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.
Call for Papers: PTS 2023 World Christianity Conference
CALL FOR PAPERS 2023
WAR, PANDEMIC, AND CLIMATE CHANGE: GLOBAL CRISES—PAST AND PRESENT—AND THEIR PLACE IN WORLD CHRISTIANITY SCHOLARSHIP
Fourth International Interdisciplinary Conference co-organized by the World Christianity and History of Religions Program (History & Ecumenics Dept.) and the Overseas Ministries Study Center, Princeton Theological Seminary, New Jersey, USA. March 14 (Tuesday) - March 17th (Friday) 2023
In the last two decades, the study of world Christianity has significantly expanded its horizons. A testament to that is the growth of academic programs, chairs, conferences, and publications devoted to studies of Christianity's kaleidoscopic local and global manifestations. Privileging lived experiences, world Christianity scholarship nowadays mainly focuses on concrete contexts, in the belief that faith should not be isolated from the rest of life. World Christianity scholarship, therefore, encourages approaches attentive to interactions across fluid borders—cultural, economic, existential, political, and religious—to promote embodied interpretations of these complex and interrelated realities. Whereas previous conferences asked questions about theory and methodology, our 2023 conference calls for fresh inquiry into the nature and responsibility of world Christianity scholarship at a time of overlapping crises of such ominous magnitude that the very ecology of life on planet earth looks increasingly imperiled. In short, in circumstances like today's, what should we as concerned public scholars be doing differently, how, and why, with an eye on the past as well as the present? Accordingly, we welcome panels and papers on any and all topics relevant to our conference theme, whether contemporary or historical. As in previous conferences, in 2023 the Global South will remain our primary although not exclusive frame of reference. We particularly encourage case-based studies grounded in historical/empirical research, while proposals from ethical, theological, and missiological perspectives will also be considered.
For a fuller description of the theme CLICK HERE.
Proposal Deadline: September 30, 2022
Notification of successful proposals: October 31, 2022
· This is a hybrid conference with both in-person and virtual options.
· An email on fees, registration, accommodations, and related matters will be forthcoming.
· Limited travel subsidies will be available for participants from the Global South with accepted paper/panel proposals.
For questions, please contact : worldchristianityconference@ptsem.edu.
Conveners: Afe Adogame, Raimundo Barreto, Thomas Hastings, Richard Fox Young
Highlights from CGCM Visiting Researcher, Dr. Rachel Bacon
The Center for Global Christianity and Mission celebrates the diverse and valuable contributions of our Faculty Associates.
Here are some recent contributions from Dr. Rachel Bacon:
Publication: McCarthy, Michael J., Morgan Hustead, Rachel Bacon, Yolanda E. Garcia, Dorothy J. Dunn, Heather J. Williamson, and Julie A. Baldwin. “Development and Validation of a Community Assessment Survey for Diverse Rural Family Caregivers of People with Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias.” Family and Community Health 44(3):126-135. [web link]
Presentation: Bacon, Rachel J. “Retrospective Measures on Parents’ Attendance and Religiosity in the U.S.: How Far Back Can We Go, and What Does it Tell Us.” Society for the Scientific Study of Religion. Portland, OR. October 22.
Call for Papers: Loyalties and Transloyalties in the History of Medical Missions
CALL FOR PAPERS
LOYALTIES AND TRANSLOYALTIES IN THE HISTORY OF MEDICAL MISSIONS
20-22 October 2022
VID Specialized University, Stavanger, Norway
This workshop explores new approaches to examine the history of medical missions from the perspectives of loyalties and transloyalties. Throughout the history of medical missions and World Christianity, tension persisted, for example between medicine and evangelism, between scientific development and ethical reflections, and between medical intervention and divine healing. Interplay of interests, values, and loyalties was found striking between various agents, such as between mission boards, missionaries, and colonial powers, and between mission hospitals, churches, and local communities. Research focusing on multi-layered identities and loyalties, as well as negotiations and shifts in-between (tentatively understood as “transloyalities”), would illuminate the complexity of human relations and the multifaceted processes in various contact zones in the history of medical missions and World Christianity.
The Centre of Mission and Global Studies at VID Specialized University, in collaboration with the Faculty of Health Studies and the Mission and Diakonia Archives at VID, invites presentation proposals from all disciplines in the social sciences, humanities, and beyond. Topics to be addressed may include (but are not limited to):
· “Healing bodies and saving souls”: medical missionaries’ professional loyalties
· Medical missions, colonial/national powers, and international organizations
· Conflicting and merging theories and practices of healing
· Medical missions, secularization, and modernization discourse
· History of diakonia; the deacon and deaconess movements
· Fundraising in medical and health work
· Cooperation and conflict in medical philanthropy
· Metaphors of disease and spiritual illness of the Church
· The meaning of the term “health” both physically and spiritually and definitions of terms such as “body”, “ability”, and “disability”
· Gender issues in medical and health work
Based on submitted abstracts, we will select 20 participants to present their papers. The cost of board and lodging of the presenters during the workshop will be covered. Limited travel subsidies are available for selected participants with accepted paper proposals.
