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Hello everyone and welcome to World Christianity, a special series on the New Books Network. This podcast is for those who would like to explore the expansive discourse on world Christianity as a global phenomenon and as an emerging field that examines Christianity's cross-cultural, diasporic, and transnational manifestations by paying close attention to the underrepresented and marginalized expressions of the Christian faith in the global south. Thank you for joining me today. I'm your host, Bian Ho-Choy from Princeton Theological Seminary.
World Christianity, Methodological Considerations, co-edited by Martha Fretik's and Dirtan Merji, and published by Brill in 2021, explores the methodological ramifications of the world Christianity turn and outlines the world Christianity approach, which advocates a multidisciplinary and multi-perspective approach to studying Christianity's plurality and diversity in past and present. This book brings together multidisciplinary approaches to examining world Christianity and its methodological concerns with contributors from a wide range of academic backgrounds, such as anthropology, religious studies, history, miseology, intercultural studies, theology, and patricic. With a combination of theoretically oriented discussions and in-depth case studies, this rich volume merits much attention as it seeks to expand, shape, and contribute to the ongoing discourse on world Christianity. Over the course of our conversation, we will talk about how this book came into fruition, our co-editor's own contributions in this volume, and how scholars and students of world Christianity stand to benefit from this volume.
To learn more about these issues and more, please stay tuned and I hope you enjoyed the book and our conversation as well. Today, I am privileged to talk with Professor Martha Fettix and Professor Dirtan Merji, and the co-editor's of world Christianity, Methodological Considerations. As we begin, I would like to introduce our two esteemed editors. Martha Fettix is the professor of the study of world Christianity at Utrecht University in the Netherlands.
Professor Fettix wears many hats as she also serves as a vice dean for education of the Faculty of Humanities. At Utrecht University, she also serves on the editorial boards of multiple academic journals, and it was just recently, in March of this year, that she was also appointed as the extraordinary professor at the University of Pretoria in South Africa. Professor Fettix's research focuses on both historical and contemporary developments in Christianity in Africa. She was part of the European North Face Research Project called Recognizing Christianity, how African immigrants redefined the European religious heritage.
Currently, she is involved with a project called Christian Muslim Relations, a bibliographical history from 1500 to 1900. Another ongoing project that Professor Fettix is involved with is the Medina Project, which is a new joint research initiative within the Religious Matters program that involves scholars from the University of Ghana, Trinity College, and the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at Utrecht University, and takes place in collaboration with the African Studies Center at Leiden University. Her long list of publications include a wide range of issues for mold Christianity, Christianity in Africa, African Theology, Christian Missions, Gender, Migration, Islam, Christian Muslim Relations, and issues surrounding multicultural and multi-religious tensions. Dr.
Njagi is the professor of theology and migration at the Protestant Theological University in the Netherlands. Professor Njagi is a theologian and a mythologist with research interests in migration studies, mission studies, ecclesiology, and Christianity in post-communist Europe, and also search for innovative ways of theologizing. She is currently co-leading the Protestant Theological University Center for Theology and Christianity worldwide, and is the president of the Central and Eastern European Association for Mission Studies, and editor of its journal, Ata Misilogie. Professor Njagi has also studied theology in Budapest, Hong Kong, and Utrecht, and has been working as a theologian in many countries in Europe, among others in collaboration with the University of South Africa and the Max Planck Society.
She teaches courses on Misiology, Migration and Theology, Contextual Christology, and has published various articles starting from issues of world Christianity, Chinese diaspora, theology, and misiologists engagement with migration, and Christian conversions, with areas ranging from China to Central and Eastern Europe. Professor Njagi is also an ordained minister of the Lutheran Church. So today I would like to welcome Professor FedEx and Professor Njagi, the new books in world Christianity, and thank you so much for taking the time today to talk about your book. We are very happy to be here.
Thank you, Fjordi, for opportunity to be here. Thank you both. As we begin, I wonder if both of you could share a few words about yourselves, that is, where did you grow up, where you went to school, and how you became interested in world Christianity, and who were some of the influential interlocutors that you had so far? Professor FedEx, would you like to begin?
