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.
Association of Professors of Mission: Call for Papers
Deadline: February 15, 2017
Teaching Mission in the Complex Public Arena: Developing Missiologically Informed Models of Engagement
2017 Annual Meeting
Wheaton College - Wheaton, IL
June 15-16, 2017
American Society of Missiology
2017 Annual Meeting
June 16 - 18
Wheaton College, Wheaton, Illinois
Missiology's Dialogue Partners:
Practitioners and Scholars Conversing about the Future of Mission
The study of Christian mission has been undertaken from numerous perspectives, and increasingly engages disciplines that have long avoided the topic. At the same time, some missionaries and mission administrators also feel distant from academic missiology. This year’s conference will bring together for our plenary sessions scholars and practitioners who, though perhaps not formally missiologists or theologians of mission, consider Christian mission—in practice or theory, past or present—from their particular academic homes or vocational settings. Scholars with similar disciplinary orientations and from within mission studies—that is, within the ASM’s existing guild—will briefly respond.
The goal will be to help reconnoiter the edges of mission studies—often settings where the word “mission” goes unspoken—and to think about implications of those edges for the missionary life of the churches and scholarly approaches to Christian mission.
For a full statement of the conference theme, visit the ASM website.
Registration for the annual meeting will open in January 2017.
Plenary Speakers
Kristin Colberg – Theology Department, St. John’s University
Hunter Farrell – World Mission Initiative, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary
Naomi Haynes – Social Anthropology, University of Edinburgh
Paul Kollman – ASM President, Center for Social Concerns & Department of Theology, University of Notre Dame
Call for Presentations
This year’s conference will consider missiology at the places where it meets other disciplines and the practice of mission, seeking to create conversations among the three plenary speakers and other ASM members about the ways missiology and mission practice interact, and how mission studies ought to relate to academic disciplines that missiologists engage in their work—especially theological and social-scientific fields.
To this end, we invite presentations that consider the relationship of mission practice, missiology, and other scholarly fields. Examples of topics in line with the conference theme might include:
- Ethnographic analyses of missionary practice that draw upon historical and social-scientific scholarship in pursuit of missiological insight.
- Studies of Christian churches pursuing missional ecclesial practice that use quantitative or qualitative data to understand Christian practice and self-understanding.
- Descriptions of personal or communal missionary experience that analyze the role of missiological training—or its absence—in understanding outcomes or consequences;
- An explanation of a denominational missionary stance that locates the stance within contemporary missiological perspectives.
We also welcome presentations that fit the theme less formally, but which engage mission studies more generally.
We strongly encourage teams of three to four presenters to collaborate and submit proposals for panel sessions focused around shared themes. As space permits, we also invite proposals for high quality individual papers that are not linked to a formally proposed panel session.
This year, we also invite proposals for colloquium presentations geared toward those seeking focused discussion of and feedback on their work.
For more information about presenting at the ASM panel and colloquium sessions, see the ASM website and the Presentation Guidelines.
Submitting Proposals
To submit a panel or colloquium presentation proposal: https://goo.gl/forms/YuMsm5fWrrZs9msK2
To submit a panel session proposal: https://goo.gl/forms/pGWc387giZ0iaRxs1
To submit a colloquium session proposal: https://goo.gl/forms/z8BGHYnivEjM8fAu1
The deadline for all panel, paper, and colloquium submissions is January 30, 2017. Confirmation of accepted panel and paper proposals expected by March 3, 2017.
Spanish and Korean-Language Presentations
This year, we invite proposals for presentations in Korean and Spanish. For more information, visit the ASM website and contact Enoch Jinsik Kim (enochk2000@fuller.edu) for Korean presentations or Johnny Ramirez-Johnson (ramirez-johnson@fuller.edu) for Spanish presentations.
올해는 한국어와 스페인어로도 연구 발표를 접수합니다.
Este año, ademas de ingles, también invitamos sometan propuestas para presentaciones en coreano y español.
Questions?
