Centre for the Study of World Christianity

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Centre for the Study of World Christianity
Former name
Centre for the Study of Christianity in the Non-Western World
Established1982
Field of research
World Christianity
Directors Alexander Chow and Emma Wild-Wood
LocationEdinburgh, United Kingdom
Coordinates: 55°56′58″N3°11′43″W / 55.9495°N 3.1953°W / 55.9495; -3.1953
Affiliations New College, University of Edinburgh
Website www.cswc.div.ed.ac.uk

The Centre for the Study of World Christianity (CSWC) is a research centre based in New College, the School of Divinity at the University of Edinburgh. It was founded in the University of Aberdeen by Andrew F. Walls as the Centre for the Study of Christianity in the Non-Western World in 1982, [1] [2] but later moved by Walls to the University of Edinburgh in 1986. [3] [4] Its current name was adopted in 2009. The centre is currently directed by Alexander Chow and Emma Wild-Wood. [5]

Contents

Research

The centre promotes historical, theological, and social scientific research in the field of World Christianity – broadly speaking, Christianity in Africa, Asia, Latin America, Oceania, and eastern Europe, as well as diasporic forms of non-Western Christianity emerging in contexts such as Western Europe and North America. Closely related to the centre is the peer-reviewed academic journal Studies in World Christianity , published three times a year. [6] The centre is one of the main sponsors of the Yale-Edinburgh Group on the History of the Missionary Movement and World Christianity, [7] and maintains its own research archive. [8]

Some notable books produced by scholars affiliated with the Centre include:

Graduate Studies

As part of the School of Divinity, it offers a one-year MTh teaching program and a PhD research degree producing, by the first decade of the twenty first century, 129 MTh and 65 PhD theses. Some of the centre's notable alumni include: [1]

Related Research Articles

Indigenous churches are churches suited to local culture and led by local Christians. There have been two main Protestant strategies proposed for the creation of indigenous churches:

  1. Indigenization: Foreign missionaries create well-organized churches and then hand them over to local converts. The foreign mission is generally seen as a scaffolding which must be removed once the fellowship of believers is functioning properly. Missionaries provide teaching, pastoral care, sacraments, buildings, finance and authority, and train local converts to take over these responsibilities. Thus the church becomes indigenous. It becomes self-supporting, self-propagating and self-governing.
  2. Indigeneity: Foreign missionaries do not create churches, but simply help local converts develop their own spiritual gifts and leadership abilities and gradually develop their own churches. Missionaries provide teaching and pastoral care alone. The church is thus indigenous from the start. It has always been self-supporting, self-propagating and self-governing.
<span class="mw-page-title-main">James H. Cone</span> American theologian (1938–2018)

James Hal Cone was an American theologian, best known for his advocacy of black theology and black liberation theology. His 1969 book Black Theology and Black Power provided a new way to comprehensively define the distinctiveness of theology in the black church. His message was that Black Power, defined as black people asserting the humanity that white supremacy denied, was the gospel in America. Jesus came to liberate the oppressed, advocating the same thing as Black Power. He argued that white American churches preached a gospel based on white supremacy, antithetical to the gospel of Jesus. Cone's work was influential from the time of the book's publication, and his work remains influential today. His work has been both used and critiqued inside and outside the African-American theological community. He was the Charles Augustus Briggs Distinguished Professor of Systematic Theology at Columbia University-affiliated Union Theological Seminary until his death.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Lindbeck</span> American theologian (1923–2018)

George Arthur Lindbeck was an American Lutheran theologian. He was best known as an ecumenicist and as one of the fathers of postliberal theology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter C. Phan</span>

Peter C. Phan is a Vietnamese-born American Catholic theologian and the inaugural holder of the Ellacuria Chair of Catholic Social Thought at Georgetown University.

<i>Studies in World Christianity</i> Academic journal

Studies in World Christianity is a peer-reviewed academic journal which examines the development of Christianity worldwide – known broadly as World Christianity. Its primary interests are in the rich diversity of Christianity in Africa, Asia, Latin America, Oceania, and eastern Europe, as well as diasporic forms of non-Western Christianity emerging in contexts such as Western Europe and North America. Articles in the journal engage a variety of academic disciplines – historical, theological, and social scientific.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lamin Sanneh</span>

Lamin Sanneh was the D. Willis James Professor of Missions and World Christianity at Yale Divinity School and Professor of History at Yale University.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andrew Walls</span> British historian of missions (1928–2021)

Andrew Finlay Walls was a British historian of missions, best known for his pioneering studies of the history of the African church and a pioneer in the academic field of World Christianity.

