Alumni Around the World
Year by year, advanced graduate students pass through the School of Theology and the Center for Global Christianity, then go out into the world to teach and do what they have been studying. As they move, the CGCM community grows in engagement through them. They are such a diverse group of people that no one description could possibly do the entire body justice. Instead, news and updates will be regularly provided. Cumulatively, their activities will create a portrait of the CGCM alumni community.
New Book: Making Christ Present in China
Congratulations to Dr. Michel Chambon, who has just published Making Christ Present in China: Actor Network Theory and the Anthropology of Christianity with Palgrave Macmillan. The work focuses on material culture and uses actor-network theory to investigate the development of Christianity in Nanping, China. Dr. Chambon, who graduated with a PhD in anthropology, was an affiliate of the CGCM while studying at BU.
Alumnae Receive Grant to Study “The Christian Home” in Global Protestant Thought
Alumna Dr. Ruth Padilla DeBorst to Speak at Mission Conference
During October 15-17, Missão ALEF will be holding a virtual conference entitled "Igreja e Cidade: Vocação e Missão." One of the featured speakers is Dr. Ruth Padilla DeBorst ('16), CGCM alumna, presenting alongside other featured speakers--Mac Pier, Ed Stetzer, Samuel Escobar, and Viv Grigg.
See the conference promotional video below, and click here to register!
Former Missionary in Residence Laments Severe Flooding in Niger
Joel Gray, a former Missionary in Residence with the CGCM, describes devastating flooding in Niamey, Niger. Joel and his wife Karen evacuated their home at the end of August, and had to evacuate again at the beginning of September. They write,
Thousands of people in Niamey have lost their houses and their food. Our places of ministry, Sahel Academy and ESPriT Bible School, are completely under water. Some city streets are impassable and traffic for many people has become an increasing challenge....For two weeks we worked in teams to salvage furniture and equipment. Teams wadded into sometimes neck-high water...other teams drive the furniture and school equipment to dry places around town to wash, dry, and fight back mold.
Jesudas Athyal on Christian Proselytization and Question of “Success” in India
Dr. Jesudas Athyal, Acquiring Editor in World Christianity for Fortress Press and former CGCM visiting researcher, is engaging in public debate about the role of proselytization in Indian Christianity. His recent article, "Christianity Hasn't Failed in India. Conversion Isn't Its Only Goal," published in The Print, argues that Christianity's success in India today cannot be measured by statistics alone. He argues that conversion was in many cases not the explicit goal of missionaries, many of whom wanted to live alongside people, support work for social improvement, and witness to their faith through strategies of "permeation" rather than proselytization. Athyal also points to the ways that persecution and multiple religious belonging can skew demographic data on religion.
Dr. Athyal closes his article noting the inconsistency of those who would blame Christianity for making little headway in India but who would agree with anti-conversion laws that violate religious freedom. He ends by saying, "A propaganda has been unleashed on several levels to present Indian Christianity as a failed project. However, the arguments that could convince the faithful may not stand scholarly scrutiny."
Phillip Jenkins recently highlighted Athyal's arguments in an article on the blog The Anxious Bench, where he urges greater recognition of the pressures faced by Christians in India today.
Dr. Athyal is also a co-author of Understanding World Christianity: India (Fortress, 2016), with Dyron B. Daughrity, as well as many articles in the field of World Christianity.
Michele Sigg Named DACB Executive Director
Congratulations to Dr. Michèle Sigg, who has recently been appointed the Executive Director of the Dictionary of African Christian Biography (DACB). Formerly, she had been serving as Associate Director of the DACB, and she also serves as Editor of the Journal of African Christian Biography (JACB).
Dr. Sigg has written several articles on women in African Christianity. She is also contributing a chapter on women’s spirituality in Sixteenth-Century Mission: Global Mission in the Age of Reformations (2021), and an entry on “Christianity in Lesotho” in the Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (2020). She is also working on a monograph on French Protestant women and mission (2021).
Read her full biography here, and visit the DACB to see some of the most recent stories, which include biographies of several Angolan Protestant ministers, the Ghanaian oral theologian Afua Kuma, and the Catholic theologian Charles Nyamiti.
Alumnus Named Director of Practical Theology and Mission at Westcott House
The Rev. Dr. Julian Gotobed ('3, '11) has been named Director of Practical Theology and Mission at Westcott House, an Anglican theological college in Cambridge, England. Prior to this appointment, Dr. Gotobed served as Senior Lecturer at the University of Roehampton.
Gotobed completed his PhD dissertation, "Living with Jesus: Practical Christologies in Two Boston American Baptist Churches," in 2011 under the direction of Dean Bryan Stone and Dr. Nancy Ammerman.
Congratulations to Dr. Gotobed for taking on this new position!
Casely Essamuah (’03) Describes His Work for Global Christian Unity
In the most recent issue of focus, the STH alumni magazine, Dr. Casely Essamuah ('03) describes the trajectory of his life and calling thus far. Growing up as a child of a Ghanaian Methodist minister, Essamuah went on to study at Harvard and BUSTH, serve as pastor at Park Street Church and Bay Area Community Church, and finally become secretary of the Global Christian Forum in 2018. Across the stages of his journey, Essamuah has focused on fostering Christian unity and encouraging churches to move beyond their doctrinal differences. Speaking about a meeting of the Global Christian Forum focused on persecution of Christians in Pakistan, Essamuah reflected on why Christian unity is such a priority in his life. "Persecution does not differentiate between Lutheran or Baptist or Orthodox--everyone is treated the same at the point of death," he explained. "He who unites us is more significant than that which divides us."
Read the full article in focus here, or read the entire issue of the magazine here.
Dr. Nimi Wariboko Quoted in Christianity Today Article
On May 29, Christianity Today featured a story discussing the limitations of the term "pentecostal" in describing various Christian groups worldwide. The article focused on discussion surrounding the decision of the editors of the new edition of the World Christian Encyclopedia, co-edited by STH alumna Dr. Gina Zurlo, to refer to these groups as "Spirit-empowered" Christians. Weighing in on the conversation, Dr. Nimi Wariboko, CGCM faculty associate, noted that the "essence" of pentecostalism is not its "geographical origin," but rather its tie to the Spirit who is always on the move.
STH Alum Recognized by World Council of Churches Journal
Congratulations to Rev. Dr. Joas Adiprasetya (STH '09), President of Jakarta Theological Seminary, for being recognized by The Ecumenical Review for producing the most downloaded paper of 2018-2019! Published in April 2019, Dr. Adiprasetya's article is entitled "A Compassionate Space-Making: Toward a Trinitarian Theology of Friendship." The article is co-authored with Nindyo Sasongko.
