Author Archives: CSWCEdinburgh

About CSWCEdinburgh

The Centre for the Study of World Christianity (formerly, the Centre for the Study of Christianity in the Non-Western World) is a research centre in the School of Divinity in the University of Edinburgh.

Yale-Edinburgh 2026 – Call for Papers

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Popular, Folk, Grassroots and Pop Culture
in World Christianity and the History of Mission
10–12 June 2026 ‧ New College, University of Edinburgh ‧ #YaleEdin2026
Yale-Edinburgh Conference on World Christianity and the History of Mission
Deadline for Proposals: 1 February 2026

Christian communities, individuals, and institutions have always grappled with grassroots cultural expressions that surround them in different historical and social settings. This relationship has been riven with ambiguities. Songs, plays, and literature, print, radio, television, and the internet are deemed to edify or to scandalise, to propagate the Gospel or to profane it, to promote Christian virtues or to reject them, to encourage devotion or to deaden Christian sentiments. Missionaries have drawn upon familiar forms for hymns or folk traditions for liturgy. They have also eschewed popular songs and myths as antithetical to the Gospel. Majority World Christians simultaneously cultivate a ‘world-breaking’ attitude towards popular culture, casting off local traditions and customs as demonic, and a ‘world-making’ posture that positively engages local ontologies and folk cultures, like the Orthodox Anastenaria in which icons are displayed at festivals.

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Reflections on Yale–Edinburgh in São Paulo

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Centre student Zihao He shares his reflections on the 2025 Yale-Edinburgh conference, held in São Paulo, Brazil, on the theme ‘Christianity, Democracy, and Nationalism’.

Group photo of delegates at Yale-Edinburgh 2025.

As a current PhD student at the Centre for the Study of World Christianity, I had the great privilege of attending this year’s Yale–Edinburgh Conference, held at Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie in São Paulo, Brazil. The theme of this year’s gathering, ‘Christianity, Democracy, and Nationalism’, could not be more timely in our increasingly volatile world. It also closely resonates with my own research interests in Chinese pre-modern nationalism, Christianity, and the issue of violence. Significantly, I had the unique opportunity to witness a historical milestone: for the first time, this influential conference was held in the Global South.

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Book Launch: Chinese Heritage in British Christianity

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Join us in celebrating the publication of Alexander Chow’s recently edited volume, Chinese Heritage in British Christianity: More than Foreigners (SCM Press 2025).

From the publisher’s website:

This is a critical and unique time for British Chinese Christians. On the one hand, the national churches of each of Britain’s four nations have experienced an unprecedented decline in church attendance. On the other hand, British Chinese Christianity is today amongst the fastest growing Christian populations in the United Kingdom. But there is a much longer history in the background, with the first Chinese Christian in Britain dated to the 17th century, and a sizeable population existing since the late-19th century, eventually creating the first Chinese church established in Liverpool in 1910. This book tells the story of the rise of British Chinese Christianity, and how the British Chinese have been shaping and reshaping the future of British Christianity. It brings together theological educators, church ministers, and parachurch leaders in a collaborative project speaking to the historical and contemporary situation of British Chinese Christianity, and prospects moving forward.

The launch will be held on Friday, March 28th 2025, at 7:30pm, at the Chinese Church in London, Hammersmith (69-71 Brook Green, Hammersmith, London, W6 7BE).

Please register here.