CCCW Day Lecture 2025: 22 January 2025, 1600-1730 GTM

Room 7, Faculty of Divinity, 25 West Road, Cambridge, CB3 9DP,
Followed by refreshments

Title: What Does World Christianity Mean for Mission Studies? Explorations in Christianity Worldwide

‘World Christianity’ is a relatively new field, whose origins are closely related to the Henry Martyn Centre, now the CCCW. It is represented at several universities in the UK and in the US, and it is gaining ground in seminaries as well. World Christianity could be regarded as the saviour of mission studies in academia, in that it allows for the continued study of mission in contexts where ‘mission’ in association with Christianity is a toxic term. However, its use is resisted by others because it appears to focus exclusively on Christianity. Drawing on the recently published Oxford Handbook of Mission Studies and current discourse on world Christianity in the US particularly, this lecture asks whether there is still a role for mission studies, and what that might look like in the era of world Christianity.   

Speaker: Prof Kirsteen Kim, Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, California

Prof Kirsteen Kim is Paul E. Pierson Chair in World Christianity and Associate Dean for the Center for Missiological Research at the Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, California. Prior to moving to Fuller, she worked in several institutions in the UK – Leeds Trinity University, the Selly Oak Colleges, and the Cambridge Centre for Christianity Worldwide. She was a member of the Lausanne Theology Working Group and vice moderator of the World Council of Churches Commission on World Mission and Evangelism. A research coordinator for the Edinburgh 2010 project, she drafted its Common Call, and co-edited the Regnum Edinburgh Centenary Series that emerged from it.

Prof Kim is the author of more than 150 publications including five monographs and eight edited/ co-edited volumes. Her most recent publications include The Oxford Handbook of Mission Studies (2022), Migration, Transnationalism, and Faith in Missiological Perspective (2022), and Power, Agency, and Women in the Mission of God (2024). She was the editor of the journal Mission Studies and now co-edits the book series Theology and Mission in World Christianity, both published by Brill (Leiden).

CCCW Talk: 17 November 2024 1600-1730 GTM

Room 7, Faculty of Divinity, 25 West Road, Cambridge, CB3 9DP
Followed by refreshments

Title: The World Council of Churches Assembly in New Delhi 1961 and Processes of De-Westernisation:  Approaches, Negotiations and Transloyalties in the German Democratic Republic, India and Nigeria

The 1961 Assembly in New Delhi was significant in the process of “de-Westernisation” of the World Council of Churches (WCC). This lecture highlights first the endeavour of the secretariat for ecclesial affairs in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) to emphasize the “joint struggle” of the “progressive forces” in the WCC. This perspective is also reflected in some of the more recent academic literature – albeit with a reversed assessment. However, the power shift away from “the West” was characterized by different trajectories. The contribution therefore argues, second, that the interests of the “progressive forces” were diverse and the alliances fragile. While African, Asian and Latin American representatives sometimes shared the suspicion and criticism of “the West” by Eastern representatives, they were also involved in their own negotiation processes and dynamics. As will be highlighted by some case studies, processes of de-Westernisation of the WCC were embedded in a complex setting of loyalties, transloyalties and negotiation processes.

Speaker: Prof Frieder Ludwig, VID Specialised University

Frieder Ludwig, Dr. phil., Dr. theol., is Professor of Global Studies and Religion at VID Specialised University since 2019. His research relates to the intersection of history and theology, with a focus on the intercultural history of Christianity. He taught in Germany, Nigeria, the USA and Norway. In summer 2023, he was Scandinavian guest professor at the University of Kiel in Germany. His more recent publications include Reformation in the Context of World Christianity (co-editor; Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2019) and The First World War as a Turning Point (Berlin: LIT, 2020).

This important historical archive collection contains the records of the British Home Council of Africa Inland Mission (AIM), which began working in British East Africa in 1895. Some of the mission’s workers and converts were graduates of the University of Cambridge, including the Kenyan-born philosopher
John Samuel Mbiti (1931–2019).

Brian Stanley, Professor Emeritus of World Christianity at the University of Edinburgh, will give
opening remarks. The event will include an exhibition and introduction to the collection with Kevin
Roberts, the lead archivist for the project. Kate Tilson from the Faculty of History at the University
of Cambridge will also say a few words on her experience of engaging with mission collections. The Rt Rev Dr Graham Kings will emcee. This event is open to the general public.

F. Lionel Young III, a senior research associate at CCCW, collaborated with the University of
Cambridge and Africa Inland Mission to preserve this historic collection. With special thanks to
Jacqueline Cox, the Keeper of the University Archives, and John Wells, Senior Archivist, for their
interest in this project.

Light refreshments will be served.

We then invite you to stay on for the 4pm Henry Martyn Day Lecture for 2024 by Brian Stanley: “Whatever Happened to Missionary Enthusiasm? The Transformation of Protestant Globalism from Bishop Selwyn’s Cambridge Sermons in 1854 to Today.”