I was born, I am born and raised in the Netherlands. I studied at Utrecht University, but at the, where I focused on religious studies, I focused on Islam and Arabic studies, and later then moved into the ordained ministry, so I completed my theological degrees as well, and became ordained as a minister in the Protestant Church of the Netherlands. Then I moved to the US, actually, where I studied at Hartford, a seminary, a center specializing in Christian Muslim relations in order to prepare for a period in West Africa. I worked in the field for Christian Muslim relations with Propmura, a project for Christian Muslim relations, and that is where my interest in African Christianity started.
Coming back to the Netherlands, when I began working at Utrecht University, I have more and more developed as it were the interest in African Christianity, and how it relates to other religious traditions, and in the Gambia, where I lived and worked, that was mainly Islam, so it fits as it were nicely with my own background. And since then I have slowly, slowly from a historical perspective, become more interested in not only things we study, but also how we study. So what are the lenses with what we analyze things? What perspectives do we take and how does that determine what we see?
If I think of role models, I think nearly everybody in the field of African studies would immediately mention the name of Andrew Walsh. I was also privileged to personally meet him because he worked on a similar area of West Africa as I did, but I also take a lot of inspiration from very different people who might not necessarily be known within the world of Missiology, somebody like Paul Hare, the late Paul Hare, who worked at Liverpool University, who did a lot of work together with African colleagues on translating primary sources from West Africa into English. So I, the Portuguese sources, Spanish sources, French sources, and to make them available for a large public, that is something I admire and I aspire to replicate as well. Thank you, Professor FedEx.
Professor Norji, would you like to say a few words as well? Thank you. I was born in a Hungarian-speaking family in Communist Romania, and this family was located in a village community, and this village community was predominantly Hungarian-speaking Lutherans, but not only, so right away from my very first age, so to say, the fascination about who is the religious other and the linguistic other was there. We were surrounded by sex in German sexins, by Romanians, by Jixes, and represented by many communities, and Christian communities, and one of the recurring encounters with different Christianity's happening in this small village community during Communist times were the so-called ecumenical prayer weeks, when our Minister for each and every evening invited somebody from another community from the region.
And this fascination for the Christian other continued to unfold throughout my moving life, so to say, a life very much characterized by migration. After I, from this small village community, I then entered into a larger town-shaped community, and then I went further to study theology in Budapest, which is again a, well, a city, a main city, a two million-populated city, where Christianity's again became an other one, cent color, and the issue of secularization, the issue of the religious other, entered the field as well. And then from there, I moved onwards and spent some time in Hong Kong, the Metro Bowl, where again many encounters with other faiths, other forms of Christianity influenced my thinking, my way of theologizing. And then returning to Hungary, I spent my vicariat, it's called in Hungary, we have this internship where you, before you become Minister, you spend a whole year practicing theology in a community, and then from there on, my life path continued more or less in Western Europe, yet again, another form of being confronted with faith traditions and different question entities.
And when it comes to people who influenced me throughout this journey, I think that I wish to name at this stage one person, who was a theologian, but not only a theologian, but also a literature study scholar, wrote on many, many poems and songs. She is the Finnish, Anna Maya Raitila, whom I met when I was 13, and we had a very intensive correspondent for many years, and she was the one who introduced me to very, well, new theological voices before my formal theological training started. So people like Dr. Azula, Henry Nowan, liberation theology from Latin America, Asian liberation theology all came prior to this formal theological education.
Perhaps I will stop here before I can go further. Yes, thank you so much for this opportunity to get to know you both. I think we're getting a good understanding of the wide spectrum and issues that both of you have worked on that have influenced you from Christian missions to theology and migration, and also while covering a wide geographical range from Africa to Europe and even Asia as well. And most of what we're all very fortunate to have with us two professors who teach and write about world Christianity.
So perhaps as we take deep dive into the book, could you briefly tell us more about what world Christianity is to you both for our audience that might be still new to the expression world Christianity. Do you mind elaborating on your understanding of this concept and just briefly sharing with us what you think that this entails. So if I can direct the question to Dr. Fredericks first, you might answer.
I think the very question, what is world Christianity is at the heart of the book? What we try to argue in the book that rather than a subject matter, so a synonym for example for Christianity in Africa, or for Christianity worldwide, or as a word for a new field of study, we propose to look at the term world Christianity or to that world Christianity is an approach to studying Christianity's in context and in relation. And we think that this multi-sightedness of Christianity as well as the interaction and the interdisciplinary or multi-disciplinary way of studying it, both in past and present, that is what we would like to bring to the discussion. And then always in context.
