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BTI Consortium | Last Updated November 17, 2025 - 3:00PM
INTERNATIONAL MISSION & ECUMENISM CERTIFICATE (Pre-Approved Courses)
School
Boston University School of Theology
STHTM 930
History of Missiology
BTI Category
Semester
Church History/History of Religions
SP26
Seminar on the classic Protestant mission theorists of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Robert, Dana
F
8:00-10:45am
Grading Option
Letter or P/F
Professor
4
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
Y
Prerequisites?
Y
Notes
N
School
Harvard Divinity School
HDS 2184
Power, Violence, and Resistance in World Christianity
BTI Category
Semester
Church History/History of Religions
SP26
Across the globe, Christians are on both sides of social and political power: they hold authority, resist oppression, or, at times, perpetrate violence. Christianity is the largest religion in 159 of the world’s 237 countries, where it often benefits from long-standing support and official or unofficial endorsement. In the remaining 78 countries, Christians live as minorities – sometimes peacefully, sometimes under duress. This course examines the complex interplay of Christianity, power, violence, and resistance in various case studies worldwide. We will explore the historical, cultural, religious, and political dimensions of Christian nationalism in Brazil, the Catholic Church and HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa, climate change in the Pacific Islands, Muslim immigration to Europe, gun violence in the United States, Christianity and LGBTQ+ rights worldwide, Christian women peacebuilders, Christians under military rule in Myanmar, and Evangelicals responding to gang violence in Central America. Through these case studies, we will analyze Christianity’s varied relationships with power, highlighting the vast diversity of Christian expression worldwide as they grapple with authority, violence, and resistance. Students will have the opportunity to write a final research paper.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Zurlo
M
03:00pm-05:45pm
Grading Option
Professor
4
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
Notes
N
School
Harvard Divinity School
HDS 3208
Christianity and Modern China
BTI Category
Semester
Sociology/Ethnography/Research Methods
SP26
This course is a search for historical understanding of how the rise of Christianity helped shape modern China and how, at the same time, the country’s modern upheavals left their imprint on Chinese Christianity. It explores ways in which the spread of Christianity facilitated momentous social changes—from the introduction of modern education, medicine, and journalism to the rise of women and the pioneering struggles for individual freedom and civil liberties. It also examines how China’s tortuous journey out of its dynastic past and its troubled encounters with modernity fashioned a Christian tradition characterized in turn by popular messianic exuberance and by prophetic political and cultural strivings.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Lian
T
03:00pm-04:59pm
Grading Option
Professor
4
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
Notes
N
School
Boston University School of Theology
STHTM 815
Christian Mission
BTI Category
Semester
Church History/History of Religions
SP26
Exploration of biblical, historical, theological, political, and cultural perspectives on the world mission of the church. This course is a requirement for United Methodist MDiv students pursuing ordination in the United Methodist Church.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Robert, Dana
T
12:30-3:15pm
Grading Option
Letter or P/F
Professor
3
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
N
School
Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary-Hamilton
CH/WM603
History of Missions
BTI Category
Semester
Church History/History of Religions
SP26
This course provides an overview of the historical progress of the Christian missions from its inception to the present. It seeks to explore Christian missions from historical and missiological perspectives, and identify the different mission patterns or paradigms characteristic of different eras and regions.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Yao, Xiyi
See notes
Fri 6:30-9:30pm; Sat 8:30am-4:30pm
Grading Option
Letter, P/F, Audit
Professor
3
Online?
Y
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
Module 1: Jan. 30-31, Feb. 27-28, Mar. 27-28
School
Harvard Divinity School
HDS 2634
Anthropological and Sociological Perspectives on African Christianities
BTI Category
Semester
Sociology/Ethnography/Research Methods
SP26
This course serves as an introduction to African Christianity, designed for students with little or no prior knowledge of the subject. Through anthropological and sociological lenses, the course explores the diversity and local transformation of Christianity in Africa, from its missionary origins to its contemporary expressions. Students will examine the role of actors and the social, political, and religious processes that shape African Christianity. Key topics include Christian pluralism within Africa's broader religious pluralism, the historical encounter between colonial evangelism and African cultures, and the postcolonial discourse of inculturation. Other topics include African Pentecostalism, Christianity’s relationship with gender, witchcraft, healing, politics, civil society, and the growing influence of African Christianity in the diaspora. Using relevant literature from the past five decades, this course emphasizes how African Christianity interacts with local traditions and global movements, offering a comprehensive overview of the field.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Lado
T
12:00pm-01:59pm
Grading Option
Professor
4
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
Notes
N
School
Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology
PAST 7110 H1
Worldwide Christ. Mission. Movement
BTI Category
Semester
Practical/Pastoral Theology
SP26
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.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Rev. Luke A. Veronis
T
6:30 - 8:50 PM
Grading Option
Letter, P/F, Audit
Professor
3
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
N
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