2005 Global Christianity
2005 Pruit Memorial Symposium
Thursday, November 10—Saturday, November 12, 2005
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Program Description
Christian movements continue to exert significant influence, not only in North America, but increasingly in Latin America, Africa, Eastern Europe, and Asia. The growth of world Christianity since the eighteenth century has confounded conventional expectations of modernity and secularization, challenged the centrality of the "West" in traditional narratives of Christianity, and presented an intriguing religious aspect of the postmodern condition. In light of these developments, this international symposium will gather historians, political scientists, sociologists, theologians, and others to discuss past manifestations and future trends of global Christianity. We are particularly interested in Christianity's worldwide growth and its relationship to modernity/postmodernity, and Christianity's relationship to secularization, colonization, decolonization, nationalism, internationalism, and globalization.
Speakers
David Bebbington
David Bebbington is Professor of History at the University of Stirling and Distinguished Visiting Professor of History at Baylor University. His principal research interests are in the history of politics, religion and society in Britain from the eighteenth to the twentieth century, and the history of the global Evangelical movement. His books include Evangelicalism in Modern Britain: A History from the 1730's to the 1980's (Allen & Unwin, 1989), Victorian Nonconformity (Plantagenet, 1992), William Ewart Gladstone: Faith and Politics in Victorian Britain (Eerdmans, 1993) and Holiness in Nineteenth-Century England (Paternoster, 2000). Edited books include The Gospel in the World: International Baptist Studies (Paternoster, 2002) and Modern Christianity and Cultural Aspirations (Continuum, 2003). He is at present working on a history of the worldwide Evangelical movement in the late nineteenth century.
Paul C. Freston
Paul C. Freston is Byker Chair and Professor of Sociology at Calvin College. He previously taught for a decade at the Federal University of San Carlos in Brazil. Born in England and educated at Cambridge University, Freston also has a master's degree in Latin American Studies from the University of Liverpool and a master's degree in Christian Studies from Regent College in Vancouver. He earned a doctorate in sociology at the University of Campinas in Brazil. His research specialties in sociology are religion, politics and globalization, and his most important work to date in that field is Evangelicals and Politics in Africa, Asia and Latin America (Cambridge, 2001). Freston is also the author of Protestant Political Parties: A Global Survey (Ashgate, 2004).
Mark A. Noll
Mark A. Noll is McManis Professor of Christian Thought, Wheaton College. He also is the Senior Advisor of the Institute for the Study of American Evangelicals (ISAE) at Wheaton. In 2004-05, he held the Cary and Ann Maguire Chair in American History and Ethics at the Library of Congress' John W. Kluge Center. Noll is an author or editor of over 30 books, among which number The Work We Have to Do: A History of Protestants in America (Oxford, 2002), The Old Religion in the New World: The History of North American Christianity (Eerdmans, 2002), America's God, from Jonathan Edwards to Abraham Lincoln (Oxford, 2002), and the inaugural book of InterVarsity Press' History of Evangelicalism series, The Rise of Evangelicalism: The Age of Edwards, Whitefield and the Wesleys (2004), winner of a Christianity Today 2005 Book Award.
Dana L. Robert
Dana L. Robert is Truman Collins Professor of World Mission and Co-Director of the Center for Global Christianity and Mission at Boston University. Robert's research and teaching interests span the fields of mission history, the history of world Christianity, and mission theology. Her books include African Christian Outreach, Vol 2: Mission Churches (South African Missiological Society, 2003) as editor, American Women in Mission (Mercer, 1997), and co-authorship of the textbook Christianity: A Social and Cultural History (Prentice-Hall, 1997). Her books Gospel Bearers, Gender Barriers: Missionary Women in the Twentieth Century (Orbis, 2002), which she edited, and "Occupy Until I Come": A.T. Pierson and the Evangelization of the World (Eerdmans, 2003) were named outstanding books in mission studies for 2002 and 2003, respectively, by the International Bulletin of Missionary Research.