So, as Dorocha already mentioned and also my own both academic and life experience embodies, Christianity always takes place in a setting where there is another and how we express Christianity and Christianity and bodies and represents is always shaped by the context and the people we interact with. And vice versa, so also religious traditions like Islam or Buddhism or Hinduism and they we also have the plurality of course, if I have to be precise, it religious traditions shape each other, social political economic contexts shape religious traditions, and different forms of Christianity, different expressions of Christianity also shape each other. And I realize that that might be a bit abstract, but for example, if I can just give an example, the fact that during the Crusades Western Europe decided to attack Egypt, had immediate repercussions for the for the fall of a newbie and Christianity. So something that happens in one place might have repercussions for something else.
Or if we think about the famous Nestorian Stella, it's good to think that that was written in a setting as part of a church tradition that in China was engaging Confucianism, Buddhism, Tao, Taoism, whereas in its headquarters, it was engaging Islam. So this multi-sightedness and the fact that there are relations between them and yet they are distinct, I think is what we try to embody with this world Christianity as an approach of looking at Christianity. Thank you, Professor, Professor Norgia, do you would like to say a few words about what your understanding of world Christianity is? In this case, of course, what my understanding comes very close to what our understanding is.
This is also in a personal on a personal note, where Christianity for me is a deepening, collegial, friendship unfolding friendship also with Marta Fredericks in terms of discussing theology, religious studies for the sake of almost vocational, if I can be so strong, vocational academia in the present world. Because we both are convinced that things we try to articulate do matter and they translate into lived theologies. And it's a, well, just adding a few more or maybe underlying some more aspects, Marta already formulated is that there seems to be a common perception that when the notion of word Christianity is dropped, so to say in the general public, that that's something new, that it is a new phenomena, that's all about contemporary Christianity. And in conceptualizing word Christianity as an approach, this is one step we want to correct or contribute to and say people, Christianity's must be studied in all places and all times in their relationality.
And relationality means not only in their connectivity and ocean, which I very often use to the other sorts of kinds of Christianity's, but to the relating to the whole social life in a given context, given time. So this long duty is quite important that we have in the present volume, we have tried to articulate that as well. And then in terms of approach, a second step which we would like to put attention to is that whenever we ask the question, what is Christianity word wide all about, we must ask the questions, how and why do we want to study a particular segment of Christianity. So these sources, I think that in our unfolding conversation, we will talk about the sources, presentation, representation, entanglement, the consequences of all that through academic representation has much to say about what happens in the actual public life.
Well, thank you so much, both of you for sharing your rich insights. And the kind of questions that you've had to ask in approaching and understanding world Christianity, I think you've you provided us in a way kind of, as Dr. FedEx mentioned, the heart, the important questions that you thought as you you know, co edited this book together. At the same time, I believe that this is not the first time that you have both worked together.
As I noticed that you have co edited another volume back in 2016. And I believe the title was religion, migration and identity, methodological and theological explorations, discussing the different ways of studying and understanding the changes in religious landscapes, beliefs and practices that the increasing migration has brought forth. And it's a kind of topic that both of you were very interested in academically. So I think in a way your current book builds up on your previous collaborations and interrogates, I guess the various ways and methods on how Christianity is studied, as you said, in multiple contexts and turning to the book itself now world Christianity methodological considerations.
Because we've had 13 chapters in this volume with 13 contributing authors that covers regions of Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe with some that have a historical focus, while others examine, I guess, contemporary Christianity. And some mainly focused on intra Christian dynamics, whereas others foreground the encounters between Christians and people of other faith traditions as well. What really struck me though about this book is that it addresses a broad range of thematic concerns and geographical spaces, while opening up new possibilities for studying world Christianity or Christianity's in multiple contexts. So I was wondering if you could tell us a bit more about how this volume came to be, who were your intended readers, and what was your editorial experiences like, and eventually also what we're curious to know is how did your thoughts on world Christianity also evolve in this whole process from the beginning of starting to edit this book until the time it was published.
So Professor Féric would you like to start us off? The book actually has a very long history. It started, I think the discussion, the theoretical discussion behind the book started with the fact that I used to be a professor of miseology in a theological faculty, and I'm currently a chair holder in a religious studies context. And I was asked to draw up the field of study for my chair, and that is how the discussion started.
