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.
CFP from the Conference on Faith & History: “Protest, Resistance, and Transformation”
If you are interested in putting together a panel focused on women's and gender history, and/or a panel with all female presenters, please use the Women's Network Conference database here.
(ldiller@southern.edu) by April 30, 2021. Proposals should include abstracts, paper titles, and names/institutions/contacts for each paper.
Liberating the Ladies’ Aid: Public Lecture with Dr. Margaret Bendroth
Upcoming Lecture on “The China Bible House in the Second Sino-Japanese War”
The Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences is hosting a seminar with Dr. George Mak entitled "Spreading the Word of God in Wartime China: The China Bible House in the Second Sino-Japanese War." The event will take place on April 13, 2021, 12:00nn – 1:00 pm (HK Time). Registration is required by April 12, 2021.
Registration: https://hkuems1.hku.hk/hkuems/
Presentation Abstract:
Established by an amalgamation of the China agencies of the British and Foreign Bible Society and the American Bible Society in 1937, the China Bible House (中華聖經會) was the first national Bible Society in China, specializing in Bible translation, publishing and distribution. Its formation was immediately followed by the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945), which hindered its development from a foreign-dominated organization into a self-supporting, self-governing one. Drawing on findings from my preliminary archival research on the China Bible House’s work during the war, I will argue in this talk that the China Bible House’s sustained connection with the two foreign Bible societies was instrumental in enabling it to publish and distribute more than twenty-two million copies of complete Bibles, Testaments and biblical portions over the course of the war. Moreover, I will illustrate that wartime conditions resulted in a provisional consolidation of operation of the China Bible House and the National Bible Society of Scotland, another foreign Bible society working in China, in Kuomintang-controlled area. This paved the way for the official integration of the latter’s work in China into the China Bible House in 1946, which resulted in the union of all foreign Bible societies’ operations in China.
About the Speaker:
Dr. George Kam Wah Mak is Assistant Professor in the Department of Religion and Philosophy at Hong Kong Baptist University and President of the Society for the Study of History of Christianity in China (2020-2022). He is also a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society in the United Kingdom and the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland. Dr. Mak obtained his PhD from the University of Cambridge and specializes in the history of Chinese Bible translation. He is the author of Protestant Bible Translation and Mandarin as the National Language of China (Leiden: Brill, 2017) and The British and Foreign Bible Society and the Translation of the Mandarin Chinese Union Version (in Chinese) (Hong Kong: Christian Study Centre on Chinese Religion and Culture, 2010). His research work earned him the Royal Asiatic Society’s Barwis-Holliday Award for Far Eastern Studies in 2014 and Special Mention in Stephen C. Soong Translation Studies Memorial Awards 2010.
New Film on Jesuit Mission in New France and East Asia
The Ricci Institute at the University of San Francisco has recently released a documentary film on Jesuit mission work, comparing and contrasting work done in New France with their work in China, Japan, Korea and Vietnam.
The film is freely available to watch at jesuits.org.
Registration Open for Yale-Edinburgh Group, June 2021
- There will be synchronous and asynchronous sessions- We will be highlighting some interesting projects from Yale-Edinburgh partners across the globe through video-We will have both live and pre-recorded presentations- Opportunities to present papers and posters of research- Virtual Coffee & Chat… and more.
As always, if you have any questions please don’t hesitate to reach out at cswc-events@ed.ac.uk.
Author Event: Dr. Jonathan Calvillo to Speak on “The Saints of Santa Ana”
On March 31 at 8pm EST, Dr. Jonathan Calvillo will speak on his recent book, The Saints of Santa Ana: Faith and Ethnicity in a Mexican Majority City. Please feel free to share the attached flyers with others who might be interested! The flyers are available in both English and Spanish.
The Zoom link is: https://zoom.us/j/98359237208?pwd=ekYxNVBPOFo2UU1PRHgzTmpzY3c2QT09
You can also listen to an interview with Dr. Calvillo in which he describes the surprises he encountered along the way in his research.
Boston Area Ministers to Speak on “Mission in a Time of Pandemic”
On Friday, March 19, a panel of Boston area ministers will discuss mission and ministry in the United States during a time of pandemic. The speakers will be the Rev. Tyler Sit, the planter of New City Church; Dominic J.S. Mejia, outgoing Director of University Student and Young Adult at Harvard-Epworth UMC; and the Rev. Britta Meiers Carlson, founder of Iglesia Nuevo Amanecer. Learn more about the speakers in the event flier.
The event will take place from 9:30am-10:45am. The event is open to all; if you would like to join, email Rev. Carlson (bmcarlso@bu.edu) to request the Zoom link.
2021 Orlando E. Costas Consultation
On March 12, 1pm-4pm, the Boston Theological Interreligious Consortium will host the annual Orlando E. Costas Consultation. This year's theme is "Mission Spiritualities in a Time of Global Trauma." The event is open to all, and the link for registration is available in the event flier.
You can direct any questions to info@globalchristianity.org.
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.