News of the extended network of faculty, alumni, students, visiting researchers, and mission partners is regularly updated, and some of the big ideas or major events in Global Christianity are covered in the CGCM News.
Oh Ji-seok
Oh Ji-seok is the Institute of Korean Christianity and Culture's Vice Director and Associate Professor at Soongsil University. He served as the President of the Society of Korean Christian Social Ethics and the Education Director of the Society Of Korean-Chinese Philosophy. He is currently the Vice President of the Korea Society Of Hermeneutics. Dr. Oh conducts academic research on various social changes in Korean and East Asian societies during the transition to modernity and publishes the results based on ethics. His publications include Swallen: Missionary Who Loved Soongsil (Press of Soongsil, 2022) and Study on Taboo Words in the Transition to Modernity (Bogosa, 2024). He is focusing on spreading Korean Christian culture through numerous academic activities.
Jang Kyung-nam
Jang Kyung-nam is the director of the Institute of Korean Christianity and Culture and Professor of Korean Literature at Soongsil University. He served as the executive director of the Institute of Korean Literary History and vice president of the Studies of Korean Literature. He is currently the vice president of the Society Of The Korean Classical Novel. He has studied modern and contemporary literary works in Korea, and recently, he has been studying missionaries’ works related to Korean studies. He published Memories of War and Novel Reproduction (Bogosa, 2018), Korean translation by missionary Baird, and Aesop Fables (Bogosa, 2023). In addition, he is actively contributing to publicizing and expanding the value of Korean literature through active research activities.
CCCW Semminar Coming up Tuesday 11th February, 2025

Alex Mayfield

Yannick Essertel
Yannick Essertel is Professeur des Universités, Docteur-HDR. He was a researcher at CREDO (Centre de Recherche et de Documentation sur l'Océanie) Aix-Marseille Université, CNRS, EHESS, CREDO UMR 7308; he is a member of various university research groups in the history of religion and the spread of Christianity. His work has focused on the pedagogies of evangelization, and on the phases of encounters between missionaries and the missioned. He also examines the concept of inculturation and the relationship between evangelization and cultures. In this respect, he brings in cultural anthropology and even museology through missionary collections. It also explores the constraints encountered during evangelization: colonization, rivalries, material and climatic conditions, etc.
The study of contacts and encounters inevitably led me to integrate cultural anthropology to gain an in-depth understanding of the relationships involved in conversions to Christianity. The reactions of missionary/missioned actors are dictated by their cultural categories. Often, missionaries are welcomed as superior beings, gods, or prophets. Missionaries, on the other hand, believe that the natives are predisposed to Christianity. This creates a double misunderstanding, which can be productive for missionaries if they understand it and use it as a lever for evangelization. Conversely, if the misunderstanding is unproductive and therefore impossible to understand, the missionaries' next step will be more complex and may even fail. In short, these misunderstandings show that the cultural environment is appropriate or inappropriate for the arrival of missionaries.
The essential point of this “first time” is the different perceptions of the local people towards the missionaries and their discourse, which will trigger conversions. In other words, what are the various factors behind conversions? Through the archives, we see that every missionary, every culture, was attracted or converted by one or more points of the new religion: missionary dress, skin color, Catholic liturgy, preaching, sacraments, the notion of equality, charity, the missionary's dedication, the “fulfillment” of a prophecy, a cure, the destruction of an idol, and many other aspects, were all triggers. In New Zealand, Mgr Jean-Baptiste Pompallier was perceived as a great chief, descended from a “God”, with powerful mana and tapou (sacred) character. In New Caledonia, Mgr Guillaume Douarre and his missionaries are identified as the “Ancestors” of the Kanaks, who come back and act on the elements and whose baptismal cult cures and protects against illness. In Siam, Mgr Jean-Baptiste Pallegoix established courteous relations with the future Prince Rama IV, who spoke Latin and mixed Christianity and Buddhism to the point of reforming his religion by turning to Christianity. Let's not forget the young lama who converted by translating Catholic doctrine for Father Joseph Gabet. All these “triggers” for inculturation should be listed, many of which owe little to an adapted missionary pedagogy. We must insist on the pioneering phases of evangelization, which are key to understanding the history of the missions.
Finally, this approach should not be confined to missionary history. Indeed, history is made up of various types of encounters: colonization, migrations, invasions, and explorers. Here, too, there are “first-time” situations that must be analyzed as such, because through all the reactions and reciprocal perceptions it becomes possible to understand better how the history of human relations has been constructed. Let's not forget that history is, first and foremost, about understanding people in their contexts, and in particular, the context of contacts and shocks. We therefore call for developing a spécifié approach to contacts in human history, integrating anthropology and psychology.
Grace Eun-Sun Lee

Jimin Lim
Jimin Lim is a Ph.D. student in the Department of History at Boston University, under the mentorship of Dr. Eugenio Menegon. His research focuses on Sino-Western cultural exchanges and their impact on Korea, with particular emphasis on the cultural translation of Western texts in China and the travelogues of Korean envoys to Beijing during the Ming-Qing dynasties. Prior to joining Boston University, Lim received a BA in Theology from Yonsei University; and Master of Divinity from Presbyterian University and Theological Seminary. He further pursued a Master of Theology in historical studies at Vanderbilt University. An ordained Presbyterian pastor in Korea, he served as a military chaplain in the South Korean army for three years. His experience in military service has sparked a strong interest in the history of military chaplaincy.
Guillermo Flores Borda
Guillermo entered the Political Science Ph.D. program at Boston University (BU) in the spring of 2025. During his time at BU, he plans to study “Latino Christian Nationalism,” focusing on (i) the ways in which Latin American and US Latino evangelicals are engaging with Christian Nationalism (CN) rhetoric on the ground, (ii) any distinctions in how they engage with CN rhetoric that may be connected to race/skin color, socio-economic class, country of origin, city of residence, and/or Protestant denomination, and (iii) the similarities and differences in CN rhetoric’s engagement among Latin American evangelicals, US Latino evangelicals, and US white evangelicals, as the latter group has been the primary focus of existing US scholarship. Prior to joining BU, he completed a Master of Arts (M.A.) in Divinity from The University of Chicago Divinity School (2022-2024), a Master of Laws (LL.M.) from The University of Chicago Law School (2012-2013), and a J.D. from Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú (2001-2007).
The Cambridge Center for Christianity Worldwide Events Calendar 2024-2025
Here is the Cambridge Center for Christianity Worldwide Events Calendar 2024-2025 to explore.
[Yale-Edinburgh Group] CCCW Day 2025 Lecture by Prof Kirsteen Kim: ‘What Does World Christianity Mean for Mission Studies?’
You are very warmly invited to this Lecture. Please register your interest to join online or in person at centre@cccw.cam.ac.uk