Lamin Sanneh
Lamin Sanneh is the D. Willis James Professor of Missions and World Christianity and Professor of History at Yale University. He is an Honorary Research Professor in the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London, and is a life member of Clare Hall, Cambridge University. The author of over a hundred articles on religious and historical subjects, Sanneh¡¦s books include Whose Religion Is Christianity?: The Gospel beyond the West (Eerdmans, 2003), Abolitionists Abroad: American Blacks and the Making of Modern West Africa (Harvard, 2000) and Piety and Power: Muslims and Christians in West Africa (Orbis, 1996). His work as an editor includes being an editor-at-large of the ecumenical weekly, The Christian Century. For his academic work he was made Commandeur de l'Ordre National du Lion, Senegal's highest national honor.
Brian Stanley
Brian Stanley is Director of the Henry Martyn Centre for the Study of Mission and World Christianity and a Fellow of St. Edmund's College, University of Cambridge. He is a historian of the Protestant missionary movement and has written or edited a number of books, including The Bible and the Flag: Protestant Missions and British Imperialism in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries (Apollos, 1990), The History of the Baptist Missionary Society 1792-1992 (T. & T. Clark, 1992), Christian Missions and the Enlightenment (Eerdmans and Curzon Press, 2000), and Missions, Nationalism, and the End of Empire (Eerdmans, 2003). With Sheridan Gilley he is editor of volume 8 of the forthcoming Cambridge History of Christianity: World Christianities, c. 1815-1914 (Cambridge University Press).
Schedule
Thursday, November 10
12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m.
Registration/Check In
1:00 p.m. to 1:15 p.m.
Opening Remarks
1:30 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Concurrent Sessions
Theorizing World Christianity
- Keith Francis, Baylor University: session chair
- Robert Montgomery: The Spread of Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam: A Theory of the Spread of Religions
- Robert Sean Mackin, Texas A & M University: Secularization, the New(er) Paradigm? The Socio-Political Conflict Model
- Christopher M. Pieper, University of Texas at Austin: Of Prophets and Missionaries: Moral Schema and Global Politics
From Mission to Movement-China
- Xin Wang, Baylor University: session chair
- Lydia Gerber, Washington State University: "Chinese Brother?" ¡VLi Schinen and the Basle Mission
- Richard R. Cook, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School: Choosing Between God and China: Wang Mingdao and the Chinese Fundamentalists' Tortured Relationship with the Nation during the Republican Period
- Joseph Tse-Hei Lee, Pace University: God and Nation: Christian Activism and Maoist State in South China
African Christianity and Social Change
- Douglas Henry, Baylor University: session chair
- Mark Husbands, Wheaton College: "Let the Bishop Speak!" ¡VThe Political Theology and Witness of Archbishop David Gitari
- Stan Chu Ilo, Cathedral of St. Peter-in-Chains: Trends in African Christianity: African Identity vs. Western Currents
- Vincent Gaddis, Benedictine University: Divided by Faith: Pastors in Aurora, Illinois and Johannesburg, South Africa Confront the Issue of Race
Early Iberian Missions and Colonization
- Joan Supplee, Baylor University: session chair
- Brandon Bayne, Harvard University: To Remove Pernicious Obstacles and Open the Way for the Holy Gospel: Holy War and Holy Mission in Oñate's Conquest of New Mexico
- Kenneth S. Culpepper, Baylor University and Justin Lopez, Baylor University: Defending the Oppressed: Bartolome de Las Casas as a Model for Christian Missionary Dissent in the Face of Human Rights Abuses
- Francis Thonippara, Charmram College: From Colonization to Romanization: A Case Study of the St. Thomas Christians of India with Special Reference to the Synod of Diamper
Pluralism and Christian Identity in Asia
- Bill Mitchell, Baylor University: session chair
- Paul Joshua Bhakiaraj, University of Birmingham, UK: Converting Christianity Pioneers of Indigenous Christianity in India
- Chad M. Bauman, Butler University: Christian Womanhood: Antimodern Missionaries and Hybrid Religious Identities in Chhattisgarh, India
- A. Christian van Gorder, Baylor University: "The Steppe is Cruel and Heaven is Far": Contemporary and Historical Challenges Facing Christianity and Muslim Central Asia
3:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Break
3:30 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Concurrent Sessions
Book Discussion: The Changing Face of Christianity: Africa, The West and the World
- David Jeffrey, Baylor University: session chair
- Joel Carpenter, Calvin College
- Lamin Sanneh, Yale University
East Asian Christianity
- Perry Glanzer, Baylor University: session chair
- Michael K. Roemer, University of Texas at Austin: Contemporary Christianity in Japan: Speculation on Its (Small) Role in Japan's Religious Market
- Elisa Jiexia Zhai, University of Texas at Austin and Fenggang Yang, Purdue University: Jesus among a Thousand Gods: Why Christianity Has Stopped Growing in Contemporary Taiwan
American Missions, Imperialism, and Civilization
- Kim Kellison, Baylor University: session chair
- R. Bryan Bademan, Sacred Heart University: "Christian Civilization" in American Thought
- Jay R. Case, Malone College: Beyond Cultural Imperialism: The American Evangelical Engagement with the World in the Nineteenth Century
- Mark Edwards, Purdue University: "Bringing Our World Together": The Empire of Christian Realism, 1925-1952
Teaching and Global Christianity
- Tony Talbert, Baylor University: session chair
- Phillip Luke Sinitiere, University of Houston: Global Pedagogy: Locating World Christianity in the Classroom
- Daryl McCarthy, International Institute for Christian Studies: Seeking Truth in Chinese Universities: A Study of Christian Studies Programs at Major Chinese Universities
- Stacie Reck, Atlantic Baptist University: Coloring with Brown Crayons: Examining Religious Education Curriculum through a Post-Colonial Lens
5:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
Break
7:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Plenary Presentation
- Barry Hankins, Baylor University: introduction
- Lamin Sanneh, Yale University: Cultural Imperialism and the Missionary Scrutiny: Redrawing the Boundary
Friday, November 11
8:30 a.m. to 10:00 a.m.
Concurrent Sessions
Christianity in "World" Perspective—A Panel Discussion
- Akintunde E. Akinade, High Point University
- Anthea Butler, University of Rochester
- Dale Irvin, New York Theological Seminary
- Elaine Padilla, Regent University
The Practice of Missions and Non-western Christianity
- Robert Kruschwitz, Baylor University: session chair
- Bob Woodberry, University of Texas at Austin: Blessed Orientalism: The Impact of Christian Missions on Nonwestern Societies
- Dave Livermore, Grand Rapids Theological Seminary: Neocolonialism: An Examination of American Pastors Training National Pastors
- Michael D. Pasquale, Cornerstone University: Can Christian English Language Teaching Be Non-Imperialistic?
East Asian Responses to the West
- Jerry Park, Baylor University: session chair
- Genzo Yamamoto, Wheaton College: Competing Christian Criticisms of Western Modernity: Examples from Japan and Korea
- Darrell E. Allen, Seattle Pacific University: Spirit and Form in Japan: Uchimura Kanzo's Quest for a Purified Christianity
- Charles W. Weber, Wheaton College: Asian Contributions to Global Christianity: Voices from Japan and China
African Christian Identities and Expressions
- Paul Froese, Baylor University: session chair
- Darren Middleton, Texas Christian University: The Poetics of Post-missionary Christianity
- Cynthia Holder Rich, Western Theological Seminary: Indigenous Christianity in Madagascar: The Shepherds' Revival Movement
- Michael Jindra, Spring Arbor University: Mortuary Rituals and Religious Change in Africa
Western Theology and Global Christianity
- Scott Moore, Baylor University: session chair
- Gary Pranger, Oral Roberts University: Philip Schaff's Mercersburg Theology and the Reunion of Christianity at the End of the 20th Century?
- Roger Newell, George Fox University: Till We Have Christians: A Myth of Christendom Retold
- Chris Kettler, Friends University: The Vicarious Humanity of Christ and Cultured Identity: Joy and Despair in an Age of Globalization
10:00 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.
Break
10:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.
Plenary Presentation
- Thomas Charlton, Baylor University: introduction
- David Bebbington, University of Stirling/Baylor University: Global Evangelicalism in the Nineteenth Century
12:00 p.m. to 1:30 p.m.
