The Seminary's grant research profile has grown while focusing on a number of strategically important fields of study. Use the interactive directory below to learn more about research projects.
- December 2022
This project centers the faith, resilience, and politics of first-generation Asian American Christians in order to broaden our theological imagination and understanding of Asian American religious and political participation in the U.S. The majority of Asians in America are foreign-born. Yet in many of the studies of Asian American Christianity, the faith and practice of these first-generation Asian Americans are subordinated to their more assimilated, second, third, and fourth generation counterparts. How should we understand the faith, practice, and politics of first-generation Asian Americans? This oral history project will consist of 50-60 interviews of first-generation East Asian American Christian immigrants in their native language, spotlighting their unique religious experiences and political orientations.
PROJECT LEADERS
David Chao, director of the Center for Asian American Christianity
Easten Law, assistant director for academic programs for the Overseas Ministries Study Center
- January 2021
In collaboration with Calvin University, Professor Afe Adogame is leading a project to support African theologians to engage in fresh social scientific integrated approaches in grounded theology, with the goal of producing creative and original projects. This project is an attempt at realizing the potential of theological creativity from the bottom up, as opposed to the top down. The work will include early career African theologians with compelling research ideas to work on three years of research and curricular development.
PROJECT LEADER
Afe Adogame, Maxwell M. Upson Professor of Religion and Society
- January 2020
In collaboration with Canisius College, Professor Afe Adogame is helping to conduct the first comprehensive, comparative, and empirical study of huge megachurches in the global south with congregations of over 15,000 members each. The project focuses on churches in 10 countries — Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Brazil, El Salvador, Guatemala, India, Indonesia, the Philippines, and South Korea. Seven Regional Project Leaders (RPL), each having a sub-grant from Canisius, will form research teams and focus on specific areas.
REGIONAL PROJECT LEADER
Afe Adogame, Maxwell M. Upson Professor of Religion and Society
- January 2019
Professor Emeritus Darrell Guder is directing a project funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities. The result will be a translation providing an authoritative English edition of the first three volumes of Karl Barth’s Lectures and Essays (1905 – 1921).
DIRECTOR
Darrell Guder, Henry Winters Luce Professor of Missional and Ecumenical Theology Emeritus
CO-MANAGERS
David Chao, Director of the Center for Asian American Christianity
Kait Dugan, Managing Director, Barth Center
“My passion is doing what I can to empower and liberate people who are hurting. PTS has made me a better person and pastor because it’s given me the tools to better serve the oppressed and marginalized.”