607 research outputs found

    Salvation and Sociology in the Methodist Episcopal Deaconess Movement

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    Excerpt: Rather than being an American innovation which was spread to missionary contexts abroad, the deaconess movement in the Methodist Episcopal Church began on the Methodist missionary frontiers of India and Germany in the late 19th century. The appeals to General Conference in April 1888 to establish the office of deaconess originated in the Bengal Conference in India and the Rock River Conference in Illinois. Bishop James Thoburn, a well-known missionary from India, led the petitions through the intricacies of the General Conference with the urging of his missionary sister, Isabella Thoburn, who had recently joined forces with Chicago\u27s Lucy Rider Meyer in their common cause to gain General Conference recognition of the deaconess movement

    A Bibliographical Guide for United Methodist Doctrinal Examination Questions

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    “Apostle of Ethnology”: Agnes C. L. Donohugh’s Missiological Anthropology between the World Wars

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    Agnes C. L. Donohugh (1876–1966) taught at Hartford Theological Seminary’s Kennedy School of Missions between 1918 and 1944, the leading graduate program in mission studies in North America prior to World War II. The first missionary student of Franz Boas at Columbia University, Donohugh influenced the shape of graduate anthropological education for missionaries in America more than anyone else in the interwar period. Donohugh’s story provides a window into understanding how anthropology was first used in mission education in America

    Charles Cullis, Gaetano Conte, and the Reconfiguration of the Evangelical Holiness Movement in Boston, 1860-1905

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    Excerpt: In contrast to the presenters before and after me, my presentation focuses on the lives of two individuals rather than one. Charles Cullis (1833-1892) and Gaetano Conte (1859-1917) both represent a kind of “new beginning” for some sectors of Protestant religion in Boston and thus fit particularly well into our panel’s attempt to explore the somewhat paradoxical theme of “strangers in a strange land” of New England. I’ve chosen these two figures because of their influence in re-shaping the evangelical movement in Boston and their relative obscurity in spite of the fame they both shared during their own day. I want to first briefly introduce these figures before exploring a limited set of common themes between them

    Diakonia and Mission: Charting the Ambiguity

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    Missiological Imagination as a Pedagogical Tool: African and Asian Christians in Conversion

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    This article provides an example of how mission history may be utilized in imaginative ways to promote student reflection about missiology. The article first presents biographical portraits of three Christian leaders from Africa and Asia in the late eighteenth century with respect to three missiological themes (migration, empire, and theology of evangelism). The second section of the essay is a fictitious and imaginative conversation among these three historical characters and me, the author, where questions are posed concerning these same themes. The article concludes with pedagogical reflections on the use of a similar exercise with students

    John R. Mott and John D. Rockefeller, Jr.: Dimensions of an Unlikely Friendship

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    This research report is based on research performed at the Rockefeller Archive Center during January 2019. The report explores several dimensions to the friendship and professional relationship of Dr. John R. Mott and John D. Rockefeller, Jr. John R. Mott was a Nobel Peace Prize laureate of 1946 and was one of the most important ecumenical and Christian mission leaders in the first half of the twentieth century. Mott traveled the world to establish student Christian associations in many different countries, and also served in diplomatic missions for the Wilson administration. He refused Woodrow Wilson’s offer to be the U.S. ambassador to China. Rockefeller was a financial supporter of Mott and of Mott’s projects for over four decades. Projects discussed in this paper include aid to soldiers during World War I, the funding of a large survey research project about Christian mission around the world, and support of a Russian Orthodox seminary in Paris after the Bolshevik Revolution. Similarities with regard to theological views of Mott and Rockefeller are also briefly discussed in this report

    An Empirical Look at the Ecumenical Diaconate in the United States

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    The growth of interest in the escalating phenomenon of the diaconate in a number of denominations- predominantly in the North Atlantic region - has been well-documented in ecumenical dialogues, denominational reports, and scholarly publications. A number of articles have placed the diaconate in the larger context of ecclesiological reflection, but an accurate picture of the practical reality of individual deacons and their perceptions about their ministry has rarely been examined beyond anecdotal evidence? A better picture of the views and experiences of deacons is vital for at least two reasons. First, it is necessary to support ecumenical cooperation in the development of the diaconate as a movement for the renewal of the church\u27s mission and liturgy. Without an honest appraisal of the similarities and differences of deacons\u27 ministries, it is difficult to propose areas for ecumenical cooperation. Second, social scientific analysis of the modern diaconate can contribute valuable insights for ecclesiological reflection. Reflecting on his experience after Vatican II, Joseph A. Komonchak contends that social analysis must accompany theological reflection on the nature of the church
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