Philip Sheldrake is a religious historian and theologian with additional background in philosophy and political theory. His main work has been as a leading scholar in the overall multi-disciplinary field of spirituality. In particular, Philip Sheldrake has been closely involved internationally in the emergence of Christian Spirituality as an academic discipline. Sheldrake is a Past President of the international Society for the Study of Christian Spirituality, linked to the American Academy of Religion (AAR). He has written or edited seventeen books, with another book pending, as well as numerous book essays and journal articles. His publications have mainly focused on the meaning of "spirituality", the interface of spirituality and religious history and spirituality in relation to contemporary society and culture. He has also written on the theme of human and religious reconciliation and, more recently, on a spiritual vision for cities in dialogue with history, philosophy, theology, social sciences and urban studies. Sheldrake recently published a book (2019) which offers a contextual study of the theology of Julian of Norwich, the Fourteenth Century English mystical writer and the first woman known to have written in English. He is currently working on a sequel to his city book concerning the cultivation of critical public virtues with a chapter on the nature of public leadership and what makes the "good leader".

Fernando F. Segovia is a Cuban American biblical scholar, theologian, scriptural critic, and cultural critic. He is the Oberlin Graduate Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at Vanderbilt University Divinity School. In his role as a practitioner of postcolonial biblical criticism, Segovia focuses upon the New Testament and the origins of Christianity. He is well known as a specialist in the Johannine literature and biblical hermeneutics.

World Christianity or global Christianity has been defined both as a term that attempts to convey the global nature of the Christian religion and an academic field of study that encompasses analysis of the histories, practices, and discourses of Christianity as a world religion and its various forms as they are found on the six continents. However, the term often focuses on "non-Western Christianity" which "comprises instances of Christian faith in 'the global South', in Asia, Africa, and Latin America." It also includes Indigenous or diasporic forms of Christianity in the Caribbean, South America, Western Europe, and North America.

Brian Stanley is a British historian, best known for his works in the history of Christian missions and world Christianity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kwok Pui-lan</span>

Kwok Pui-lan is a Hong Kong-born feminist theologian known for her work on Asian feminist theology and postcolonial theology.

Dana Lee Robert is an historian of Christianity and a missiologist. She is a professor at Boston University, where she has worked since 1984. She was the co-founder of the Center for Global Christianity and Mission in 2001, one of the first university-based Centers on World Christianity in North America. For years, Robert held the School of Theology's Truman Collins Professorship in World Christianity and History of Mission, but in 2022 she was installed in the William Fairfield Warren Distinguished Professorship, the highest distinction bestowed upon senior faculty members who remain actively involved in research, scholarship, teaching, and the University’s civic life.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">T. Jack Thompson</span>

T. Jack Thompson was an Irish mission historian and scholar of African Christianity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kwame Bediako</span> Ghanaian Christian theologian

Kwame Bediako, also known as Manasseh Kwame Dakwa Bediako, was a Ghanaian Christian theologian and Rector for the Akrofi-Christaller Institute for Theology, Mission and Culture in Akropong, Ghana.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Siga Arles</span>

Siga Arles was an Indian missiologist and founder of the Centre for Contemporary Christianity.

Alexander Chow is a Chinese American theologian. He is Senior Lecturer in Theology and World Christianity and co-director of Centre for the Study of World Christianity at New College, University of Edinburgh. His research interests include contextual theology, Christianity in China, Chinese philosophy and religion, public theology, and digital theology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cambridge Centre for Christianity Worldwide</span>

The Cambridge Centre for Christianity Worldwide (CCCW) is a study, teaching and research centre in Cambridge, England and an Associate Institute of the Cambridge Theological Federation which is affiliated with the University of Cambridge.

TheYale-Edinburgh Group on World Christianityand the History of Mission founded in 1992 is an annual conference about world Christianity, which holds alternatively at Yale Divinity School or New College, University of Edinburgh.

Afua Kuma was a Ghanaian oral theologian.

References

  1. 1 2 Stanley 2011, pp. 51–59.
  2. Cox, James L.; Sutcliffe, Steven J. (1 March 2006). "Religious studies in Scotland: A persistent tension with divinity". Religion. 36 (1): 1–28. doi: 10.1016/j.religion.2005.12.001 .
  3. Stanley 2011, pp. 54–55.
  4. Kerr, David (2004). "Mission Studies in Edinburgh". Newsletter. British and Irish Association of Mission Studies (23): 2.
  5. "Centre for the Study of World Christianity". Centre for the Study of World Christianity. Retrieved 7 February 2020.
  6. "Journal". Centre for the Study of World Christianity. 11 April 2014. Retrieved 7 August 2015.
  7. "Yale-Edinburgh Group Website". divinity-adhoc.library.yale.edu. Retrieved 4 July 2017.
  8. "Collection". Centre for the Study of World Christianity. 20 March 2014. Retrieved 7 August 2015.

Sources

External video
Nuvola apps kaboodle.svg World Christianity at New College (2021)