- For presentation proposals, contact Al Tizon (ASM 2nd VP; al.tizon@covchurch.org) and Alison Fitchett Climenhaga (ASM conference coordinator; afitchet@nd.edu)
- For the ASM travel pool, contact Robert Danielson (ASM treasurer; robert.danielson@asburyseminary.edu)
- For the conference in general, contact Paul Kollman (ASM President; pkollman@nd.edu)
Connect with ASM on Facebook
Harold Grimm Prize awarded to Rady Roldan-Figueroa
The Sixteenth Century Society and Conference has recognized Professor Rady Roldan-Figueroa's article, "Martín de Roa, S.J. (1559-1637) and the Consolidation of Catholic Literary Culture in Spain," European History Quarterly 45, no. 1 (2015): 5-33 with the Harold J. Grimm Prize. The Grimm Prize is awarded annually to the best article published during the previous year which reflects and sustains Grimm's lifelong search for a broad understanding of the Reformation as a fundamentally religious phenomenon which permeated the whole civilization of Europe in the Reformation era.
African Christian Biographies
The Advisory Council of the Dictionary of African Christian Biography met at St. Mary Magdalene’s Retreat House in Nairobi, Kenya for their 3rd annual meeting, December 3-5. The meeting was very well attended by ten of the twelve advisors who came from nine African countries. The all-day meeting on Monday focused on reports of the past year’s activities and discussions of 1) ways to promote the DACB in continent-wide networks and church associations having to do with theology or history; 2) fundraising; 3) improvements and additions to the Website; and 4) recent new initiatives. The most important discussion on new initiatives focused on the Journal of African Christian Biography (JACB), started in June of 2016. It was decided that the Journal would move to a quarterly publication schedule and that various distribution schemes would be explored, using self-publishing entities in Africa. Overall, the atmosphere was irenic and there was a strong collaborative drive that united the attendees who represented a wide array of churches: Roman Catholic, Independent, Baptist, Anglican, Independent Assemblies of God, non-denominational, Pentecostal, Methodist, Mennonite, and Orthodox.
A Documentary History of Shona Religion
Old and New in Shona Religion is an interactive website that allows scholars to explore the Shona religion in the middle of the 20th century. Based on over 1,200 annotated photographs taken by M.L. Daneel between 1960 and the mid-1990s, this website provides a visual history of African Initiated Churches and African Traditional Religion. At the time of these photographs, M.L. Daneel was the only person documenting oral, rural, Christian movements among the Shona people in Southern Africa. He was also the first White person allowed to visit indigenous Shona shrines. These photos, along with films, digitized books, and other resources now open up that world to others.
Churches in Change
Dr. Karen B. Westerfield Tucker, CGCM faculty associate, will be giving the keynote address at the Stockholm School of Theology (TEOLOGISKA HÖGSKOLAN STOCKHOLM) on February 3. This is address is part of a one-day research conference on "Churches in Change" as part of the school's collaboration with the Uniting Church (Equmeniakyrkan) in Sweden, a merger between the Baptist Union of Sweden, the United Methodist Church of Sweden, and Mission Covenant Church of Sweden. She is also giving a presentation in the "higher seminars" of Practical Theology and Ecclesiology at Uppsala University.
No Other Name: One Couple’s Journey With Cancer
Ed Williamson, STH alumnus, recently published his book No Other Name: One Couple's Journey With Cancer. This is a story of Ed and Loretta Williamson and their look at realistic faith amid modern medicine intertwined in a story of love, pain, triumph, anguish and miracles. Dr. Williamson holds a doctorate in Mission and Evangelism from STH.
Religions and Social Progress
"Religions and Social Progress: Critical Assessments and Creative Partnerships”
A Work in Progress Conversation with Nancy Ammerman
Tuesday, December 13, 12:00-2:00pm
Room 241, Department of Sociology
Lunch is provided with RSVP to awestbro@bu.edu by December 8th
Engaging Theology, Theologians, and Theological Education in (or from) Majority World Contexts
The Evangelical Missiological Society extends a call for papers around the theme of Engaging Theology, Theologians, and Theological Education in (or from) Majority World Contexts for the EMS 2017 Spring Regional Conferences and the 2017 September 15-17 National Conference in Dallas, and will result in a published volume to be edited by Dr. Tite Tiénou and Dr. Allen Yeh.
While missiology pioneered early discussions of theology in cultural context, and of self-theologizing as a core value, missiology must remain current in its engagements with theology and theological education if it is to build on missiological strengths and remain central to such conversations. For nearly three decades the Association of Theological Schools in the US and Canada has emphasized “globalization” as a core value in assessing and accrediting theological schools. This ATS emphasis provides a unique opportunity for missiology. We see this articulated in Norman Thomas’ (1989) expressed “hope … that [with globalization] missiology in North America can break loose from the straightjacket of being just one discipline competing for students and recognition alongside so many others. Instead, it can become the field which provides that interdisciplinary focus that the new global theological education requires” [From Missions to Globalization: Teaching Missiology in North American Seminaries” IBMR 13 (3), 107].