What would it mean to study Christianity from a religious studies perspective? Because until very recently, Christianity was the domain of theology, and all other religious traditions were the domain of religious studies. And so, simultaneously, there was a development within, I think, miseology and church history and ecumenics to give a count of the post-colonial approaches and implications for the study of Christianity, and that is how the director and I started a conversation on what I actually might be doing in my new chair. And we organized a conference to inaugurate my chair, and that is how the whole idea, both for Christianity, world Christianity as an approach rather than a subject matter or a field of study, started.
And we then invited people who could, we thought, methodologically contribute. We wanted multiple perspectives, methodologically, and also multiple perspectives from the long deure of Christianity, as well as from different contexts of Christianity. And I hardly recall how many years ago that was, but it was quite a number of years ago, five or six, and slowly, slowly, we started the conference because we thought this is an idea we have, and we need to develop this idea in conversation with others. So that's also quite fundamental to our relation.
We have indeed co-edited another book, and actually April, this year, so another co-production that we worked on critical readings in the history of mission. And we have a relation that we are very good friends, and we both find it stimulating to discuss, say, rather fundamental issues in the study of Christianity, be it migration, religion migration, be it forms of theology, etc. And somehow we stimulate each other, we question the positions of the other, and it helps us dig. And we kind of expanded that idea in a conference, and that is how the idea for the book started.
On the way, we have invited others because we felt that the field was not adequately represented, but that is the story behind the book. And I think maybe Dortia, you can pick up from there. Yes, thank you. I think, Marcia, thank you so much.
I will never, ever forget the evening, we spent our first telephone call on the first explorations of the word Christianity. We could simply freely talk about, okay, look, what's there out, and how many publications are already featuring with the notion of word Christianity. And there was also a sense of frustration that, do we understand, do we get it right? Do we see what's going on?
Is it really that it gets into a sort of canonization of how people use and conceptualize word Christianity? And then, yes, we were in a region in this conference in Utrecht, and meanwhile, things were happening also in Oxford with Emma Wildwood and her team focusing and trying to explore what word Christianity is. And then, some years ago, we had the first conference at Princeton on word Christianity, which again was a huge impetus for our endeavor and thinking together and exploring together with others on what can we, academia, for the sake, for the relevance of Christian communities and faith communities worldwide, do with this term, with this concept, with this, how can we make it functional, so to say. And yes, maybe one more note on, again, on this friendship, because much of research work and academic work is based on friendship.
Nowadays, we have this notion of critical friends. It's a very fashioned word, and in most of the cases, people use it for persons who look from outside to one's word. But I think in our, I look at you, Marta, now, in our relationship, critical friendship, means that you can simply formulate things very directly. You don't have to pack it in, because there is this basic knowledge and trust that we do care what will happen with our research.
And you are the most direct person who you can communicate with, so to say, and that's very helpful in such an endeavor. And for the process of editing or throughout editing, this is what you might think this critical friendship really defines the tone and the work process. Thank you for both of your insider's information on the process of how this book kind of came into fruition. I think understanding the rich history of the process of a book coming into publication, I think it's very important and it will be very helpful for our readers as well as they know that this is not just, it wasn't just a recent or contemporary concern or project, but it has been in a way, some time in the process with various moving parts and also some very important questions that needed to be addressed as you both mentioned, how it's more than just your approach is where it's more than just a subject matter or a field of study, but world Christianity as an approach is also very crucial in understanding and studying Christianity's worldwide.
So thank you for both for those insider's information and insights. And one great advantage that we have today is that both of you are editors have made a tremendous contribution in the beginning chapters of this volume as well. I personally considered the first chapter, first two chapters as being crucial as our two editors lay the groundwork for what this book wants to kind of accomplish and how it will benefit those who are interested in world Christianity. So I should all right with you both I have prepared separate questions for each of your chapters.
I would like to begin by directing the first question to Professor of FedEx in regards to the first chapter. Now being mindful of the contributions and discourses on world Christianity and then kind of recognizing Christianity's inherently pluralistic nature. Dr. Fredericks your chapter titled world Christianity contours of an approach proposes a different way of understanding world Christianity as current conceptualizations in the study of Christianity worldwide continues as you highlight to be problematic and oftentimes reproduced by an area such as missionary versus indigenous or north versus the south.
