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.
Andrew Barnes to Speak on the Christian Black Atlantic & Ethiopianism
Dr. Andrew Barnes, Professor of History at Arizona State University, will give a virtual lecture entitled "The Christian Black Atlantic: Orishatukeh Faduma and the Ethiopianist Appropriation of Evangelization through Poor Relief." The lecture will take place on Tuesday, October 20, from 2pm-3:15pm. If you would like to attend, please contact mcrago@bu.edu to request the Zoom link.
Dr. Barnes argues that many Europeans saw Africa's colonization as an exhibition of European racial ascendancy. African Christians saw Africa's subjugation as a demonstration of European technological superiority. If the latter was the case, then the path to Africa's liberation ran through the development of a competitive African technology.
Barnes will chronicle African Christians' turn to American-style industrial education, particularly the model developed by Booker T. Washington at Alabama's Tuskegee Institute, as a vehicle for Christian regeneration in Africa. Over the period 1880-1920, African Christians, motivated by Ethiopianism and its conviction that Africans should be saved by other Africans, founded schools based upon the Tuskegee model.
Though the attempts by African Christians to create industrial education schools ultimately failed, Barnes will highlight the success of transatlantic black identity and Christian resurgence in Africa.
See the flier here.
Alumnae Receive Grant to Study “The Christian Home” in Global Protestant Thought
Calls for Contributions for Upcoming Publications in World Christianity
Dyron Daughrity of Pepperdine University is announcing a new 25-book series with Bloomsbury Academic called Christians in the City: Studies in Contemporary Global Christianity. He is currently looking for authors. Please contact him and see the flier if you are interested!
In addition, Routledge Publishing has an upcoming project titled The International Handbook of Sociology and Christianity. Dennis Hiebert of Providence University College is the series editor. See the call for contributions here!
Alumna Dr. Ruth Padilla DeBorst to Speak at Mission Conference
During October 15-17, Missão ALEF will be holding a virtual conference entitled "Igreja e Cidade: Vocação e Missão." One of the featured speakers is Dr. Ruth Padilla DeBorst ('16), CGCM alumna, presenting alongside other featured speakers--Mac Pier, Ed Stetzer, Samuel Escobar, and Viv Grigg.
See the conference promotional video below, and click here to register!
Dana Robert Featured in Interview Series on History as Christian Vocation
Dr. Mark Hutchinson, Professor of History at Alphacrucis College (Sydney, Australia), has recently hosted a series of podcasts on the practice of history as a Christian vocation. So far, the interviewees include Mark Noll, Tim Larsen, Beth Allison Barr, Rick Kennedy, and BU CGCM Director, Dana Robert.
In her contribution to the series, Robert describes the ways faith and church-related commitments have been at work throughout the course of her intellectual trajectory. In this autobiographical account, she describes first learning about the impact of race and national origin on religious affiliation as she grew up attending school in rural Louisiana. Moving into a discussion of her academic historical work, she describes her experiences as one of the few early women missiologists, her specific sense of calling in writing American Women in Mission, her work for the United Methodist Church, and other ways that faith and historical study have intersected in her life.
Former Missionary in Residence Laments Severe Flooding in Niger
Joel Gray, a former Missionary in Residence with the CGCM, describes devastating flooding in Niamey, Niger. Joel and his wife Karen evacuated their home at the end of August, and had to evacuate again at the beginning of September. They write,
Thousands of people in Niamey have lost their houses and their food. Our places of ministry, Sahel Academy and ESPriT Bible School, are completely under water. Some city streets are impassable and traffic for many people has become an increasing challenge....For two weeks we worked in teams to salvage furniture and equipment. Teams wadded into sometimes neck-high water...other teams drive the furniture and school equipment to dry places around town to wash, dry, and fight back mold.
Call for Submissions: Dictionary of Pentecostal Missions
Robert Gallagher (Wheaton College), Jerry Ireland (University of Valley Forge), and Paul W. Lewis (Assemblies of God Theological Seminary) are organizing a Dictionary of Pentecostal Missions, to be published with T&T Clark.
The editors have already assembled a list of entries to be included, though they are also open to suggestions for other articles as well. See their submission guidelines here.
If you are interested in contributing, email the editors and include your CV or qualifications (robert.gallagher@wheaton.edu, jerry.ireland00@gmail.com, DHPerdan@valleyforge.edu).
Jesudas Athyal on Christian Proselytization and Question of “Success” in India
Dr. Jesudas Athyal, Acquiring Editor in World Christianity for Fortress Press and former CGCM visiting researcher, is engaging in public debate about the role of proselytization in Indian Christianity. His recent article, "Christianity Hasn't Failed in India. Conversion Isn't Its Only Goal," published in The Print, argues that Christianity's success in India today cannot be measured by statistics alone. He argues that conversion was in many cases not the explicit goal of missionaries, many of whom wanted to live alongside people, support work for social improvement, and witness to their faith through strategies of "permeation" rather than proselytization. Athyal also points to the ways that persecution and multiple religious belonging can skew demographic data on religion.
Dr. Athyal closes his article noting the inconsistency of those who would blame Christianity for making little headway in India but who would agree with anti-conversion laws that violate religious freedom. He ends by saying, "A propaganda has been unleashed on several levels to present Indian Christianity as a failed project. However, the arguments that could convince the faithful may not stand scholarly scrutiny."
Phillip Jenkins recently highlighted Athyal's arguments in an article on the blog The Anxious Bench, where he urges greater recognition of the pressures faced by Christians in India today.
Dr. Athyal is also a co-author of Understanding World Christianity: India (Fortress, 2016), with Dyron B. Daughrity, as well as many articles in the field of World Christianity.
A New Beginning: CGCM Annual Gathering Goes Virtual
Typically, students and faculty in the history of Christianity and mission studies gather at Professor Robert's house for a meal and conversation at the opening of the school year. This year, the CGCM switched to a virtual format, hosing a "mocktail" party via Zoom!
We are excited to welcome new doctoral students in historical and liturgical studies this semester. Thanks to Daryl Ireland and Dana Robert for "hosting" our gathering this year!
Michele Sigg Named DACB Executive Director
Congratulations to Dr. Michèle Sigg, who has recently been appointed the Executive Director of the Dictionary of African Christian Biography (DACB). Formerly, she had been serving as Associate Director of the DACB, and she also serves as Editor of the Journal of African Christian Biography (JACB).
Dr. Sigg has written several articles on women in African Christianity. She is also contributing a chapter on women’s spirituality in Sixteenth-Century Mission: Global Mission in the Age of Reformations (2021), and an entry on “Christianity in Lesotho” in the Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (2020). She is also working on a monograph on French Protestant women and mission (2021).
Read her full biography here, and visit the DACB to see some of the most recent stories, which include biographies of several Angolan Protestant ministers, the Ghanaian oral theologian Afua Kuma, and the Catholic theologian Charles Nyamiti.