Robert Receives Henry Luce III Theology Fellowship
Dana L. Robert, Truman Collins professor of world Christianity and history of mission, has been named one of six Henry Luce III Theology Fellows for 2016-2017. Funded by a grant from The Henry Luce Foundation, the fellowship supports “scholars whose projects offer significant and innovative contributions to theological studies” and it “seeks to foster excellence in theological scholarship, and to strengthen the links among theological research, churches, and wider publics.”
The fellowship is administered by the Association of Theological Schools, which chooses the fellows from among the full-time faculty in its 270 member institutions. Robert, who also serves as director of the Center for Global Christianity and Mission at Boston University, will receive the fellowship to advance her research on “Transnational Friendships and Fellowship in the Making of World Christianity.”
“I want to thank the Association of Theological Schools and The Henry Luce Foundation for enabling me to take a sabbatical from my regular teaching in order to do research,” said Robert. Although most studies of world Christianity center on issues such as urbanization, migration, imperialism, and colonialism, Robert says her research focuses on “networks of cross-cultural relationships as central to the emergence of Christianity as a multicultural worldwide religion.”
As Christianity’s growth shifts to Africa and Latin America, Robert’s examination of cross-cultural relationships shows “the interconnections between north, south, east and west in the collaborative construction of Christianity as a world religion.” The Luce Fellowship is intended to produce research that impacts “the life of the church and the broader society.” Robert’s findings have direct application to missions today, as ministers and missionaries reflect on the practice of cross-cultural friendship and ponder what it means in a historical and theological context.
“I hope that my research will contribute to a deeper understanding of friendship in social context,” Robert says.
Robert’s books include Christian Mission: How Christianity Became a World Religion (Wiley-Blackwell, 2009), now in its seventh printing; Converting Colonialism: Visions and Realities in Mission History, 1706-1914 (editor, Eerdmans 2008); African Christian Outreach: Vol. 2 Mission Churches. (editor, South African Missiological Society, 2003); and the now classic American Women in Mission: A Social History of Their Thought and Practice (Mercer University, 1997).
Robert and the other Luce Fellows will present and discuss their work at the annual Luce Fellows Conference. The 2016-2017 fellows also include: Klaus-Peter Adam (Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago), Gill Goulding, CJ (Regis College), Judith H. Newman (Emmanuel College of Victoria University and Toronto School of Theology), Patrick T. Smith (Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary), and David VanDrunen (Westminster Theological Seminary in California).