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.
Race, Religion, and Adoption in the United States
This year, Soojin Chung will be working as Visiting Scholar at the University of California-Berkeley Department of Ethnic Studies. There, she will be collaborating with UC Berkeley professor Carolyn Chen, investigating how the dynamic of race plays a role in the lives of Asian American adoptees. Specifically, she will examine the relationship between race and religion, focusing on the role of race in adoptees’ religious experience in American Christian homes.
The Maritime World of Early Jesuit Missionaries
The context which shaped the encounter between early modern Jesuit missionaries and China not only included Europe and East Asia, but also the long and often arduous maritime journey between these distant lands. CGCM faculty associate Eugenio Menegon is uncovering the importance of this journey on the cross-cultural encounter between Jesuits and China in a presentation at the International Symposium hosted by the Centro Científico e Cultural de Macau (Macau Scientific and Cultural Centre) in Lisbon, Portugal. The symposium, held on October 9-11, 2017, centers on the importance of the maritime context to the histories of China and Macau.
2018 Global Christian Forum Gathering in Bogotá, Colombia
The Global Christian Forum (GCF) will hold its third global gathering April 24-27, 2018 in Bogotá, Colombia. "The GCF is a ‘forum,' a place for leaders from across the spectrum of Christianity globally to meet for inspiration and insight on matters of common interest as they face the future together." This by-invitation gathering will be composed of Christian leaders representing Catholic, Conciliar Protestant, Evangelical, Orthodox, independent and Pentecostal traditions. The 2018 gathering's theme will be "Let Mutual Love Continue," inspired by the biblical teaching of "Jubilee." The most recent GCF newsletter with more detailed information on the gathering can be found here.
Christian-Muslim Relations and State Formation in West Africa
Many emerging countries in postcolonial West Africa have found themselves at the center of Christian-Muslim interactions in the contemporary world. Nimi Wariboko's new piece, "Christian-Muslim Relations and the Ethos of State Formation in West Africa” in Evelyn A. Reisacher (ed.), Dynamics of the Muslim Worlds: Regional, Theological, and Theological Perspectives (Downers Groove, IL: IVP Academic 2017), explores the ways in which such state formation is both shaped by and shapes (sometimes coopting for the state's own ends) dynamics between these two religious communities.
The Latinx Body and Pedagogy
What does it mean to be Latino/a and teach in the U.S. in higher education today? The Perkins School of Theology Center for the Study of Latino/a Christianity and Religions is offering a one-day seminar to discuss issues related to this important question. The seminar is for Pre-Tenure Faculty and PhD Candidates led by Dr. Daisy Machado on March 9, 2018. The Center will fully fund ten applicants through an application process for which the deadline is October 8, 2017. Applicants can apply online through the following link: http://mp.gg/e-re4.
Killing our Children’s Children
Surveying ecological disasters around the world, Visiting Researcher Kapya Kaoma delivered sharp warnings that an earth-theology must be developed, or we will be "killing our children's children." Dr. Kaoma delivered his message during the Gunther Wittenberg Lecture at the University of KwaZulu-Natal Ujamaa Centre in South Africa. His entire lecture has been made through Critical Investigations into Humanitarianism in Africa.
Large Book Donation to African Theological Schools
The Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts is donating over 10,000 books to numerous theological schools in Africa. The Rev. Dr. Kapya Kaoma, BuSTH alumnus and CGCM visiting researcher, facilitated the donation between the divinity school's closing library and African institutions including St. John's Anglican University College in Zambia and Zomba Theological College in Malawi. A Boston Globe article describing the donation, including donations to other institutions of higher learning throughout the world can be found here.
Methodist Mission Bicentennial
 Over the next two years a series of celebrations will recognize Methodism’s bicentennial of mission, which will occur in 2019 in accord with the 1819 founding of the Missionary Society by the Methodist Episcopal Church, a forerunner to The United Methodist Church. It is exciting that the year 2019 will also recognize the 150th anniversary of the Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society, also of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The events are sponsored by Global Ministries of the United Methodist Church, and CGCM director Dana L. Robert serves on the bicentennial planning committee.
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Religion and Health
"Going Viral: Religion and Health" will be the theme for the third annual Graduate Student Conference on Religion at Boston University. Dr. Ellen Idler from Emory College will serve as the keynote speaker for the event, which will also feature health professionals and graduate students. The conference will be held from 9:00am-6:00pm, October 14th, 2017. Register at: bureligionandhealth.eventbrite.com.
Augustinian Monks in the Qing Imperial Court
Cultural and religious exchange between China and the West is not something unique to recent history. This summer, CGCM faculty associate Eugenio Menegon visited Druento, Italy, home of Discalced Augustinian Sigismondo Meinardi da San Nicola (1713-1767). Sigismondo spent 30 years in the Qing Imperial Court in Beijing. Menegon has found hundreds of Sigismondo's letters, many of them sent to his brother Francesco, a lawyer and priest living in his native Druento. Menegon is using these letters for his current book project on Europeans in Beijing during the 18th century.