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.
CGCM Associate Director to Speak at China Christianity Studies Group
The 2021 annual meeting of the China Christianity Studies Group will be held virtually on Friday, March 26 – 7:30-9:15PM Eastern Time (US), in parallel with the Association for Asian Studies' 2021 virtual conference. Dr. Daryl Ireland, CGCM Associate Director, and Dr. Eugenio Menegon, CGCM faculty associate, are among the speakers at this meeting.
- Daryl Ireland (Boston University)- Eugenio Menegon (Boston University)- Naomi Thurston (Chinese University of Hong Kong)- Stephanie M. Wong (Valparaiso University)- Xiaoxin Wu (Ricci Institute for Chinese-Western Cultural History)
Documentaries on Faith Community Responses to Pandemic in a North Carolina City
BU alumnus Dr. Kendal Mobley (’04), Associate Professor of Religion and Coordinator of the Spiritual Life Center at Johnson C. Smith University (JCSU), is leading the effort to create a series of documentary videos called Crisis and Compassion, showing how diverse religious communities in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg region of North Carolina are responding to the pandemic by working with local service providers, local government, and other faith communities to meet the needs. Each episode is accompanied by a study guide. Three episodes have been released, with at least three more in the pipeline.
Mobley’s team includes JCSU students Exodus Moon and Iyanla Parsanlal, along with LeDayne McLeese Polaski, Executive Director of Mecklenburg Metropolitan Interfaith Network (MeckMIN). “Leading the Crisis and Compassion project has been exciting and rewarding,” said Mobley. “I’ve been honored to bear witness to the courage and devotion of people and organizations from diverse religious perspectives, and to offer them the chance to tell their own stories. In a very dark time, they offer an example that is enlightening, empowering, and hopeful. They show us the virtues and values that will carry us through this crisis: compassion, respect for human dignity, sacrificial love, humility, unity, and
cooperation.”
Crisis and Compassion is part of a larger project called Bridge Builders Charlotte. Led by Queens University's Belk Chapel and funded by Interfaith Youth Core and the Gambrell Foundation, campus teams from Central Piedmont Community College, Davidson College, JCSU, University of North Carolina Charlotte, Queens University, and Wingate University are strengthening local efforts to help the Charlotte community recover from and respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Journal Organizes Special Issue on “Research with Religio-Cultural Heritage in Africa”
Papers may be submitted from now until 31 December 2021 as papers will be published on an ongoing basis. Submitted papers should not be under consideration for publication elsewhere. We also encourage authors to send a short abstract or tentative title to the Editorial Office in advance (david.ren@mdpi.com).
Guest Editors
Chammah J. Kaunda
The United Graduate School of Theology, Yonsei University
ckaunda@yonsei.ac.kr
Tinyiko S. Maluleke
of Pretoria
China Historical Christian Database Receives Generous Challenge Grant
China Historical Christian Database (CHCD)
The Center for Global Christianity and Mission has launched a project that is using the power of computing to record where every Christian church, school, hospital, publishing house, and the like, were located in China between 1550 and 1950. The database also documents who worked inside those buildings, both foreign and Chinese. Using the database, all those interested in the history of Christianity in China can see networks of connections between Christian workers and institutions and observe the spread not only of Christianity, but also of other social trends, such as female education or the use of biomedicine.
This ambitious bi-lingual project (functioning in English and Chinese) has international appeal. In 2020, 266 scholars from 28 countries participated in a workshop on the CHCD. In order to accommodate the demands to input new research and improve the end-user's experience, though, the CHCD needs financial resources.
Recently, an anonymous donor gave a $50,000 challenge grant: any donation given to the CHCD over the next five years will be matched, dollar-for-dollar, up to $50,000. This is the time to make a gift or a pledge and transform the way we think about modern China and Chinese Christianity!
Read more about this new opportunity for the CHCD here.
Seminar: “Jesuits, Women and the Domestic Christianity in Early Modern China”
The University of Oxford China Centre is hosting a seminar on Thursday, February 18, at 5pm. Dr. Nadine Amsler, a Fellow of Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin, will give a presentation entitled "Jesuits, Women and the Domestic Christianity in Early Modern China."
This talk will discuss the connections between Jesuits, women and domestic worship in seventeenth-century China. Women have long played a marginal role in narratives of the Jesuit China mission. Following Jesuit narratives, historians have focused their attention mainly on activities based in the semi-public spaces of Jesuit residencies and churches when investigating early modern Chinese Christianity. However, in order to gain insights into Christian women’s devotional lives in China, it is necessary to shift the attention to the spaces that Chinese Confucian thinking associated with the female gender: the household. The talk will start with a review of the Jesuits’ view of Chinese women. It will show how the missionaries’ accommodation strategy had important – and probably unintended – side-effects for their masculinity, and how this prompted them to adjust their behaviour towards women. It will then turn to the household as a devotional space and argue that it was an important site of female religiosity and worship. Finally, the talk will examine Christian women’s domestic religiosity. It will focus on one particular case, namely the home of the eminent Xu family of Shanghai, to show how genteel Christian women in Jiangnan organized their religious life in seventeenth-century China.
If you would like to attend, please register here.
The event will take place via Microsoft Teams. Any questions may be directed to giulia.falato@orinst.ox.ac.uk.
