Former name | Centre for the Study of Christianity in the Non-Western World |
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Established | 1982 |
Field of research | World Christianity |
Directors | Alexander Chow and Emma Wild-Wood |
Location | Edinburgh, United Kingdom Coordinates: 55°56′58″N3°11′43″W / 55.9495°N 3.1953°W |
Affiliations | New College, University of Edinburgh |
Website | www |
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]
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:
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]
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:
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.
George Arthur Lindbeck was an American Lutheran theologian. He was best known as an ecumenicist and as one of the fathers of postliberal theology.
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.
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.
Lamin Sanneh was the D. Willis James Professor of Missions and World Christianity at Yale Divinity School and Professor of History at Yale University.
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.
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.
T. Jack Thompson was an Irish mission historian and scholar of African Christianity.
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.
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.
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.
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World Christianity at New College (2021) |