Papers & Publications
Visiting Researcher Writes about H. F. Reynolds and the Foundation of the Church of the Nazarene
For three years, Mary Lou Shea was a Visiting Researcher at the Center for Global Christianity & Mission. During that time, she devoted herself to uncovering the story of Hiram F. Reynolds, one of the first two General Superintendents in the Church of the Nazarene, and the architect of Nazarene missions around the world. The result of her work has recently been published as In Need of Your Prayers and Patience: The Life and Ministry of Hiram F. Reynolds and the Founding of the Church of the Nazarene.
Recently, Daryl Ireland asked Dr. Shea about the project. This is how she responded:
I did not choose Reynolds; he chose me, with the help of denominational archivist, Dr. Stan Ingersol, who approached me at a conference to ask if I would undertake the monumental task of reading the Reynolds archive and to consider writing his story. Since I knew nothing about Reynolds, and my colleagues (all ordained elders in the Church of the Nazarene) knew shockingly little about him, I said, "Sure." This is not unusual for me. In the first grade, each student had to choose a bird to report upon to the class. Did I choose the robin? The blue jay? The goldfinch or oriole? No, I picked the phoebe bird. In the fifth grade, we each had to write a report on a hero of the Revolutionary War, so I picked Molly Pitcher. Who wouldn't? When Reynolds presented himself, I was compelled to take on the challenge. Why write about someone we already know when there is something new to be learned?!
I worked with lots of primary materials. Reynolds was kind enough to save what must have been every piece of correspondence he ever received! (Well, maybe not every one, since the archival material grew exponentially once the Pentecostal Church of the Nazarene was created.) He also kept carbon copies of most of his outgoing correspondence. So, I had an abundance of letters, cables and wires, sermon outlines, schedules, to-do lists, receipts, article manuscripts and photographs to fill in the details. I also had access to personal letters to and from his wife and children. He also left an unpublished memoir written when he was 75 and reflecting, from his perspective, on the life he had led. This was especially crucial in filling in the details of his youth and his years as a Methodist Episcopal minister in Vermont. Together, I was given an unusually well-rounded portrait, written in his own hand. In addition, I had access to holiness newspapers and, from their first issues, of denominational newspapers that followed his travels, printed his columns and editorials, and reported on his work as a General Superintendent and missionary leader. Then there were the minutes of meetings, some handwritten, from a variety of sources including Annual Conferences, General Assemblies, meetings of the Women's Missionary Society, gatherings of denominational mission leadership (like the General Board of Foreign Missions) and other such groups. For me, the difficulty was not in gathering enough material to piece together a biography. It was sifting through mountains of material, knowing that every choice I made to include one thing meant choosing to exclude others. I tried very conscientiously to chose representative materials that could offer glimpses into much larger volumes of related materials across the breadth of his responsibilities. The incidents, people, concerns, policies and practices that receive the most attention are the ones that Reynolds, himself, spent the most ink and time trying to resolve, create, or manage. Since they dominated weeks, months, or years of his documented time and effort, they became important aspects of this book.
Some folks have gently wondered if I have soft-soaped his story because, when I talk about him, he sounds too good to be true. That always makes me sad. Reynolds was human and he was bold in revealing his own faults and sinfulness to any who would listen to his testimony of God's grace and the joys of living a holy (sanctified) life. Still, during a tumultuous life filled with adventure, illness, and disaster, he strove, day in and day out, to live up to his calling as a minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. So far as I could ascertain, once he set off to follow Jesus he never committed adultery, lined his own pockets with church money, cheated anyone he met, or indulged in drinking alcohol, smoking, or gambling. Unhappily, with our societal taste for scandal, we find it hard to believe that an honest biography could present a man of integrity. What a shame that scandals have become so associated with Christianity that a biography is suspect if there are no lurid skeletons being dragged out of the closet. Perhaps this book can offer an alternative to the standard hypocrisy narrative, for I believe it accurately captures a person who embraced the joys of holiness, setting an example we might all do well to follow.
Rethinking Methodism
In a recent essay, Chris Evans explored important questions scholars need to raise when they think about American Methodism, particularly after the Civil War. One way to reconsider the role of Methodism, Evans argued, would be to look at the role of Methodist young people, citing the motive magazine as a rich and untapped source. The Center for Global Christianity & Mission will have the entire run of motive available for digital research in September 2015.