Henry Martyn Day Lecture 2024: Wednesday 6 November 1600-1730 GMT

Title: Whatever Happened to Missionary Enthusiasm? The Transformation of Protestant Globalism from Bishop Selwyn’s Cambridge Sermons in 1854 to Today

Abstract

The waning of Christian enthusiasm for foreign missions is one of the most striking transformations observable since Bishop Selwyn’s visit to Cambridge in 1854, which aroused great excitement. How do we explain the trend? As a result of theological change, growing understanding of world religions, and the postcolonial reaction? While these answers are plausible to an extent, the lecture draws attention to other possible explanations: the impact of photography on perceptions of non-European peoples, and especially of children; the role of the two world wars; and the consequent rise of development NGOs. The lecture concludes by reflecting on what European Christians may have lost by the weakening of their previous confidence that the Christian gospel is indeed good news for all humanity.

Bio

Brian Stanley is Professor Emeritus of World Christianity in the University of Edinburgh.  Before moving to Edinburgh in 2008 he spent thirteen years in Cambridge as a Fellow of St Edmund’s College, first directing the Currents in World Christianity Project in the Faculty of Divinity, and then as Director of the Henry Martyn Centre (now CCCW). His most recent books are Christianity in the Twentieth Century: A World History (2018), and a revision of lectures given by the late Professor Andrew F. Walls, The Missionary Movement from the West: A Biography from Birth to Old Age (2023).

CCCW Talk: Tuesday 8 October 1600-1730 BST

Room 7, Faculty of Divinity, 25 West Road, Cambridge, CB3 9DP
Followed by refreshments

Title: “Great Commission and Agency: Critical Insights from the Underside”

Abstract

In recent centuries, the missional methods in the vision of the Great Commission have strong civilizational and cultural undertones, justified by the Scripture. While the gospels uphold the Great Commandment or the Greatest Commandment, the Great Commission as a missional construct has subdued the agency of the marginalized in various contexts. The presentation is an interrogation of the missional methods in the process of reclaiming the agency, especially of children.

Bio

Rev. Dr. Rohan P. Gideon is Professor of Christian Theology at the United Theological College, Bengaluru (India). He is an ordained minister of the Church of South India. His areas of research and interest are ‘Agency of the Child & Theological Methods’ and ‘Human Sexuality & Christian Theologies’.

World Christianity Summer Institute 2024 “Poverty and the Church” Public Lecture: Wednesday 3 July 2024, 5-6.30 pm BST

Runcie Room, Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge, West Road, CB3 9DP, and online

Title:  ’WHERE YOUR TREASURE IS’ – ECONOMICS, POVERTY AND THE CHURCH”    

Abstract

Like many important issues in social and economic policy, the causes of and remedies for poverty are highly contested. Ideas from economics permeate wider society and are taken up or opposed according to how well they accord with our worldview, particularly the worldview of our ‘tribe’. This applies to Christians as much as anyone else. In the same way, while we might expect theological explorations of poverty to inform our thinking, in practice we often favour the theology that conforms with our social and political values rather than, as we might claim, base our values on ‘well-founded theology’. This lecture identifies three key narratives that economics has offered about the socioeconomic system in terms of how each accounts for poverty and what might be done about it, how Christians who adopt the narrative find a basis for it in theology and their reading of the Bible, and what we might expect to see in economic development data if the narrative is broadly correct. It then offers an overview of the evidence for the trends in global poverty over the past several decades to see how well this matches what each of the narratives say.

Bio

MR RICHARD LEWNEY is Chair of Cambridge Econometrics, a spin-off from the University of Cambridge’s Department of Applied Economics.  He served as the company’s Managing Director for two decades from the mid-1990s, applying economic modelling to policy analysis, policy evaluation and possible futures, mainly for government and NGO clients. In recent years his particular focus has been on the economic impact of climate change mitigation policies.  He is an Assembly Accredited Lay Preacher in the United Reformed Church and regularly leads worship in churches in and around Cambridge.  He is Convenor of the Reference Group that oversees the URC’s global justice program, Commitment for Life. He is a Trustee of the Cambridge Trust for New Thinking in Economics, which promotes the development of ideas better suited to addressing real-world economic, social and environmental challenges.  He studied at Cambridge and, as a Fulbright Scholar, at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

World Christianity Summer Institute 2024 “Poverty and the Church” Inaugural Address: Sunday 30 June 2024, 3-4.15 pm BST

Healey Room, Westminster College, and online

Title: ’GIVE HER OF THE FRUIT OF HER HANDS; AND LET HER OWN WORKS PRAISE HER IN THE GATE’:  FAITH AND FEMALE FACE OF POVERTY by PROF ESTHER MOMBO

Abstract

Statistics show that most families live only on the income of their womenfolk who are the bread winners. Women’s work in sustaining their families the invisible uncounted work of childbearing and rearing, feeding, cleaning arranging organizing maintaining the health and wealth of the family, serving and satisfying the needs of immediate and extended family. This labour is not recognized treated as cheap, unorganized, unrecognized labourers.

