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.
Announcing the Endowment of the Center for Global Christianity and Mission
The 20th Anniversary of the CGCM
On October 1st, Boston University announced the endowment of the Center for Global Christianity and Mission. The milestone was revealed on the 20th anniversary of the Center's founding. Opened in 2001 under the leadership of Dana L. Robert and Inus Daneel, the CGCM was the first Center of its kind in a research university in North America.
Since its inception, the Center has expanded rapidly. It launched Boston University’s first digital humanities project, and has remained at the forefront of digital scholarship. Today, the Center and its various online research platforms receive more than one million visits each year. However, the CGCM is more than an online community. It is the crossroads where students, scholars, and mission practitioners intersect. It provides numerous lectures and events that bring the reality of World Christianity home to students at Boston University. In fact, the Center sponsors some kind of event for the public approximately every other week.
The Center remains a cauldron of creativity. With fourteen affiliated faculty and ten Visiting Researchers, new ventures regularly bubble up. Currently, Dana Robert is spearheading a massive research project on “Mission and Collaboration in North America.” The Center has also recently launched projects on Global Congregational Song, the Sanctuary Movement in North and Central America, African Pentecostal Films, Mapping Christianity in China, and the Young Ecumenical Movement. When the world is your area of study, the possibilities are endless.
The Center passed the minimum threshold for an endowment, but it seeks to strengthen its financial foundation. The CGCM receives no funding from the university, but relies on the support and generosity of its community. To make a contribution to support the Center for the next twenty years, you can make a tax-deductible donation here.
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.
Commemorating Professor Andrew F. Walls – October 5
The Centre for the Study of World Christianity (School of Divinity, University of Edinburgh) is hosting an online event commemorating the life and work of Professor Andrew Walls, in a seminar held next Tuesday, October 5th at 4:10pm (UK time). It will include contributions from Margaret Acton, Dr Barbara Bompani, Professor James L. Cox, and Professor Jehu J. Hanciles.
If you would like the Zoom details, please register your interest on the online form by 12 noon that day.
Call for Papers – 13th GloPent Conference: Pentecostalism and Socio-Cultural Change
The thirteenth annual conference of the European Research Network on Global Pentecostalism (GloPent.net) will take place in Cambridge, 1–2 April 2022. The conference will be convened by David Maxwell and Jörg Haustein.
The conference's theme is "Pentecostalism and Socio-Cultural Change" and will feature keynote speakers Joel Cabrita, Girish Daswani, and Karen Lauterbach.
Organizers will plan the event to be hybrid, with an eye on public health guidelines and the safety of participants.
Paper proposals and abstracts are due November 30, 2021.
For more detailed information, see GloPent Cambridge Info.
Re-envisioning the Mission of Health : Fuller Seminary’s 2021 Missiology Lectures
"Re-envisioning the Mission of Health: A Global Invitation to Heal and Thrive in Crisis"
October 27-29, 2021
Check out the 2021 Missiology Lectures Website for more information and to register.
2022 Yale-Edinburgh Group Meeting – Save the Dates
The 2022 Yale-Edinburgh Group annual meeting will be June 28-30. Please save the dates. We anticipate that the conference will be a hybrid event, with onsite participation at Yale Divinity School and remote video opportunities. The theme for the 2022 meeting will focus on the legacies of our founders Andrew Walls and Lamin Sanneh.
Please follow the Yale-Edinburgh Group website for details and look for the call for proposals sometime in January.
Prof. Anthony E. Clark to Lecture on “The Making of Jesuit Saints in Late Imperial China”
What is Global Catholicism? Forum at SLU
On behalf of our colleagues at St. Louis University's Center for Research on Global Catholicism, we invite you to attend an online Zoom forum on September 24, 12:00-1:15 (CDT).
Professors Heidi Ardizzone, Kevin Ingram, and Grant Kaplan will share their current research and reflect with the audience on “What is global Catholicism?”
Please direct any questions to Charles.parker@slu.edu.
Zoom: https://slu.zoom.us/j/97237981664?pwd=Rm40Nzd6SjQwM3ptY2drL0kxa1ptZz09
Call for Papers – “Decolonizing Churches”
Ecclesiological Investigations International Research Network's 14th Annual Conference
June 22-25, 2022
Universidad Interamericana de Puetro Rico
San Juan, Puerto Rico
in collaboration with Universidad Interamericana de Puerto Rico
Seminario Evangélico de Puerto Rico
The Union of Charismatic Orthodox Churches
For more information on the conference topic, "Decolonizing Churches," details on registration, and more, visit the Ecclesiological Investigations website. See the attached PDF announcement: 2022 EI Decolonizing Churches announcement and call for papers.
Ecclesiological Investigations Zoom Gathering, September 24th
Ecclesiological Investigations International Research Network invites members, friends, & others to gather by Zoom on Friday September 24th, 2021 from 4-6pm (EST) to celebrate the Ecclesiological Investigations past and to look ahead to the Ecclesiological Investigations future.
Join the Zoom Meeting at
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89458834310?pwd=QnA4ckM1WUVEOC9YVEpwaDF1anIyQT09
Meeting ID: 894 5883 4310 - Passcode: 656520
One tap mobile
+16465588656,,89458834310#,,,,*656520#
Please join us on September 24, 2021, at 4 pm Eastern Time (USA) as we celebrate EI’s past (14 international conferences, sessions at both the American Academy of Religion and the European Academy of Religion, publication series, and a year of Zoom webinars), and as we look ahead to EI’s future.
• Share memories of your involvement in the EI Network events over the years
• See highlights of EI conferences over the years
• Hear about “Decolonizing Churches” to gather in person at the Universidad Interamericano de Puerto Rico (UIPR) in San Juan, Puerto Rico, June 22-25, 2022
• Meet some of the Planning Team for the San Juan Conference, and the leadership at UIPR, to hear more about this event, including the call for papers
• Offer ideas about where the EI Network might go in the future
Please share the Zoom link for Sept 24 with others in your networks interested in EI
This will be an open-access event - No prior registration is required
For questions or more information email Dale Irvin, Chair of EI, at dirvin1@gmail.com