschrift in Honor of Dr. Dana L. Robert
The CGCM is pleased to announce the publication of a festschrift in honor of Dana L. Robert: Unlikely Friends: How God Uses Boundary-Crossing Friendships to Transform the World. The volume is co-edited by David W. Scott (’13), Daryl R. Ireland (’15), Grace Y. May (’00), and Casely B. Essamuah (’03).
The editors chose to honor Prof. Robert by using this book to develop an important theme in her scholarship: boundary-crossing friendships. They felt this was a significant theme that opens new vistas in the scholarship of the history of mission and world Christianity and also testifies to the possibility of connection despite all of the divisions in our contemporary world.
The volume, which includes twelve essays by Dr. Robert’s students and colleagues, is divided into three thematic sections: the power of, problems with, and practice of friendship, along with a fourth section of material honoring Dana Robert. The first section looks at the ways in which boundary-crossing friendship has influenced the development of mission practice and theory in historical contexts around the world and across time. The second section explores ways race, gender, and other factors have complicated the historical formation of boundary-crossing friendships. The third section looks at how boundary-crossing friendships are being lived out in mission today, drawing on the authors’ own experiences. The material honoring Prof. Robert includes testimonials from friends of Dr. Robert’s scholarship and her own ability to from boundary-crossing friendships.
The editors are very proud of this book and hope it is both a fitting tribute to Dana L. Robert and a solid and important work of scholarship in its own right.