CCCW-DivFac World Christianities Seminar: “World Christianity in Indo-Myanmar: Culture, Conflict and Christ” by Prof Atola Longkumer
11 March 2025, 16:00 - 11 March 2025, 17:30 Lightfoot Room, Faculty of Divinity, Cambridge
Speaker: Prof. Atola Longkumer
Prof. Atola Longkumer, a Baptist from Nagaland, is a faculty member in the department of religion at the United Theological College, Bengaluru, India. She is the secretary of the Program for Theology and Cultures in Asia (PTCA). She is a member of the World Council of Churches Indigenous Peoples Network Reference Group, and of the International Association for Mission Studies (IAMS). She has served as the book review editor for the Journal of Missions Studies. Dr. Longkumer has written on Christianity and Indigenous Cultures, Christian Mission and Women, and theological education among others.
Title: World Christianity in Indo-Myanmar: Culture, Conflict and Christ
Foregrounded on events and practices observed in the church and society among the Indigenous communities inhabiting the Indo-Myanmar mountains in the eastern borders of India, the presentation will spotlight a case of World Christianity. Inhabited by Indigenous communities, the region can be described as the Christian belt of the Indo-Myanmar border. Christianised during the missionary movement of the nineteenth century, the region has firmly established Christian communities. The shadows of the ancestors and their shamanic outlook to living linger in the lived Christianity of the Indigenous communities in the region. Identifying some practices and events that exhibit the imprint of the ancestors’ shadows, the presentation hopes to generate reflections on the process of transition and transformation that Indigenous communities are presumed to undergo with the espousal of Christianity.