Break
1:30 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Concurrent Sessions
Pluralism and Religious Encounters
- George Gawrych, Baylor University: session chair
- Meic Pearse, Houghton College: Between Bosnia and the BBC: Balkan Religious Minorities between the Confessional State and Compulsory Meaninglessness
- Gary VanderPol, Boston University School of Theology: Patterns of Protestant Conversion in Southeast Asia
- Eduardo Echeverria, Sacred Heart Major Seminary: Dominus Iesus: Jesus Christ, the Church, and Interreligious Dialogue
New Trends in Christian Missions
- Michael Thomas, Baylor University: session chair
- Peter Bush, Knox Presbyterian Church: How Are Short-Term Mission Trips Changing North American Congregations?
- Michael W. Stroope, Baylor University: An Offspring's Bequest: The Potentials and Problems of the Church of the South for Missions
- Michael Goheen, Trinity Western University: The Gift of New Eyes: A Missiological Analysis of Western Culture
Western Christianity and World Christianity: Encounter, Challenge and Change
- Sergei Zhuk, Ball State University: Ukrainian Evangelical Peasants as "Cultural Pioneers" of Late Imperial Russia
- Alister Chapman, Westmont College: Evangelical International Relations in the Post-Colonial World: The Lausanne Movement and West-South Christian Communication, 1974-89
- Stephanie Mar Smith, Fuller Theological Seminary: HIV/AIDS in Africa: A Theological Challenge for the West
Pacific Encounters with World Christianity
- Bill Pitts, Baylor University: session chair
- D. E. "Gene" Mills, Jr., Florida State University: Christianity Encounters the World of Kane, Ku, Lono and Kanaloa: Native Hawaiian Responses to the Christian God
- Sandra Cook, Crown College: The Consumption of Global Christianity in the Malls of Metro Manila
- Elizabeth Koepping, University of Edinburgh: Eucumenism for Peace: Identity and Belonging in Borneo
World Christianity in the West
- Barry Harvey, Baylor University: session chair
- Mark Lamport, Grand Rapids Theological Seminary: The Rise of English Youth Churches as Cultural Resistance to Western Christianity: What the Global Church Can Learn from this Latest British Invasion
- Paul Kim, Baylor University: "What Does Jesus of Nazareth Mean for Ethnic-American Churches?" Christology of Marginality for the Ecclesiology of Ethnic-American Churches
3:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Break
3:30 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Plenary Presentation
- Keith Francis, Baylor University: introduction
- Brian Stanley, University of Cambridge: From 'Non-Christian Religions' to World Christianity: The World Missionary Conference, Edinburgh 1910, in Centennial Perspective
5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Break
6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
Banquet Dinner
7:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Plenary Presentation
- Thomas Kidd, Baylor University: introduction
- Mark Noll, Wheaton College: 20th Century Christian History from a World Perspective
Saturday, November 12
8:30 a.m. to 10:00 a.m.
Concurrent Sessions
Russian Orthodoxy, Civil Society, and Political Culture
- Christopher Marsh, Baylor University: session chair
- Alexander Agadjanian, Russian State University of the Humanities: Liberal Individual and Christian Personhood: Recent Human Rights Debates in Russian Orthodoxy
- Zoe Knox, Rice University: Russian Orthodoxy, Nationalism, and Religious Tolerance
- James W. Warhola, University of Maine: Russian Orthodoxy and Political Culture
- Jerry Pankhurst, Wittenburg University: Discussant
The State of the Chinese Church
- Bill Cooper, Baylor University: session chair
- Larry D. Harwood, Viterbo University: Will Chinese House Churches Prompt a Chinese State Church?
- Virginia Yip, Baylor University: Go Ye to All Nations and Democratize Them!