Deadline to submit application: May 31, 2022. Please submit your application, consisting of a paper title, an abstract (max. 300 words), a short bio, and a note about travel subsidy if you wish to apply (approx. cost of airfare), to marina.wang@vid.no. We will notify the selected participants of acceptance by 10 June 2022. The workshop language will be English.
Deadline to submit a draft of a full paper: September 30, 2022. An edited volume of revised papers or a special issue in an established journal in the field is the planned output of the workshop.
For any queries and further information, please contact the workshop convener, Dr. Marina Xiaojing Wang (marina.wang@vid.no).
Dana L. Robert Awarded the William Fairfield Warren Distinguished Professorship
Hearty congratulations to the Center for Global Christianity and Mission's Director, Dr. Dana L. Robert, on being awarded Boston University's William Fairfield Warren Distinguished Professorship!
Alumnus Rev. Canon Ted Karpf Presenting at “AIDS, Activism, and American Christianity: A Conversation”
BU School of Theology alumnus the Reverend Canon Ted Karpf ('74) will be presenting alongside other HIV/AIDS activists in "AIDS, Activism, and American Christianity: A Conversation."
This virtual event is presented by the LGBTQ Religious Archives Network and will be held on Thursday, May 5th at 8:00 pm EST.
Register here to get the link and visit this site for more information.
Highlights from Faculty Associate Dr. Jonathan Calvillo
The Center for Global Christianity and Mission celebrates the diverse and valuable contributions of our Faculty Associates.
Here are some of Dr. Calvillo's accomplishments from the last year:
Publications
Calvillo, Jonathan E. 2021. “Religión Comunitaria y Opiniones Divergentes del Barrio: Residentes y Feligreses en Santa Ana, California,” [“Community Religion and Diverging Opinions about the Barrio: Residents and Parishioners in Santa Ana, California”] in Formas de Creer en la Ciudad, edited by Hugo José Suárez, Karina Barcenas Barajas, & Cecilia Delgado Molina. México DF: IIS-UNAM.
Calvillo, Jonathan E. 2021. “Sustaining Borderland Traditions in a Latinx Pentecostal Church,” in City of Dreams: Los Angeles as a Cradle for Religious Activism, Innovation, and Diversity, edited by Richard Flory and Diane Winston. New York: Routledge Press.
Presentations
“Book Panel Session: Ethnography, Performance, and Religious and Cultural Identity in the Twenty-First Century.” San Antonio, TX, American Academy of Religion annual conference (November 2021)
“Negotiating Religious Identity Within Late Modern Contexts.” San Antonio, TX, American Academy of Religion annual conference (November 2021)
“The Saints of Santa Ana, Author Meets Critics Session.” Portland, OR, Society for the Scientific Study of Religion annual conference (October 2021)
“Latino Immigrant Assimilation and Religious Affiliation: Interrogating Normativity in the Field.” Oslo, Norway (virtual), Keynote address for Spring conference of The Research School Religion-Values-Society (April 2021)
“The Radiotron Transmission: Latinx Creatives in the Early Los Angeles Hip Hop Scene.” Albuquerque, NM, SouthWest Popular American Culture Association Conference (February 2021)
Manchester Wesley Research Center Annual Lecture, June 21, 2022.
MWRC Annual Lecture (June 2022)
This year’s annual lecture will be given by Professor J. Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu, President and Baëta-Grau Professor of Contemporary African Christianity and Pentecostal Theology, Trinity Theological Seminary, Ghana.
The lecture will be on Tuesday 21 June 2022 at 5 pm UK time (12/noon Eastern in North America). The title of the lecture is ‘Singing of the Holy Spirit: Wesleyan Hymnody, Methodist Pneumatology, and World Christianity’. This event will be both in-person and online (via Zoom). If you plan to attend online, registration is required here. A short video preview of the lecture can be found on our YouTube channel. Full details, including an abstract for the lecture, are available here.
China Christianity Studies Group 2022 Annual Meeting – May 14, 2022
The 2022 annual meeting of the China Christianity Studies Group will be held virtually one month from today, on Saturday, May 14 – 7:00-9:15 PM Eastern Time (US). The Zoom link is: bates.zoom.us/j/94047436545
The meeting is free and open to the public – no registration is required. Our time together will include presentations and special reports from:
- Daryl Ireland (Boston University)
- Anneke Stasson (Indiana Wesleyan University)
- Zhixi Wang (Shantou University)
- Jennifer Lin (author, Shanghai Faithful; director, Beethoven in Beijing)
- Xiaoxin Wu and Mark Mir (Ricci Institute for Chinese-Western Cultural History, Boston College)
Nominations and elections for the new CCSG Director and Assistant Director will be held during the business meeting portion of this gathering (8:45-9:15 PM). Please consider nominating yourself or an interested colleague for these leadership roles. Any questions related to the positions may be directed to Joseph W. Ho (jwho@umich.edu).
