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World Christianity at New College: 175th Anniversary Seminar

There is now a recording available of this seminar. 

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Join us for a special seminar on World Christianity at New College, featuring talks and discussion from the Centre for the Study of World Christianity (CSWC) researchers, and New College alumni.

This event will take place via Zoom on Tuesday 2nd of February, starting at 4.10pm (GMT). 

Please register here to receive the Zoom link. 

Brian Stanley, Professor of World Christianity and previous Director of CSWC will provide a short historical overview of the theme before presentations and a discussion with the following alumni:

Jooseop Keum

Jooseop Keum is distinguished professor of world Christianity at the Presbyterian University and Theological Seminary (PUTS) and director of Korea Institute for Future Ecumenism (KIFE) in Seoul, Republic of Korea. He also teaches as guest professor at Yonsei University and Stellenbosch University in South Africa. He served as director of Commission on World Mission and Evangelism (CWME) of World Council of Churches based in Geneva from 2007-2018. During the period, he also served as the editor of the International Review of Mission (IRM), which is the oldest international missiological journal incepted by the World Missionary Conference in Edinburgh 1910. He is the main editor of the new WCC mission statement, Together towards Life: Mission and Evangelism in Changing Landscapes and director of the World Mission Conference in 2018, Arusha Tanzania. He received BA, MDiv at PUTS, MTh and PhD at the Centre for the Study of World Christianity, University of Edinburgh (1999-2002). The title of his thesis is Remnants and renewal: A History of Protestant Christianity in North Korea, with Special Reference to Issues of Church and State, 1945-1994. Dr Keum was awarded Honorary Doctor of Reformed Theology at the Reformed University of Debrecen in Hungary and Honorary Doctor of Orthodox Theology at the University of Sibiu in Romania. Before WCC, Dr Keum served the Council for World Mission (former London Missionary Society) as the executive secretary of Mission Programme from 2003-2007. Dr Keum’s main focus of research is ecumenical understanding and practice of mission in the context of world Christianity. He is an ordained minister of the Presbyterian Church of Korea.  

Esther Mombo

Currently serving as a Director of International Partnerships and Alumni Relationships of St. Paul's University, Limuru, Kenya, I was in New College from 1994-1998, graduating in December 1998. I proceeded to Woodbrooke College, Birmingham, from January to April 1999. In October 1999 I was hired as lecturer in the then St. Paul's United Theological College (SPTUC) as lecturer and appointed as Academic Dean.  I was engaged in teaching and administration. Worked on the increase of students, especially female students. In 2007 the SPUTC became a chartered private university, St. Paul’s University. I was appointed the first Deputy Vice Chancellor Academics, a post I served for six years, and witnessed a tremendous growth of the university with the number of students, infrastructure, and development of faculty etc. As the DVCAA I was engaged with national and international organizations on various theological Education boards, and also in ecumenical organizations, including the All Africa Conference of Churches. I also served as co-chair of Ecumenical Theological Education in the World Council of Churches. During the same period I have been a visiting professor at several universities, including Ethiopian Graduate School of Theology (EGEST) Bright School of Divinity at Texas Christian University, Graduate Institute of Theology in Yonsei University, Seoul, South Korea, and Candler School of Theology, Emory University. I continue to serve as one of the coordinators of the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians in East Africa. 

Janice McLean-Farrell

Dr. Janice McLean-Farrell is the Dirk Romeyn Assistant Professor of Metro-Urban Ministry and Assistant Dean of Doctoral Studies at New Brunswick Theological Seminary (NBTS).  She teaches in the areas of urban ministry, undoing systems and structures of racism, power and privilege, research methods and community leadership. Her research focuses on the religions of the African Diaspora, urban black immigrant youth and religion, marriage and sexuality, decolonizing world Christianity, immigrant churches in NYC and London, and women and migration. Dr. McLean-Farrell attended New College from 2005 to 2009 and is the author of numerous articles and West Indian Pentecostals: Living their Faith in New York and London (Bloomsbury, 2016) which was her dissertation topic. She is the co-editor of Understanding World Christianity: The Vision and Work of Andrew F. Walls (Orbis, 2011) and Engaging the World: Christian Communities in Contemporary Global Societies (Regnum, 2014).  Dr. McLean-Farrell serves on the steering committee of the World Christianity unit of the American Academy of Religion, co-chair of the Religion and Education section of the Mid-Atlantic Region -American Academy of Religion and a member of theVital Worship Grant Advisory Board for the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship at Calvin College. 

Timonthy Tennent

I was an assistant professor of world missions at Toccoa Falls College in Georgia when I moved to Edinburgh in 1995 to pursue doctoral studies.  While there I pursued my studies under the joint supervision of Jim Cox (at the Center, then known as the Center for the Study of Christianity in the Non-Western World) and John Brockington (a Sanskrit and Hinduism scholar).  My focus was on the 19th-century Bengali philosopher and theologian, Brahmabandhav Upadhyay, a brahminical convert to Roman Catholicism from Hinduism.  Much of his academic pursuits were dedicated to reconciling the great themes of Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologica and Summa Contra Gentiles with the great themes of the Hindu philosopher Sankara and his Brahmasutra Bhaysa.  The substance of my dissertation was later published in India as Building Christianity on Indian Foundations.  During my last year at Edinburgh I was approached by Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary to join their faculty as a missiologist.  I spent the next eleven years there (1998-2009), and was promoted to associate and then full professor of World Christianity and Indian Studies.  I published several books during those years, including Christianity at the Religious Roundtable (Baker Academic), Theology in the Context of World Christianity (Zondervan Academic), and Invitation to World Missions:  A Trinitarian Missiology for the 21st Century (Kregel).   In 2009 I left Gordon-Conwell and became the President of Asbury Theological Seminary, now the 5th largest seminary in N. America, with over 1,800 students with campuses in Kentucky, Florida, Tennessee, Oklahoma and Colorado.  During my years at Asbury I have published A Metrical Psalter, a Theological Journey Through the Psalms and, more recently a new book by Zondervan entitled, For the Body.