2005: Global Christianity: Challenging Modernity and the West

Christian movements continue to exert significant influence, not only in North America, but increasingly in Latin America, Africa, Eastern Europe, and Asia. The growth of world Christianity since the eighteenth century has confounded conventional expectations of modernity and secularization, challenged the centrality of the "West" in traditional narratives of Christianity, and presented an intriguing religious aspect of the postmodern condition. In light of these developments, this international symposium will gather historians, political scientists, sociologists, theologians, and others to discuss past manifestations and future trends of global Christianity. We are particularly interested in Christianity's worldwide growth and its relationship to modernity/postmodernity, and Christianity's relationship to secularization, colonization, decolonization, nationalism, internationalism, and globalization. 

Featured Speakers:
David Bebbington, Professor of History at the University of Stirling 
Paul C. Freston, Byker Chair and Professor of Sociology at Calvin College 
Mark A. Noll, McMannis Professor of Christian Thought, Wheaton College and Senior Advisor of the Institute for the Study of American Evangelicals (ISAE) at Wheaton. 
Dana L. Robert, Truman Collins Professor of World Mission and Co-Director of the Center for Global Christianity and Mission at Boston University 
Lamin Sanneh, D. Willis James Professor of Missions and World Christianity and Professor of History at Yale University 
Brian Stanley, Director of the Henry Martyn Centre for the Study of Mission and World Christianity and a Fellow of St. Edmund's College, University of Cambridge