This presentation seeks to investigate how the church addresses the female face of poverty and the elevation of it, how does the church address the reality that women are providers, although their work is often not acknowledged nor valued. How is justice envisioned from the words of the proverb text “give her a share of the fruit of her hands; and let her own works praise her in the gate” (Proverbs 31.31).

Bio

PROF ESTHER MOMBO is Professor at St. Paul’s University in Limuru, Kenya, where she has served in senior management positions including as Deputy Vice-chancellor Academic affairs. Her research and teaching interests span the fields of Church History, with a focus on Mission History, interfaith Relations, and Theology & Gender Studies with a focus on African women’s Theologies. While connected to the University of St. Paul’s, the University of Dublin, and the University of Edinburgh, she has directed and examined postgraduate students. She has mentored students, especially women who now serve in churches and academic institutions in different parts of the world. In 2007 she was awarded an honorary doctorate by Virginia Theological Seminary for her work in bringing to the fore issues of gender disparity and gender justice in Church and society. In 2023 she was awarded another honorary doctorate by her alma mater, University of Edinburgh. She has been a visiting professor at several universities including the Ethiopian Graduate School of Theology, Bright School of Divinity at Texas Christian University, Graduate Institute of Theology in Yonseo University Seoul, South Korea, Candler School of Theology, Emory University and Utrecht University. She has served in several ecumenical committees including as co-chair of the Commission of Education and Ecumenical Formation of the World Council of Churches.

CCCW Talk: Tuesday 28 May 1600-1730 BST

Room 7, Faculty of Divinity, 25 West Road, Cambridge, CB3 9DP
Followed by refreshments

Title: “South Asia’s Christians: Between Hindu and Muslim”

Abstract

South Asia is home to more than a billion Hindus and half a billion Muslims. But the region is also home to substantial Christian communities, some dating almost to the earliest days of the faith. The stories of South Asia’s Christians are vital for understanding the shifting contours of World Christianity, precisely because of their history of interaction with members of these other religious traditions. In what ways does South Asian Christianity conform to wider patterns of World Christianity relating to translation and indigenous agency? In what ways does it deviate?  This presentation addresses these questions by drawing attention to knowledge production, debate, and conversion as three sites of interfaith encounter and, ironically, as catalysts for majoritarian nationalisms which ultimately have marginalized Christians in postcolonial South Asia.

Bio

Chandra Mallampalli currently a research scholar at the Clough Center for the Study of Constitutional Democracy at Boston College where he explores challenges facing India’s diverse democracy. In 2021-22 Professor he was an inaugural Yang Visiting Scholar of World Christianity at Harvard Divinity School. His scholarship and teaching span the fields of modern South Asia, the British Empire, and Global Christianity. He is the author of four books and many articles, which examine the intersection of religion, law, and society in India. His first three books examine the evolution of Christian, Muslim and Hindu identities in relation to legal and political policies and print media. His most recent book with Oxford University Press (New York), South Asia’s Christians: Between Hindu and Muslim, describes how the lives of Christians have been shaped by centuries of interactions with Hindus and Muslims of the Indian subcontinent. His next project, “The Virtues of Mixture: Religion, Labor Migrants and Cosmopolitanism in the Indian Ocean” examines the experiences of cultural and racial mixture among South Indian labor migrants to the Persian Gulf and Southeast Asia, and whether their religious commitments either facilitated or impeded their capacity for inter-ethnic ties and world citizenship.

CCCW Talk: Tuesday 7 May 2024, 4:00-5:30 pm BST
Room 7, Faculty of Divinity, 25 West Road, Cambridge, CB3 9DP
Followed by refreshments

Title: “Migration, Pentecostalism, and Islam in Northern Cameroon”

Abstract:

Cameroon has until recently been an island of political stability in a Central-African region that has experienced civil wars, coup d’états, and violent Muslim extremism. In the last ten years this has changed. Cameroon now hosts more than 2.2 million forcibly displaced persons in addition to almost 500,000 refugees. Many of these seek to leave the refugee camps and areas troubled by terrorism and ecological crises to settle in the southern countryside, or in the three big cities Maroua, Garoua and Ngaoundéré.

This seminar investigates the approach of some protestant churches in northern Cameroon and sees how different theological and social approaches impact their encounter with the migrants. Whereas the established missionary churches have administrative resources and international networks, the newly established Pentecostal churches use their entrepreneurial skills to integrate the newcomers.

Bio: Tomas Sundnes Drønen is Professor of Global Studies and Religion at VID Specialized University, Stavanger campus, Norway. Among his research interests are religious change in Africa with a particular focus on mission history, Pentecostalism, and Islam. He has also published scholarly works dealing with globalisation, development studies, and migration. Drønen has served as Vice-Rector and Dean at VID for more than ten years but has spent the last year in Africa for further field studies.