We are looking forward to a new set of seminars to commence in September. Due to social distancing rules, we will be meeting fortnightly and have availability in person and via Zoom.
Please click the image below to see the schedule as a PDF.
For an English version of this article, see But what about me? BLM and Christianity.
Matheus Reis é um Brasileiro-Americano, estudante de PhD no Centro para o Estudo do Cristianismo Mundial, Universidade de Edimburgo. Sua pesquisa se concentra no Protestantismo Brasileiro nos Estados Unidos.
Quantas vezes fizemos a pergunta, mas e eu? Em uma conversa recente com meu sobrinho sobre os protestos do Black Lives Matter (As Vidas Negras Importam), que estão ocorrendo em resposta ao assassinato de George Floyd, conversamos sobre o quão difícil essa frase havia se tornado para algumas pessoas, e como a primeira reação delas ao ouvirem alguém dizer “Black lives matter” havia sido se perguntarem: mas e eu? A minha vida não importa? Mas todas as vidas não importam?
Continue readingFor a Portuguese version of this article, see Mas e eu? Black Lives Matter e o Cristianismo.
Matheus Reis is a Brazilian-American PhD student at the Centre for the Study of World Christianity, University of Edinburgh. His research focuses on Brazilian Protestantism in the United States.
How many times have we asked the question, but what about me? In a recent conversation with my nephew about the Black Lives Matter protests over the killing of George Floyd, we talked about how difficult this phrase had become to some people, and how their first reaction to hearing someone say Black lives matter was, what about me? Does my life not matter? Don’t all lives matter? I was reminded of a well-known Bible story about the prodigal son, who squandered his father’s inheritance on a life of mistakes, but who also came to his senses, returned home, and received his father’s forgiveness. This story tells us primarily about God’s amazing grace that is able to look past our mistakes, forgive us of our sins, and to restore our lives no matter what we have done. However, inside this story, we find another character whose outlook on life is very similar to many of us, the older brother, and whom we can learn from.
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World Christianity is a discourse about Christianity as a worldwide reality. It is not merely about the growing numbers of the faithful ‘out there’, juxtaposed against the falling numbers in the West. Part of the demographic changes of Christianity include the migration of peoples from the majority world to my world, next door. In a recent Ph.D. thesis on Christianity in Glasgow, where 126 Church of Scotland churches operate within the presbytery, 110 new churches were established between 2000 and 2016; of those new churches, 65 per cent primarily work with minority populations of African or Asian origins. Scholars may be quick to discuss the implications of the secularisation thesis or the so-called post-secular. But for those Christian communities on the ground, they may be more readily concerned with addressing practical needs related to migration, ‘integration’ into the dominant society, and negotiation of identities. From the first century until today, Christians have been a people on the move. However, another part of the picture is that changes in a given locale often happen irrespective of the Christians who have come or gone. As the four main articles in this issue of Studies in World Christianity demonstrate, such migratory and demographic patterns demonstrate how societies are rarely homogenous, but, in actuality, quite pluralistic.
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