THEO5700-01

Indian Christian Theology and Religious Cosmopolitanism

This course will be offered in conjunction with the Duffy lectures on Global Christianity which will be delivered in 2023 by the famous Indian theologian, Felix Wilfred. In addition to focusing on the particular characteristics and challenges of Christianity in India, it will also reflect on what Hindu-Christian comparative theology may offer Christian theology more broadly.

STH TH847

Global Christianity (with Todd Johnson)

The course is an overview of the changing status of global Christianity in the 20th and 21st centuries. It covers the whole world with lectures comparing the global context of 1910 and 2010, including each of the major Christian traditions. Each tradition (Roman Catholicism, Protestantism, Orthodoxy, etc.) will be covered in-class by a scholar self-identifying with that tradition. The course takes a regional approach to analyze specific and local changes in Christianity and their connection to the global movement. This course additionally focuses on the history of Christian mission in relation to global Christianity and encourages students to self-theologize concerning their role and place within the world Christian movement. 

STH TM931

Contemporary Issues in Missiology

Readings and discussions of important works in missiology from the 1960's to the present. This course begins where TM 930 ends. Required for doctoral students in mission studies

WM601

The World Mission of the Church

Recognizing the responsibility of all Christians to complete Christ’s commission, this course gives an overview of the strategic and historical progress of worldwide missions today. The ways in which a local congregation can fulfill its worldwide biblical mandate are also considered.   

CH/WM658

History of Christianity in Asia

One of the great tragedies and great mysteries of the Christian religion is that is has on a number of occasions and in a number of regions begun to have a major impact only to be crushed by violent political and religious opposition. On no other continent have the followers of Jesus Christ encountered such large empires and extensive cross-cultural religious systems.

HDS 2337

Christianity, Identity, and Civil Society in Africa

An historical and ethnographic survey of many centuries-old Christian traditions in Africa. It begins with an outline of the trajectory of Christianity's origins and presence in Africa from its beginning in ancient Mediterranean lands through the early period of European missionaries to the contemporary period. The course provides the ethnography of the old mission churches, indigenous independent African churches, and contemporary evangelical and Pentecostal Charismatic movements. It explores the role of Christianity in relation to historical, cultural, social, and material realities of the African continent. The course examines a broad range of topical issues related to conversion, missionization, and the development and growth of Christian agencies in Africa in relation to the construction of social, theological, and cultural identities, as well as Christianity's response to cultural pluralism, nationhood, citizenship, and civil society.

PAST 7110

Worldwide Christ. Mission. Movement

This course will offer a survey of the spread of Christianity from its apostolic origins in Jerusalem in the first century to “all the nations” throughout the world by the 21st century. Christianity is the largest World Religion with 2.5 billion adherents. We will look at missionary efforts from the Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Protestant/Evangelical perspectives, focusing on their different missionary methodology and history. Each different historical period offers examples of vast and rapid spread, as well as periods of stagnation or retreat. We will discuss reasons behind these different attitudes and historical events. During the last century the gravity of global Christianity has shifted dramatically into the southern hemisphere, with now the majority of Christians no longer being white European and North American, but people of color from outside these two geographic areas. We will discuss these changes, as well as look at the charismatic movement which impacts more than 25% of all Christians worldwide.