- Brent Whitefield, Valparaiso University: Martyrdom and Chinese Missiology
Missions and Identity in Latin America
- Guillermo Garcia-Corales, Baylor University: session chair
- Kathryn Long, Wheaton College: The Meanings of Faith Among the Waorani in the Ecuadorian Amazon: A Preliminary History
- Timothy Stoneman, Georgia Institute of Technology: Paving the Way for Global Revival: Station HDJB's Radio Circle, 1949-1959
- James Wellman, University of Washington and Daniel Escher, University of Washington: Religious Revolutions: The Rise of Protestantism in the Dominican Republic
World Christianity, Dialogue and Reconciliation
- Stephen Martin, King's University College: Nation-Building and the Renewal of Covenant: H. Richard Niebuhr's Concept of Reconstructing Faith and the Challenge of Reconciliation in Post-Apartheid South Africa
- Geoff Wells, Wayland Baptist University: Discourse Ethics and Christian Politics
- Bob Robinson, Tyndale Graduate School of Theology: Christians Meeting Hindus: Implications for the Global Christian Community from the Dialogical Turn in the Recent Christian-Hindu Encounter in India
Religious Sources of Nationalism
- Andrew Wisely, Baylor University: session chair
- Gerhard Besier, Hannah Arendt Institute for Research on Totalitarianism: Nationalism of Pastors and the Authoritarian State. Political "Cultures of Belief" in German Protestantism during the 1920s and 1930s
- Katarzyna Stoklosa, Hannah Arendt Institute for Research on Totalitarianism: Religious Sources of Nationalism in Poland
World Christianity, Toleration, and Pluralism
- Michael Stroope, Baylor University: session chair
- Gerald McDermott, Roanoke College: Yahweh and the Gods: The Old Testament's Surprising Approaches to Other Religions
- Scott Bessenecker, Global Projects for InterVarsity Christian Fellowship: The New Friars: Emerging Evangelical Mendicant Orders
10:00 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.
Break
10:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.
Plenary Presentation
- Kimberly Kellison, Baylor University: introduction
- Dana Robert, Boston University: World Christianity as a Women's Movement
12:00 p.m.to 1:30 p.m.
Break
1:30 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Concurrent Sessions
Eastern Orthodoxy in Comparative Perspective and Interaction with the West
- James Warhola, University of Maine: session chair
- Perry L. Glanzer and Konstantin Petrenko, Baylor University: Russian Orthodoxy and Private Christian Colleges and Universities
- Daniel P. Payne, Baylor University: The Greek "Neo-Orthodox" Critique of the West: A Theo-Political Challenge to Western Globalization
- Jerry G. Pankhurst, Wittenberg University and Nadezhda Beliacova, Moscow State University: The Politics of Religion in Ukraine and Russia: Assessing the Consequences of a Diverse and a Monopolized Religious Market in Recent Electoral Campaigns
- Alexander Agadjanian, Russian State University of the Humanities: Discussant
Baptists and World Christian Missions
- Bill Brackney: session chair
- Richard V. Pierard, Gordon College: Baptist Missions: A Globalizing or Westernizing Force?
- Brian M. Howell, Wheaton College: Witnesses to Modernity: Philippine Baptists and the Politics of Identity
Religious Change and Globalization
- Michael Stroope, Baylor University: session chair
- George Van Pelt Campbell, Grove City College: The Effects of Globalization on Religion
- John J. Markovic, Andrews University: The Resilience of Christianity: Challenges and Opportunities for Christianity in the World of Multiculturalism and Diversity
- David K. Ringer, College of the Ozarks: Global Pentecostalism: Precritical Challenge to Modernity
Zionism and Global Christianity
- John M. Yeats, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary: "To the Jew First": Conversion of the Jews as the Foundation for Global Missions and Expansion in 19th Century British Evangelicalism
- Andrew F. Bush, Eastern University: Mission Implications of Christian Zionism
Conversion and Revival in China
- Erin Cline, Baylor University: session chair
- Jerry L. Summers, East Texas Baptist University: Christianity and Traditional Societies in Crisis: Lessons from the Church in China
- Hyoung Sin Park, Graduate Theological Union: Cultural Meaning of the Protestant Revivalism in Manchuria, 1860-1930
- Gloria Ka Ki Chui, Hong Kong Baptist University: Secularity and Christian Religion: Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Later Theology and its Relevance for Chinese Theological Construction
3:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Break
3:30 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Plenary Presentation
- Jerry Park, Baylor University: introduction
- Paul Freston, Calvin College: Global Protestantism: Challenging the West through Politics, Missions and Migration