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.
Demographic Mosaic of World Christianity
At the third gathering of the Global Christian Forum, Gina A. Zurlo ('17) explained to the leaders of twenty two Christian traditions from 64 countries, some of the new factors that are reshaping the look of Christianity around the globe. She placed particular emphasis on the emergence of Independent Christian groups, whose identity is neither tied to Roman Catholic, Orthodox, or Protestant histories or theologies.
Douglas D. Tzan as Assistant Dean at Wesley Theological Seminary
Douglas D. Tzan, STH alumnus and CGCM affiliate, was appointed Assistant Dean and Director of the Doctor of Ministry and Course of Study Programs and Assistant Professor of Church History and Mission at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington D.C. He is an ordained elder in the Baltimore-Washington Conference of The United Methodist Church, and is currently Associate Pastor at Sykesville Parish (St. Paul’s and Gaither UMC), Sykesville, Maryland. Dr. Tzan has served as Adjunct Professor in United Methodist Studies and Church History at Wesley for a number of years.
Global Mission Summit 2018
Funding Sources and Philanthropic Priorities in Twentieth-Century American Mission
David Scott, BU alumnus and CGCM affiliate, recently published an article entitled "The Value of Money: Funding Sources and Philanthropic Priorities in Twentieth-Century American Mission" in Religions. Below is the description of the article:
At the turn of the twentieth century, Western missionaries and mission organizations sought to develop financial strategies that would facilitate the further expansion of the Western mission enterprise. Three such strategies emerged: an increasingly sophisticated, corporatized approach to fundraising by mission boards; faith missions that shifted the economic risks associated with fundraising from mission agencies to missionaries; and self-supporting missions that cultivated economic funding available in the mission field. Each of these strategies had different implications for power configurations in the mission enterprise and allowed the values and views of different groups to prevail. The board approach empowered mission executives and large donors. The faith mission approach empowered missionaries and supporters with a conservative theology. The self-supporting mission approach made missionaries arbiters among a variety of competing interests. This economic approach to the study of mission provides new insights into the complex and contested power arrangements involved in Western foreign mission that extend beyond those gained from traditional political and cultural analyses.
Sacred Children and Colonial Subsidies
Anicka Fast, CGCM student affiliate, recently published an article entitled "Sacred children and colonial subsidies: The missionary performance of racial separation in Belgian Congo, 1946-1959" in Missiology: An International Review. Below is the description of the article:
While most Protestant missions in Belgian Congo gladly accepted the colonial state’s offer of educational subsidies in 1946, a strong emphasis on church-state separation led the American Mennonite Brethren Mission (AMBM) to initially reject these funds. In a surprising twist, however, the AMBM reversed its position in 1952. Through archival research, I demonstrate that a major factor that led the AMBM to accept subsidies was the creation and institutionalization of a racially separate ecclesial identity from that of Congolese Christians. This was epitomized in the missionaries’ vision for a “white children’s school,” geographically separated from their work with Congolese. The enactment of white identity helped pave the way for the acceptance of subsidies, both by bringing the missionaries more strongly into the orbit of the colonial logic of domination, and by clarifying the heavy cost of failing to comply with the state’s expectations.
Writing Women in(to) Archaeology and Beyond
Ministry in Bujumbura, Burundi
Daewon Moon, CGCM student affiliate and instructor at International Leadership University (ILU) located in Bujumbura, Burundi, was featured in Christian Today. Since 2014, Daewon and his wife Jeonghwa Park have been serving at ILU as missionaries. The articles gave detailed reports about various ministries including their teaching ministry, humanitarian project for pregnant women in the rural area, and a goat project for orphans and widows. Full articles can be found here:
David C. and Virginia R. Steinmetz Lecture at Duke Divinity School
Dr. Dana Robert, Director of the Center for Global Christianity and Mission, will be giving a public lecture on cross-cultural friendship in World Christianity.
Location: Duke Divinity School Goodson Chapel
Date: April 4, 2018, 2:30-3:45 pm
MiMoRA: the Mission and Modernity Research Academy
At KU Leuven University (Belgium), a new initiative has been set up related to Mission Research and Mission History. Researchers from several faculties have established the MiMoRA: the Mission and Modernity Research Academy. The aim of the program is to bring together expertise, to provide a forum for academic debate and to create new networks for early career scholars across the globe.
Institute for Advanced Jesuit Studies Colloquium
