Recap: 2021 World Christianity Virtual Conference

Princeton Theological Seminary’s Department of History and Ecumenics hosted its third World Christianity Conference virtually March 3-6, 2021. Professors Afe Adogame, Raimundo Barreto, and Richard F. Young organized the conference and were joined by scholars around the globe to explore Christianity’s interaction with other faiths. More than 300 registrants from over 30 countries participated in this year's virtual conference.

“Our communities are becoming increasingly and irreversibly plural,” Barreto, associate professor of World Christianity, said. “It is almost impossible to minister without some understanding of other cultures, other Christian traditions, other religions, and their histories.”

The conference provided an interdisciplinary space for intellectual encounter and exchange for attendees and speakers alike. Professor Emeritus Andrew F. Walls of The University of Edinburgh in the United Kingdom and Professor Shobana Shankar of Stony Brook University in the United States delivered keynote presentations, available below. Panels included “Andrew Walls and the Making of World Christianity” and “Ogbu U. Kalu and the Shaping of World Christianity.” Individual presentations addressed a variety of subjects, including “Multiple Religious Believing Without Multiple Religious Belonging?: Buddhist, Hindu, and Traditional Cosmology in Cambodian Christianity,” “Becoming Jewish, Believing in Jesus? The Case of the ‘Judaizing Evangelicals’ in Brazil,” and “Constructing Islam in German East Africa: Missionary Perspectives and a Misalignment of Discourses.”

For additional information regarding the 2021 World Christianity Virtual Conference, view the conference report by Ruth Amwe, Byung Ho Choi, and Sun Afia Kim and the program book.