Symposium on Sino-Christian Architecture
On April 19-21, 2021, the history department at Whitworth University (Washington, USA) will host a symposium on Sino-Christian Architecture. The events are open to the public, and the Zoom link can be found in the event flier. The schedule will be as follows:
Monday, 19 April (USA, Pacific Time)Introduction: 8:00-8:05 am - Dr. Amanda C. R. Clark (Whitworth University)Talk 1: 8:05-9:15 am - Dr. Anthony E. Clark (Whitworth University)Talk 2: 9:30-10:45 am - Dr. Thomas Coomans (University of Leuven)Talk 3: 11:00 am-12:15 pm - Dr. Stephanie Wong (Valparaiso University)Tuesday, 20 April (USA, Pacific Time)Talk 1: 8:00-9:15 am - Dr. David Wang (Washington State University)Talk 2: 9:30-10:45 am - Dr. Joseph W. Ho (Albion College)Talk 3: 11:00 am-12:15 pm - Dr. Robert Carbonneau (University of Scranton)Wednesday, 21 April (USA, Pacific Time)Keynote and Colloquy: 8:00-9:30 am - Dr. Nancy Steinhardt (University of Pennsylvania)
Dana Robert to Speak on “Constructing World Fellowship” at Knox College, Toronto
On March 3, CGCM Director Dr. Dana Robert will give a public lecture entitled "Constructing World Fellowship: Christian Practices and Insights from a Century Ago" at Knox College, one of the member colleges of the Toronto School of Theology. The event will take place from 4:00-5:30pm EST. The event is free, but registration is required by February 26.
Professor Glen Taylor will offer a response to Dr. Robert's speech, and Professor Esther Acolatse will be the moderator of the event. She is also a member of the editorial board of the Dictionary of African Christian Biography, one of the digital projects of the CGCM.
Upcoming Virtual Events in Mission History: Brazilian Evangelicalism, Women & Historiography
The Institute of Historical Research at the School of Advanced Study at the University of London is hosting two events that will be of interest to historians of Christian mission.
On , 5:30pm - 7:00pm (London time), Dr. Pedro Feitoza of the Brazilian Centre of Analysis and Planning will give a presentation entitled "Immigrants, missionary networks and the rise of a Luso-Brazilian evangelical movement, 1850-1900."
On March 9,, 5:30pm - 7:00pm, Fiona Leach of the University of Sussex will give a presentation entitled "'Alternative facts': how women were written out of early mission history: the case of Susanna Klein."
These events are free, but registration is required to receive the Zoom link.
American Academy of Religion Call for Papers Available
The American Academy of Religion (AAR) is now accepting paper proposals for the annual meeting, which will take place in San Antonio, Texas, from November 20-23, 2021. The full call for proposals and submission instructions are available at the AAR proposal submission site. Submissions are due by March 1.
Several of the units may be of interest to students in the study of World Christianity and Mission history, including Catholic Studies, Comparative Studies in Religion, Eastern Orthodox Studies, Evangelical Studies, History of Christianity, Latina/o Culture and Society, Global Lutheran Traditions, Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements, Religion and Migration, World Christianity, as well as units on a wide variety of geographical regions. Also, the Teaching Religion Unit intends to have a portion of time dedicated to "Teaching World Christianities."
The call from the World Christianity Unit is as follows:
The World Christianity Unit invites proposals concerning:
World Christianity and the Environment, including issues of displacement, especially pertaining to poverty, wealth, and inequality.
World Christianity and Transnational Digital Networks, exploring the connection between social media and Christian community life, as well as online research methods for the study of Christianity worldwide.
World Christianity and Political Activism, with a focus on antiracist activism, decentering whiteness, and Christian Nationalism.
World Christianity and Violence, with attention to all forms of violence, in historical and contemporary perspectives.
Global Evangelicalism and Religious Conservatism, with attention to political theologies and case studies that demonstrate both trends and diversities within the Evangelical movement.
Proposals combining any of the topics above with matters relating to gender, race, or the COVID-19 pandemic will receive special consideration.
The Teaching Religion Unit and the World Christianity Unit invite proposals for a possible co-sponsored session on teaching World Christianity. We are especially interested in papers that discuss (and possibly demonstrate) effective assignments, activities, or pedagogical approaches to teaching Christianity as a world religion as it is practiced in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Pacific, as well as in diasporic communities in the West. Papers might address topics such as pedagogical approaches to decolonizing World Christianity, teaching in/about the diaspora, or other themes.
Prof. Roldan-Figueroa’s New Book on “The Martyrs of Japan”
Dr. Rady Roldan-Figueroa has a new book coming out with Brill in June 2021. Entitled The Martyrs of Japan: Publication History and Catholic Missions in the Spanish World: Spain, New Spain, and the Philippines, 1597-1700, the book not only discusses the various accounts of the Christian martyrs in Japan in the late 16th century, but also reveals what these accounts teach us about the history of book publication in the years following. The book is divided into two parts: "Spirituality of Writing, Publication History, and Japano-martyrology" and "Jesuits, Discalced Franciscans, and the Production of Japano-martyrology in the Early Modern Spanish World." The work will be of interest to anyone working on the history of Japanese Christianity, the history of Catholic missions, or the history of publishing.