The Making of Korean Christianity
The award winning book, The Making of Korean Christianity: Protestant Encounters with Korean Religions, 1879-1915 was recently reviewed in the Africanas Journal. The publication is doubly significant for the Center for Global Christianity & Mission, as the author of the book, Sung-Deuk Oak, graduated from the Boston University School of Theology in 2002. The review was written by Gun Cheol Kim, a current PhD candidate in Mission Studies at the School of Theology.
Christianity and Innovation
The Historical Society received funding from the John Templeton Foundation to explore Religion and Innovation in Human Affairs. Research in various fields was conducted from 2011 to 2014, and the results were often counterintuitive. Counter to popular images of religion as a conservative force that regularly inhibits creativity, scholars described a more dynamic religious impulse. Dana Robert, Director of the Center for Global Christianity & Mission, participated in the project, arguing that Protestant missions were a major source of social innovation and democratic nationalism at the beginning of the twentieth-century. A preview of her research and that of others, may be found in: What Connection is There, if any, Between Christianity and Innovation?
Mega Churches in the Global South
The evidence continues to mount that the current center of the Christian faith is neither in North America or in Europe, but in Africa, Latin America, Asia, and the Pacific. Most recently, Jonathan James of Edith Cowan University in Perth, Australia, edited a book, A Moving Faith: Mega Churches Go South that documents the rise of mega churches in the global south. Jesudas Athyal, a Visiting Researcher at the Center for Global Christianity & Mission, contributed the chapter, "Southern Christianity: Key Considerations and Characteristics."Religious Vibrancy: A Look at the Numbers
Gina Zurlo co-edited the Yearbook of International Religious Demography, the first in an annual series that gives a snapshot of the world's religious landscape, coupled with social scientific articles on specific countries and trends in religion around the world.
Now available: the CGCM Fall 2014 newsletter
The CGCM's Fall 2014 newsletter is now available. You can pick up a free hard copy at the School of Theology or read it in PDF form online at CGCM Newsletter 2014 Fall. Get your copy today!
Narratives of World Christianity
Dana L. Robert, CGCM director, presented, “Twentieth-Century Mission Studies and the Narrative of ‘World Christianity’.’” The audio file is a fascinating historical study on the rise of the term, “World Christianity.”
Global Ecumenism and the Rise of Sociology
Histories of American sociology generally acknowledge, to varying degrees, Christian involvement in the development of the field. Much of this attention, however, underemphasizes two highly influential movements in early-twentieth-century Christian thought, the social gospel movement (1870s–1920s) and the rise of the global ecumenical movement (beginning in 1910). One under-researched, yet particularly revealing example of the impact of these movements is the Institute of Social and Religious Research (“the Institute”; 1921–1934), founded in 1921 under the leadership of global Christian leader John R. Mott and funded by John D. Rockefeller, Jr. The Institute was comprised of Christian social scientific researchers who promoted interdenominational cooperation by engaging in scientific inquiry regarding the structure, current status, and functions of religious institutions and life in the United States. The Institute strived to maintain a high level of academic rigor while also retaining a religious motivation that included service to others, a classic struggle in the early history of American sociology.
The publications produced by the Institute were groundbreaking in their applications of social scientific methods to the study of religion in the United States, most notable of which included Robert S. Lynd and Helen Merrell Lynd’s highly generative and controversial Middletown study. In an overview of the largely unexplored tenure of the Institute, this paper brings together important trends in the early twentieth century to provide a unique perspective on the historical and theological contexts for the development of American sociology as an academic discipline.
To learn more, see "The Social Gospel, Ecumenical Movement, and Christian Sociology: The Institute of Social and Religious Research" (June 2014) by Gina Zurlo, a CGCM student associate, in the online version of The American Sociologist. Boston University students can access the journal through JStor and other hosts, and the article will appear in print version in 2015.
Mission and a Geographic Imagination
The July 2014 issue of the International Bulletin of Missionary Research contains a new article by alumnus Dr. David Scott, entitled "The Geographic Imagination and the Expansion of Methodist Missions in Southeast Asia," IBMR 38:3 (July 2014): 130–34.
Synopsis: Missionary work by the Methodist Episcopal Church began in Southeast Asia in 1885 in Singapore. The Malaysia Mission spread throughout Southeast Asia, establishing work in Singapore, Penang, peninsular Malaysia, Borneo, Java, and Sumatra, as well as maintaining nominal oversight of mission work in the Philippines. By using geography to justify its extension across distance, the Malaysia Mission acted similarly to other global systems.
The article is available for free to online subscribers.