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.
Daewon Moon Appointed Appointed Successor Pastor at Daegu Dongshin Church, South Korea
Dr. Daewon Moon, CGCM alumnus ('18), was recently appointed successor pastor at Daegu Dongshin Church, a congregation of 8,000 members which has been devoted to world mission since 1974. Today, the congregation supports 65 missionaries (full-time) and 72 missionaries (part-time) who are working in 41 countries in the world.
Dr. Moon also plans to serve as a part of the Korean Lausanne Committee, which will be working to prepare for the next Lausanne Congress, taking place in South Korea in 2024.
You can read Moon's recent article on African pentecostalism published in the January issue of Lausanne Global Analysis here.
Virtual Event: “Re-Mapping Pentecostal Mission: Data, Networks, and Hong Kong”
On February 25, PhD candidate Alex Mayfield will present his dissertation research at a virtual event entitled "Re-Mapping Pentecostal Mission: Data, Networks, and Hong Kong."
The story of pentecostal mission is usually one of sweeping, global expansion. On the ground, however, pentecostal mission was a complex, often fraught, interplay of local, regional, and transnational dynamics. Using spatial and network analysis tools, Mayfield examines the pentecostal movements of Hong Kong prior to World War II to show how pentecostal mission developed over time in response to the ebbs and flows of the local and the global.
Mayfield will also share tips about what helped him complete the dissertation writing process successfully.
The event will take place from 12:00pm to 1:15pm.
The Zoom link is available in the event flier.
Casely Essamuah Interviewed in Latest Issue of JACB
The Rev. Dr. Casely Essamuah, executive officer of the Global Christian Forum, was recently interviewed in the January issue of the Journal of African Christian Biography. Entitled "Accidental Missionary: Called to a Life of Building Bridges for Christ and His Kingdom," the interview describes the challenges and obstacles Essamuah faced in becoming who he is today and outlines the hopes, dreams, and challenges he sees for the African church going forward. He also tells of growing up as the child of a Methodist bishop in Ghana, his early work with the Ghana Student Christian Movement, his studies at the Boston University School of Theology, his leadership of churches in Boston and Baltimore, and his current work as the leader of the Global Christian Forum.
Anneke Stasson (’13) Co-Authors “Women in the Mission of the Church”
Dr. Anneke Stasson ('13) has recently co-authored Women in the Mission of the Church: Their Opportunities and Obstacles throughout Christian History with Dr. Leanne Dzubinski. Their historical survey extends from the early church of the 1st century all the way through the mission movements of the 20th century.
Dr. Stasson is associate professor of humanities and history at Indiana Wesleyan University in Marion, Indiana.
Congratulations to Drs. Stasson and Dzubinski for their latest scholarly work!
Work of Dr. Sung-Deuk Oak (’02) Receives 3 Book Prizes
CGCM alumnus Dr. Sung-Deuk Oak ('02) has received three prizes for the revised and expanded Korean edition of The Making of Korean Christianity. The Korea Christian Publishers Association recently announced it as "Book of the Year," which is a highly prestigious prize in the country. The book also received the prize for the best book in theology by the Kungmin Daily News. Finally, the book was named a King Sejong academic book (one of twenty) by the Korean government.
Dr. Oak is also the author of History of the Korean Bible Society III, 1945-2002, which is his first book dealing with the postliberation period in Korea and which represents the fruit of his thirty years of study on Korean Bible translation. He also plans to publish at least four books in the coming year.
Call for Papers: Special Journal Issue on “Mission and Crisis”
The journal Mission Studies is considering article submissions for a special issue on the theme "Mission and Crisis." Those who are interested may submit essays on the topic, which should be received by 1 March 2021 on Brill's relevant site for Mission Studies submissions: https://www.editorialmanager.
Please see the Call for Papers.
For further information, you may contact the editor-in-chief, Norbert Hintersteiner (norbert.hintersteiner@uni-muenster.de).
BU Alum’s Editorial Work Highlights Christian Growth in Nepal
Dr. George Harper (GRS '92), editor of the Journal of Asian Evangelical Theology (JAET), has recently co-edited a joint issue of JAET and the Journal of Asian Mission (JAM), which is edited by his wife, Dr. Anne Harper. The joint issue documents the history of Catholic and Protestant Christianity in Nepal and describes current initiatives in mission. As Anne Harper notes in her introduction to the issue, this country is experiencing tremendous Christian growth at this time. The journal can be accessed through the ATLA Religion Database, EBSCOhost, and ProQuest.
George and Anne Harper have spent their lives serving as missionary academics. George has spent the majority of his teaching career in the Philippines, where he taught at first at Alliance Biblical Seminary and subsequently at the Asia Graduate School of Theology, where he continues in his faculty position to this day. You can read Dr. Harper's full greetings to the CGCM community, as well as the details of his and Anne's work, in this letter.