From a religious studies perspective you call for a world Christianity approach by highlighting what you consider as four key features for utilizing this approach. I won't mention all of them right now due to the time but from these four what I found very fascinating and rather essential is your call for a critical inquiry into the trajectories of knowledge production and construction. Do you mind talking a little more on this issue what this world Christianity approach sets to interrogate what it says to envisage and as you mentioned in your example why there is a need for a critical inquiry on sources as well. If I may provide an example as you mentioned in your chapter, repercussions of the disproportionate research on the colonial period.
So Professor FedEx. Yes, thank you very much. I think again, this is an idea that came about that we developed together. What I think what we want as a basic notion want to communicate in the book is that each step of doing research needs reflection.
The sources need reflection. So what sources do we use and how does that contribute to our to our body of knowledge. How are the sources shaped which for sources are represented and which aren't. How do we analyze sources.
What is what are analytical tools and I think one of the points of critique that we have with one of the concerns is better better what one of the concerns that we have with a lot of the current literature on world Christianity is that it calls for as it were a paradigm shift, but when it comes to the toolbox. So the concepts we use the analytical tools concepts we use to analyze things the way we categorize things or how we use periodizations doesn't really change. And I think if you really take the ideas serious that Christianity is a multi centered tradition that varies over time, then you need to critically question the fact that the majority of the concepts and the way we understand Christianity. Has emanated from the study of Christianity in the West.
And hence the question does that really do justice to other types of Christianity and does it do justice to for example forms of Christianity in the past. And how does the reception history of a certain line of research influence how we look at it come in the contemporary way there's a just for for the listeners as a chapter on the church father Augustine in in the book. And what the chapter does is as it were putting brackets the idea that Augustine is as it were one of the key shapers and fashion is of Christianity in the West and says okay this is a voice in Christianity. And if this voice is debating what is Orthodox Christianity with other voices and we do not take into account for a moment that history has said that Augustine's was the correct voice.
What happens. Is the perception that we have certain groups in Christianity not shaped preconceived by the theological debates and decisions that were made so that's that's part of the process. So the sources the way we look at sources the tools we use and I think also what we can what I would what I find very important is that we try not to project certain paradigms matters of relation onto the whole history of Christianity in a certain area. I personally I'm currently working on the early modern period and I find it even frustrating to find that the presumption is that Africans are suppressed from a kind of slavery and slave trade narrative and from the colonial period.
If you look at the early modern period in Africa and the creative ways in which Africans shaped Christianity and how Africans negotiated with European powers which were only very vulnerable groups at the at the coastal area then I find that the colonial paradigm which is often used to understand that period does simply not fit. And we need to use that kind of knowledge to interrogate whether or not we use terminologies or concepts to analyze the whole of Christianity with as tools to study Christianity. So for example, we talked about this mission a missionary and indigenous. So it's indigenous agents mission missionaries we're all used to it is as it were in our genes.
And yet if you there's for example been a very interesting piece by Emma Wildwood director already mentioned her about Apple a people by you, you got the Christian leader let me phrase it as open as possible. So what would it cross cultural mission in his own in his own context but outside his own ethnic group. So why would that would he be an indigenous agent and why would the white person be categorized as a missionary. Likewise, if you look at Ethiopia, then the whole paradigm of mission and indigenous agent doesn't fit because there was Christianity in Ethiopia way before.
There was something like a missionary movement in Western Europe and North America. Similarly, if you just look at I'm always using African examples, so because that's my field. If you think about Congo, the Kingdom of Congo was an independent kingdom which was considered by the Portuguese at the same level of diplomatic relations as other European countries. And yet how often I read in books that oh yes in the colonizes the Portuguese when the Portuguese colonized Congo, but that was in colonization.
So that the tendency to as it were reproduce a dominant paradigm on the whole history of Christianity. And even by words like I'm I'm associating giving an associate making association, but even words like south and north. Basically reproduce the hegemonic paradigm from the colonial period. The church of the east was a major church whereas there was the Latin church was only just starting.