See the meeting agenda here. Please feel free to circulate widely to colleagues, students, friends, and interested community members.
Call for Papers: “Slavery, Law and Religion in the Early Modern Period”, UCLouvain, March 8-9, 2023
Call for Papers
UCLouvain will host a workshop on "Slavery, Law, and Religion in the Early Modern Period" on March 8-9, 2023. See the full flyer here for more details and registration information.
Colonial slavery and the global slave trade recently have received much attention in the historical disciplines. This interdisciplinary workshop seeks to bring together junior researchers - Ph.D. candidates and early-stage postdocs – working on early modern colonial and Christian slavery in the fields of cultural, intellectual, religious, and legal history.
Particularly regarding the 18th century, scholars have compared the transatlantic with the Indian Ocean world. Researchers have also identified shifting attitudes to the institution of slavery as well as the extent to which sources reveal the agency and actions of enslaved human beings, and they have examined distinctions between various forms of dependency, servitude, and slavery.
For example, European intellectuals at the time offered justifications as well as criticisms of enslavement and the slave trade, sometimes unquestioningly supporting the former, while rejecting the latter, sometimes rejecting colonial aspirations but not the enslavement that came with such endeavors. Furthermore, notions of an assumed self-evident nature of slavery that required no justification at all were articulated. In the legal sphere, research has revolved, among further issues, around the legal status of not being able to own property, the agency of Europeans and non-Europeans in legal procedures, the role of contracts, and observable differences between theory and practice. The extent to which enslaved human beings claimed rights or took legal recourse has been a topic of research.
Besides the intellectual and legal dimensions, the cultural and political contexts of various governing entities such as trading companies, mission stations, and indigenous political powers have been analyzed, including a range of motivations, from commercial interests to competing claims to political authority. Moreover, scholars increasingly have begun to turn to religious source material from Christian missions. For example, the extent to which slaveholding pertained to religious settings of conversion, education, and membership in Christian communities has been reconstructed from the archival evidence.
The call for papers addresses researchers in the fields of cultural, intellectual, religious, and legal history and is equally interested in methodical as well as empirically focused contributions. The aim is to address this topic by responding to a series of questions:
• To what extent does slavery offer a perspective on the entanglement between trade, colonial rule, and Christian mission?
• How did political culture motivate change in social formations that included slavery?
• What narrative figures and discursive patterns did individuals employ in order to communicate about slavery and servitude? What specific terms did they use?
• How did local colonial circumstances affect legal practices?
• What was the impact of intellectual texts, such as scholastic tractates or theories of empire, war, and peace, on social practices of enslavement and slave trading?
• To what extent were the rules of natural law and classical Roman law, such as selling oneself or enslaving enemies, relevant in early modern colonial settings?
• In how far was the enslavement of Christians different from that of non-Christians? • Did legal treatments coexist with supposedly scientific, anthropological assertions of inferiority, particularly of non-Europeans?
• What role did the Christian confessional perspective play? Was there a difference particularly between Catholic and Protestant practices of slavery?
• Can we consider a cross-confessional approach to early modern colonial slavery by way of comparative analysis?
Proposal submissions
The workshop “Slavery, Law and Religion in the Early Modern Period” invites junior scholars studying for a Ph.D. degree or having recently completed their dissertation to submit a proposal of 200-250 words for a 20-minute presentation by 31 July 2022 to Dr. Christoph Haar via email christoph.haar@uclouvain.be.
The primary conference language will be English. Proposal submissions in French are also welcome.
GEMN “Women in Mission” Conference May 12-14
Registration is ongoing for the 2022 Global Mission Conference that will be held May 12-14 online on the theme of Women in Mission. Sign up now to join with people around the world to celebrate and reflect on the vital role of women’s participation in God’s mission.
Sponsored by the Global Episcopal Mission Network, the conference will meet for 3 hours via Zoom on each of the 3 days, 1-4 p.m. Eastern Time. Spanish-language translation will be available.
Visit the conference page here for more information. If you're ready to register, you can go directly to the registration page here. The conference is free and open to the public, and donations are encouraged via PayPal on the GEMN donation page. Attendees will receive the Zoom connection information upon registration.
Conference plenary speakers will highlight the history of women in mission, Mothers Union work in Africa, women missionaries’ work today, and Anglican women’s work at the United Nations. Workshops will feature the mission work of women in Mozambique, Pakistan, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Cuba, Colombia, India, and Korea. The work of religious orders, Episcopal Relief & Development, Five Talents, and the United Thank Offering will be featured, and Mission Spotlights will offer further insight into women’s global work.