New Books on Methodist Mission from Dr. David W. Scott
CGCM alumnus David W. Scott has just co-authored Methodist Mission at 200: Serving Faithfully amid the Tensions (Abingdon Press, 2021) with Thomas Kemper. Dr. Scott is the Director of Mission Theology for the Global Ministries of the United Methodist Church. He is also the co-author of a forthcoming book entitled The Practice of Mission in Global Methodism: Emerging Trends from Everywhere to Everywhere, with Darryl W. Stephens. Congratulations to Dr. Scott for his work on these exciting new volumes!
Call for Papers: Conference on Chinese Theologies
中国神学研讨会论文征集通告 自基督宗教进入中国， 产生了许多值得关注和研究的神学思想与神学家。
Call for Papers: Yale-Edinburgh Group
Oral, Print, and Digital Cultures in World Christianity and the History of Mission
The next meeting of the Yale-Edinburgh Group on World Christianity and the History of Mission is to take place on-line, from New College, University of Edinburgh, from 22-24 June 2021. More information about the on-line format will be provided later.
We anticipate that the on-line format will increase the number of paper proposals that are submitted. Yet we will also be working with a condensed time schedule due to the multiple timezones we will be spanning. We will prioritise early career scholars and offer two options for paper presentations: (1) a short oral presentation in real time (15min + Q&A time) and (2) a presentation in the form of a pre-recorded 3 min video with a single slide.
When submitting an abstract please ensure that:
- it is close to the theme of the conference,
- you state the year you gained your PhD, or your student status
- your preference for short oral presentation or pre-recorded 3 min video. Depending on demand, you may not be offered your first choice.
The theme of the meeting is the same as that of the cancelled 2020 conference, Oral, Print, and Digital Cultures in World Christianity and the History of Mission.
Oral, Print, and Digital Cultures in World Christianity and the History of Mission.
Studies in world Christianity and the history of mission have not been afraid to engage the topic of culture. However, it has often been discussed in terms of European Christian culture’s encounter with another, whether that be Confucian and Hindu culture, or the indigenous cultures of the Americas, Africa, and Oceania. This year’s theme uses the language of culture to speak about three different mediums in which the Christian message is communicated and the Christian life is practiced. These cultures are operative simultaneously in the contemporary world even though there has been a chronological trajectory in their development.
Oral culture is a vibrant dimension of Christian expression, from the psalms of David to the preaching of Jesus and the prayers of the saints. Methodist missionaries, following the legacy of the Wesley brothers, often preached and sung their faith. Christian singing would be one of the bases for African American spirituals and ghazals and bhajans in India. For Pentecostals and charismatics, prophecy and glossolalia would often be seen as markers of the faith. In the Philippines, Christ’s passion has been recalled through the indigenized form of the pasyón epic, whereas apparitions of the Virgin in Guadalupe and La Vang, and of Saint George in Palestine have been vehicle to narrate the faith.
Print culture has also been an important Christian medium. Missionaries used print to propagate their message through vernacular Bibles and hymnbooks, catechisms and apologetic tracts. The wide spread translation and dissemination of The Pilgrims Progress, for example, has both globalized 17th century Puritan Christianity and provided a narrative for adapting local virtues. Books in vernaculars have contributed to the formation of independent nation-states, and to competitive ethno-nationalism. The introduction of the Western printing press by missionaries to Shanghai, helped transform the treaty port to become a major hub of print capitalism. Christian magazines and lantern slides were used to convey images of distant peoples to sending churches and mobilize publics against slavery and opium, whereas the production of novels and pamphlets unified diasporic populations as transnational imagined communities.
As we have entered the digital age, the growing digital culture has opened up new vistas for world Christianity and the history of mission. It has introduced new methods of engaging our subject, from the digitization of archives, to visualization of missionaries on maps with respect to centers of political and religious power. Digital technologies have opened up new possibilities for mission across borders, Christian public engagement over social media, and connecting Christian migrants around the globe. Congregations use interactive websites to develop virtual membership, or to increase the activity and commitment of current members – and since the start of the COVID 19 pandemic, church on-line has become the norm in many countries. Yet Christian online activities are also managed through digital state censorship such as the Great Firewall of China. Digital media also exposes hierarchies of resourcing, showing which Christian communities have access to the technological infrastructure for a vibrant on-line presence, and which communities are marginalized by their poverty or lack of expertise.
Oral, print, and digital cultures may transcend societies, but they find unique expressions throughout world Christianity and the history of mission. We anticipate our conference to open up a vibrant interdisciplinary conversation between historians, theologians, social scientists studying religion, as well as to include scholars of other disciplines, such as media studies and digital humanities.
Abstracts should be submitted by 20th March 2021 to cswc-events@ed.ac.uk