And by using and saying that this is a church in the south, you as it were evoke an image and I'm getting off topic but if you really want to think of how to investigate Christianity, you also need to investigate the tools and the paradigms we have used in the past in order to understand Christianity to critically interrogate them because they might not do justice to the voices, the status, the histories of Christianity is in the past. Thank you, Professor FedEx for that detailed and insightful answer. I'm reminded that in a way kind of summarizing what you shared, you're calling for in a way a reflexivity on this whole process and to examine what we're studying what we're trying to what we're trying to research those sources, the resources and the various figures that have come up in our academia as well. And what you've highlighted is very important because this helps us to broaden our understanding of just world Christianity as some would say just as a subject matter or field, but it's an approach of understanding Christianity's in various regions and as you mentioned in your research as well in Africa, maybe in Asia or Latin America as so forth.
So thank you so much for that answer and in broadening our perspective as well. Moving on to now chapter two titled recalling the term world Christianity excursions into worldings of literature philosophy and history. Professor Enorja provides us with a closer look at world Christianity approach. Professor Enorja, here I want to pose the next question to you.
You have indicated that this chapter was built upon your previous discussion in which you proposed to not limit world Christianity as just a field of study or discipline, but rather, define world Christianity as an approach to study of Christian and Christian communities worldwide through the categories of connectivity, diversity, unity and locality. And here you take a step further and explore the parallel developments of quote, world in and quote in the wider humanities with particular attention for conceptualizations in world literature, world philosophy and world history. But these intellectual exercises helps us to better articulate the methodology of a world Christianity approach. So Professor Enorja, could you please talk more about this concept of worlding and how it benefits in further developing understanding this world Christianity approach?
Thank you so much for the question. It's I think prior to addressing the issue of wording itself, I would like to say a note on how or why I ended up with humanities. And that's again, it brings us back to this almost taken for granted academic habitus that one needs to reflect on each and every step throughout the journey. A stake for granted, it may sound, it is in practice, one sees that very often does not happen, does not take place.
So this this refxivity, self-reflexivity is time and again within religious studies, within theology, and must. And we do see, well, words and wordings happening without this refxivity. So my starting point was this question, whom we are still missing within this academic intellectual discourse when we address the issue of word Christianity. And then I realized barely sociological, anthropological, social sciences and religious studies, voices are rather well represented.
It seems that the word Christianity scholars seem to give less attention to the humanities. And where in these humanities, many of the concepts and the instrumentary in the toolbox we work with in word Christianity studies have been developed. So in terms of philosophy, philosophical concepts, in terms of, well, literature concept and historical concepts. So the very fact that we talk about indigenous and well, foreigner, or we talk about, heberates, we talk about syncretism, we talk about sex.
So a lot of vocabulary has been closely connected to philosophical, well, endeavors within the humanities. So this was the first step that I wanted to see whether something is going on in terms of wording also within humanities. And of course, the revelation was quite lucid and beautiful to see that parallel to these word Christianity, these courses, there were again parallel intellectual discourses on wording within literature studies, within philosophy, within history. And what I've identified as a common identifier there is that the notion of reflexivity was very much put on the role of the academic researcher, the one who words, so to say the planetary entanglements and planetary connectivity.
And there, some of the issues, not some of the issues, one of the issues which came up was the issue of normativity, about which in social sciences and theology there are different discourses, but the notion of normativity was clearly present in his wordings of history, literature studies and philosophy. And then the questions came from who determines and from which segments of the academic endeavor, the ways in which old and existing sources, we are again at the sources, will be reinterpreted and new sources will be identified or generated. What happens to the authority of the researcher with regard to the sources and then thirdly, what happens to the authority of the researcher within academic entrepreneurship which commercializes knowledge. So these were some of the big discoveries in my venturing in these wordings of philosophy, history and literature studies.
Maybe I stop here just to provide you with the opportunity to ask further. Thank you, Professor Nurgia. And in lighting, that's the concept of worlding and how your insight aims to benefit our understanding of this world Christianity approach and that includes humanities as well as you've highlighted. Again, thank you, Dr.
Fredericks, about expanding our thoughts and this call for a reflexivity. For me, as a doctoral student in the field of world Christianity, I was able to appreciate this volume because it greatly contributes to my own understanding as it calls for further investigation and I guess shaping and defining world Christianity. Furthermore, it encourages those in world Christianity scholarship to embrace as both of you have numerously emphasized in your chapters, a state of reflexivity to keep on asking what needs to be further addressed. How should we study the various Christianity's worldwide?