Sometimes earlier missiology engaged theology without engaging majority world theological leaders. In an era of world Christianity as articulated by Andrew Walls (2002), “the primary responsibility for the determinative theological scholarship will lie with the Christian communities of Africa, Asia, and Latin America. If [these continents] do not develop a proper capacity for leadership in theological studies, there will be, for practical purposes, no theological studies worth caring about [Christian Scholarship in Africa in the Twenty-First Century, Transformation 19 (4), 221-222]. Missiologists have unique opportunities and responsibility to ensure that Christian communities in North America and Europe develop meaningful engagement with theology and theological leaders from Africa, Asia and Latin America and other majority world contexts.
A major aspect of the current work of the Association of Theological Schools in the United States and Canada focuses on Global Awareness and Engagement. This work is rooted in the conviction that there must be global reciprocity in the production and reproduction of theological knowledge and wisdom and that good theological education is characterized as that which prepares students and graduates to be global citizens in their ministerial work [see Lester Edwin J. Ruiz, “Global Awareness and Engagement: Re-telling an ATS Story” JANATE 2 (1), 2016, pp. 73-83].
In light of the preceding, the Evangelical Missiological Society invites submissions exploring aspects of what it means for missiology, theology, and theological education in North America to engage theology, theologians and theological education from (or in) the majority world. Possible topics include (but are not limited to) the following:
- the role/contribution of missiology to intercultural and global awareness and engagement for theological education in North America
- contributions to theological disciplines (biblical studies, systematic theology, Christian history, homiletics, pastoral theology, missiology, pastoral counseling) from the majority world
- issues in theological education in the majority world and their implications for North American theological education.
- Papers exploring the writings of key theological leaders from majority world contexts and/or focused on themes of import in such contexts.
- How are issues related to affliction and healing understood and addressed pastorally, homiletically, and theologically? For example in Korea, with theological reflections and pastoral engagements regarding “han,” in Africa with theological reflections and pastoral engagements regarding “witches,” etc?
- How are theological leaders engaging issues related to sexuality or marriage?
- How are theological leaders addressing ethical issues for their context?
- How does Bible translation itself shape the theological understandings of Christians in diverse settings?
- How should theological formulations of the gospel address shame, honor, guilt, purity?
- Alternatively, papers addressing theological education in majority world contexts, ranging from discussions of curriculum, to accreditation, to material supports, would be suitable foci.
Each scholar is invited to think through how your particular strengths and interests might intersect with the annual theme, and to frame a proposal to present a paper.
For those living in the USA or Canada, presenters are invited first to present in our regional conferences this Spring, and then possibly at the national conference as well. The normal process would be for you to contact a regional vice president of the EMS in your region about presenting at the regional meetings being planned near you this spring. See meetings to find your region, its VP, and scheduled regional conference. Strong papers are then forwarded to the program committee for the annual meetings with the hope that you will also present there, and with the strongest papers being published in our annual volume.
For those living outside the USA or Canada (and thus who cannot easily participate in a regional EMS meeting) and who wish to attend and present a paper at the EMS national meetings, please contact Robert Priest about the options and process for being considered (rpriest@tiu.edu). Unfortunately the EMS is not able to offer funds to help with travel, so only those who have access to alternative means of funding should apply.
Research Fellowship
The program will award research and travel grants of $2,500. Applicants must demonstrate a need to work in the society's collection for a minimum of one week and a maximum of one month. Applications are accepted from persons whose normal place of residence is farther than seventy-five miles from Philadelphia.
Projects in all fields of study, including history, American studies, women's studies, mission history, architecture, and ecumenism are invited. In accepting this grant, fellows agree to submit a report to the society within two months of their last visit. The society requests a copy of each final work for its holdings, and fellows are encouraged to adapt their research for publication in the Journal of Presbyterian History.
Eligibility: These grants are open to scholars, students, and independent researchers.
Awards: The grants of $2,500 cover travel, lodging, and other research expenses.
Application procedures: Applications must be received at the society by February 3, 2017, with awards announced by March 17, 2017.