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.
John Thornton to Speak on Religion & Slavery in the Kingdom of Kongo
On April 21 at 4pm, Dr. John Thornton, CGCM faculty affiliate, will speak on "Religion, the Kingdom of Kongo and the Slave Trade" as a part of the W.E.B. DuBois lecture series at the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University.
Register here: https://harvard.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_M8YrmuXmSfGf9PdoPUBqqQ
New Africa-Focused Journal on Public Theology
Theology & the Arts in the African Context
On May 26-27, the Center for Primal and Christian Spirituality at the Akrofi-Kristaller Institute of Theology, Mission and Culture will hold a Theology and the Arts Symposium on the theme "Christian Faith and the Arts in Africa: Bridging the Cultural Divide." Register here!
Bible & Conscience: International Online Conference on Martin Luther’s Impact
"Unless I am convinced by Scripture and plain reason – I do not accept the authority of the popes and councils, for they have contradicted each other – my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will not recant anything for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. God help me. Amen."
Lecture on Patronesses of Early Modern Missions in China
On Tuesday, April 13, Dr. Eugenio Menegon, one of the CGCM faculty affiliates, will deliver a lecture in the East Asian Studies Speaker Series at Johns Hopkins University. His talk is titled "The Matriarch, the Duchess, the Queen, and the Countess: Patronesses of the Catholic Mission in Early Modern Chinese-European Relations," and it is sponsored by the Singleton Center for the Study of Pre-Modern Europe and the Program for the Study of Women at the Department of History.
The lecture is open to all. Zoom link: https://jhubluejays.zoom.us/j/95619239725
Alumnus Continues to Document Mission Work in Charlotte, NC
BU alumnus Kendal Mobley (’04) and his team recently released “That They All May Be One,” the fourth episode in their Crisis and Compassion documentary (featured in an earlier post). “That They All May Be One” tells the story of the congregation at the Chapel of Christ the King Episcopal Church, which is working to transform the church’s underutilized property into an edible landscape. A new orchard and community garden will address food insecurity and provide an outdoor space where longtime residents and new arrivals can come together in the Optimist Park neighborhood of Charlotte, North Carolina. The episode also explores the church’s role in organizing an emergency property tax relief fund to help longtime residents hold on to their homes as the neighborhood experiences rapid gentrification. Much of the housing in Optimist Park was built by Habitat for Humanity in 1987, in a project led by Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, but many current homeowners are struggling to hold on to their homes as property values skyrocket.Remembering Fr. Vincent Machozi, Congolese Martyr
Five years ago on Palm Sunday, Fr. Vincent Machozi ('15) was shot to death as a result of his efforts to document, protest against, and end violence and exploitation of the people of North Kivu in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Fr. Machozi, who was born in the village of Vitungwe-Isale in North Kivu, was a member of the Augustinians of the Assumption. In order to gain control of valuable coltan mines, many different armed groups terrorized and exacted forced labor from the people living in this region, which borders Rwanda and Uganda. Fr. Machozi ran an important website, Beni Lubero, where he publicized the atrocities for all to see. After spending time in studies at the Boston University School of Theology, Machozi returned to the Congo, where he eventually was selected as president of the Nande community. As a result of his continued work for justice in the region, Fr. Machozi was murdered on March 20, 2016, in Katolu village.
A fuller story of Fr. Machozi's life and struggle can be found in Bostonia magazine and at the Dictionary of African Christian Biography.
Registration for Regional AAR Symposium
The New England-Maritimes Region of the American Academy of Religion is hosting a virtual symposium on April 9, 2021. Registration is now open, and the schedule is available. Dr. Mayra Rivera of Harvard Divinity School and Dr. Marla F. Frederick of Candler School of Theology will serve as keynote speakers.
Current BUSTH PhD candidates Shaunesse' Jacobs and Sheila Otieno are serving on a panel at 10:15am to discuss "Graduate Study in Times of Crisis."
Eugenio Menegon to Deliver Lecture in “Keys to Understanding Early Modern Christianities” Series
On April 20 at 10am (Central European Time), CGCM faculty associate Dr. Eugenio Menegon will deliver one of the Frankfurt Lectures on "Keys to Understanding Early Modern Christianities." His topic, local religion in late imperial China, is one of several interesting themes explored by the lecturers, such as polycentricity in global Catholicism, tolerance in the Iberian Atlantic, and connected histories in Eastern Christianities.
Prof. Menegon's presentation will examine the notion of "local religion." As a specific academic concept in English, the expression found one of its earliest and most articulate expressions in William Christian's 1981 book Local Religion in Sixteenth Century Spain. Christian's work drew on his own sociological and anthropological research in the Iberian countryside during the late 1960s and early 1970s, but his thinking was also nourished by his reading of European scholarship. He found that it was often in the countryside that traditional religious ideas and practices from the medieval and early modern periods survived the longest. In Christian's wake, scholars have increasingly focused their attention on the social and ritual life of Christian communities across the globe. What was true for post-war Spain also applies to modern China. This talk offers an assessment of recent work on Christianity as a "local religion" in late imperial China (1550-1850 ).
These online conferences, directed by Prof. Dr. Birgit Emich, are sponsored by the Early Modern Section of the Research Group Polycentricity and Plurality of Premodern Christianities (POLY). All of the lectures are free and are delivered at 10am, Central European Time.
Registration for the online-event at: pluralchristi
BU Alum Co-Authors Book on Grief and Loss
BU alum Dr. Pat McLeod ('09) was recently interviewed by Rabbi Yitzi Weiner as part of a series on “individuals and organizations making an important social impact” for Authority Magazine. Pat and his wife Tammy serve as chaplains at Harvard University. As part of this work, they organized the Mamelodi Initiative in the township of Mamelodi, South Africa, which "connects Harvard students with at-risk youth in a mentoring and educational program to prepare them for college."
In addition to describing his campus ministry work, Pat also describes the story of his son's severe traumatic brain injury--an experience of grief and loss on which he and Tammy reflect in their recent book Hit Hard: One Family’s Journey of Letting Go of What Was — and Learning to Live Well with What Is (Tyndale Momentum, 2019).
Learn more about the McLeod's work at their website.