I cannot emphasize enough the depth and invaluable insight not only both of your chapters have contributed but also the other authors and what they bring to the table in just naming a few of our authors, our contributors. Ramundo Barretto, contributing from a Latin American perspective on the issues of decoloniality and interculturality. We also have Wesley Ariaraja, a theologian from Sri Lanka, shedding light on the importance of interfaith relations. And we have Corey Williams highlighting the issues of multiple religious belonging and identity, especially in the context of Nigeria.
And as both of you mentioned, we have Emma Wildwood as well. And so many key players currently in the scholarship of world Christianity and also those that are studying Christianity's in multiple contexts. And I think the vibrancy, the need for more methodological reflections is indeed apparent in the journey that our contributors have taken us with their careful engagement with the specific Christian contexts as well. So before we segue into the final question, I wanted to briefly ask you both as editors of this volume, what are some of the aspects in the contributions that have enlightened both of you?
As co-editors, what are some of the aspects of this book you wish to kind of highlight if you were to pick one or if you pick one or two? What would be something that you would like to kind of pinpoint to our readers as well? Professor Fredericks, would you like to begin? I think the first one I would like to highlight is the chapter by Corey Williams.
I find the Corey Williams studies as you say interreligious relations and multiple religious identity in Nigeria. And rather than studying within, say, institutional settings, he works with what he calls a religious field. He does research at festivals. And I think his chapter shows how important it is to think and reflect on how you actually demarcate your field of research.
If you would study, say, religious belonging within an institutional setting, you would find people belonging and not belonging. By studying it in a much wider field that is not institutionally embedded, what he sees is how people's religious identities are much more fluid and how they are constructed in relation to the other. And I think that's very helpful to think as a methodological point of view, to help think of how do you actually start? Where do you start your research?
How do you define your field of study? How do you demarcate your subject matter? If you do, do you realize what implications it has for the research? So that's one I would like to highlight.
I can name others, but let me give the floor to the archa as well. Thank you, Marta. Maybe just a note continuing on this contribution by Corey Williams. It's so important to see or make the link what kind of contribution this kind of research makes to, for example, policy making.
Just give an example of refugee laws or asylum seeking policy. The way how the category of religion is made functional in legislation has much to do or directly has a link to what we, academics, scholars have to offer to the world. So whether in the United States or in Europe, asylum seeking, refugee policy laws are still operating on very static understanding of categories, religious identities. You must fit a proper box.
Otherwise, your credibility is not there. So this all has to do with this approach of word Christianity approach and other contribution of this volume. And that goes back to the notion of wording. Very often in this word Christian studies, there is still a, there is still this understanding that places and times are separate to be studied separately.
And for example, the contribution of Khadif-Tortain-Hag, the comparative theology of material and methodological reflections where she puts together Buddhist monks and Christians to read Bible texts together shows that we deem the same locality different words exist. And again, that connects with, with, with, uh, Coribilium's way of researching faith and researching Christianity. So the diversity and the complexity of one locality within a particular time needs to be given even more attention. And that again has direct links to how polarization both in the United States and in Europe take place.
There are these words created by different discourses within the same localities. I mean, family members do not speak to each other because they are words apart from each other. And this, this all has direct link to academic research. So this is also maybe a manifesto for 40, 40, 40 necessity to have, well, universities still in our countries and in our societies and the role of the universities in a society.
If I make an other contribution, the contribution of Joseph Chihay Lee and Christi Chai Chantro on sources, there again, the issue of representation. So very often within religious studies and theology, we tend to favorize particular or specific sources. And what our dear colleagues, Joseph Chihay Lee and Christi Chai Chantro, show is that there are more sources available. And one needs to dig deeper and maybe dig in different places for these sources and see what happens with representations, what kind of images do we get about same Christians?
I think it's so much for that wonderful answer. In a way, I think this will encourage our readers as well to kind of purchase the book or borrow the book from the libraries and really dig deep into the rich discussions. We would like to highlight that it is not necessary to buy the book because the book is open access. So it is available to anybody and that was also quite a methodological consideration.
We think it is important that as many people as possible have access to as many resources as possible. So we found the funds to make the book open access. Thank you. Thank you for highlighting that.
