SCM-USA Project
The SCM-USA Project will organize the recovery of the memory of the Student Christian Movement in the United States and argue that it constitutes a major tributary of American Protestantism neither liberal nor conservative that was characterized not by theology or doctrine but by common spiritual practices that shaped the life of the SCM-formed ecumenical community around the world. Because of the deep spiritual bonds students formed across barriers of difference, the SCM became a cultural innovator as the country became more heterogeneous. Although the University Christian Movement, the last organizational embodiment of the SCM in the USA disbanded in 1969, the impact of the movement continues to be felt in churches, universities, and non-governmental organizations working to address human needs around the world.
Project Director: Ada Focer
Uncovering Women’s Mission Stories
The BBC has produced an article about a unique book published in 1942. A Tibetan scholar stumbled across Sue in Tibet in a second-hand book store. To have a female character as the central character in a book in the 1940s was unique, but even more fascinating with the historical accuracy of the... More
motive for Change
On September 16, 2015 a digital run of all the motive magazines went live; all, that is, but one. The final issue had notoriously been blocked by the United Methodist Church from being printed. To commemorate motive's digitization, B. J. Stiles, the last editor of motive magazine, donated his prints of that final... More
School of Theology and the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry Collaborate to Launch Digital Archive of motive Magazine
“The magazine, motive, challenged me beyond natural ability.” Jeanne Audrey Powers On September 16, Boston University School of Theology and the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry will celebrate the launch of a website that digitizes motive magazine and makes it accessible to a new generation of scholars and leaders. motive magazine shaped a... More
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... More
Reflections on missions and Easter in India
In an audio recording produced by CGCM Research Associate Cathy Corman, Barry Alter, a missionary to India for many years, reflects on the implications of the Easter story for missions in India. You can read about Barry Alter's extraordinary life as a missionary in the multimedia project, In the Midst.
‘In the Midst’: a multimedia autobiography of a missionary life
The CGCM offers its resources, materials, and personnel to support a variety of unique and interesting websites. In conjunction with an international network of libraries, universities, and interested individuals, the center gathers hard-to-find materials and makes them easily accessible. Among its newest projects, the center is now hosting CGCM Visiting Researcher... More
Ecumenical Advocacy Days Scholarship
The World Student Christian Federation partners every year with Ecumenical Advocacy Days, where a delegation of students represent the Student Christian Movement and the World Student Christian Federation. Ecumenical Advocacy Days 2015 will take place on April 17-20 and the theme in will be "Breaking the Chains: Mass Incarceration &... More
Yale SCM/WSCF Exhibit Now Online!
The Yale Divinity Library has posted a terrific online exhibit on the Student Christian Movement. Followers of the CGCM website and activity know that we are vitally concerned with reclaiming the memory of the Student Christian Movement in the United States. From the 1880s to 1969, it invited college students... More
Cathy Corman on Hollinger’s “After Cloven Tongues of Fire”
UC Berkeley history professor emeritus David Hollinger describes in After Cloven Tongues of Fire his encounter with an essay of sinologist Joseph R. Levenson. “This essay,” Hollinger writes, “helped me formulate […] the chief questions on which I have worked for forty years. Levenson came at the right time for... More
Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Culture Warrior?
I was horrified upon finishing the audio recording of Eric Metaxas’s biography of German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer -- Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy -- to learn that Metaxas had an agenda in writing the biography that a) never occurred to me, and b) seems entirely at odds with Bonhoeffer’s own... More