I think that our readers will be more delighted to hear that this resource is available to all and to kind of dig deep into some of the highlights that both of you have mentioned and the investigations into the Christianity's into the various context. I know that I've enjoyed reading reading this book and for our readers as well. I hope that our conversations with our two editors have kind of nudged you to the right direction and to kind of have access to this book and read it as well. And in a way, just wrapping things up, there's a final question that I would like to kind of ask my guests.
Do you mind sharing with us what you're working on now or maybe a little about your current and future projects that you hope to work on so that our readers can also follow up on not only the book itself, but also our editors as well. So Professor Norja, would you like to begin answering this question? Thank you so much. Yes.
There are many projects and there are even more dreams for projects. And luckily, there are also colleagues who are willing to embark on projects. The present in terms of in the field of miseology and intercultural theology, I am co-editing a volume compendium of intercultural theology and miseology together with a former Princeton student John Flatte from Australia. And that's, well, that's quite a big volume with almost 40 contributors and we really hope that we will be able to give to students of intercultural theology and miseology, miseology study material reader, which can be used for courses and teaching.
And again, there we seek the main purpose is to embody this, the multiplicity of voices and epistemologies. So to bring them together in conversation, so it's not to have them terribly, but to somehow start and nurture the conversation. Putting them next to each other is never enough. So you cannot stop without conversation, without having conversation with each other.
And then other project, you mentioned in the beginning, I am holding a chair on theology and migration and the Protestant theological university in the Netherlands. And from that position and responsibility, I seek to engage in projects while working with different aspects of migration. So we are now organizing a mobile exposition where academia meets a congregation's community life on encounters conversations of slavery passed within the Netherlands. Then there is another group which focuses on refugee studies and what does that mean in terms of conversion of refugees in Europe.
Again, a conversation with another disciplinary and the issue of labour migration. So those are three steps or three projects I'm still involved in and for us. Martha and I are dreaming about new projects and we hope to continue with each other for many years to come. Thank you, Professor Norja.
Professor Fredericks, do you mind sharing with us your projects and future plans as well? I am also involved in several projects at the moment. Let me highlight at least two. I'm currently together with Professor David Thomas from Birmingham University and Dr.
Clinton Bennett who works at New Paltz University in New York, working on a three volume source, primary source material reader in Christian music relations where we have short excerpts from texts from different languages from around the world published in English and made available for the world's larger audience. That's the spin off of the Christian music project relations project. I've been involved with I've lost count for how many years, something like 10 or so. The other project I am currently working on is I am in the process of transcribing and translating and annotating a diary of Christian proton who was a Danish.
So African from Ghana missionary. He, early 18th century, he worked for the Moravians in Ghana and he left a diary of about 200 pages. And this is very interesting because he spoke the local language he was locally raised and he gives a perspective on European and African relations from an African point of view. So I find it, I find it very important.
This is the traditional pull here to make as many sources, primary sources available. This is not only available in manuscripts so far to make it available and especially if this is an African voice. A proton also wrote a grammar of Gav, for example. And I hope that this is a stepping stone to a somewhat larger project because what I really would like to do is write the history together with colleagues on Protestantism in early modern West Africa.
There we have knowledge about Roman Catholicism in West Africa in the early modern period. There is an absolutely brilliant book by two colleagues, Africanist Peter Mark and Jose de Silva Horta on the Jewish history in West Africa. But I maintain that where there are traders, there is also offspring and there is also identification with the religion that we could in a similar way uncover as it were the history of Protestantism in early modern West Africa. So that's one of the things I really hope to do.
Together, well as I said we've just completed yet another project but we somehow, sometimes dream about actually writing a history of Christianity from the perspective of a world Christianity approach together or edited together with colleagues from around the world. And we think that would really, that's a major project because as you know Christianity has been around for quite a while. But that's something we, when we walk in the fields or in the forests in the Netherlands around where I live that's what we dream about. Professor Fredricks, Professor Norgia, thank you.
Those sounds like great projects and I look forward to reading more of your works as well. And once again, thank you so much for being on today's podcast and sharing with us your insights as editors and also as contributors to this great volume. And thank you everyone so much for listening to today's episode in which we explored world Christianity methodological considerations, co-edited by Martha Fredricks, Thurgia, published by Brill in 2021. This is your host, Jung Ho Choi, and stay tuned for the next episode on the new books on world Christianity.