Yale-Edinburgh Conference in São Paulo: Christianity, Democracy and Nationalism

Edited by: Pedro Feitoza

The 2025 annual conference of the Yale-Edinburgh Group on World Christianity and the History of Missions marked a significant departure from the pattern of the previous meetings. For the first time since its inception in 1992 the conference took place outside the Edinburgh-New Haven, Britain-United States connection in the North Atlantic and moved to the South Atlantic. A group of around 80 delegates, plus a couple dozen visitors, gathered at the campus of Mackenzie Presbyterian University in São Paulo, Brazil, to discuss the relationship between Christianity, democracy and nationalism. There were a few reasons for this move. First, the conference organisers were mindful of the need to ‘provincialize the West,’ and this geographical relocation made it easier for students and scholars in Latin America to take part in this important global forum, pull the discussions in the direction of their intellectual priorities, and raise the issues that are at the centre of their own agendas. Second, for a long time Latin America occupied only a marginal place in the academic literature on World Christianity. The conference was conceived as an initial stimulus to correct this imbalance. This was also probably the first bilingual Yale-Edinburgh conference, with plenary and break-out sessions occurring in English and Portuguese. Some of the challenges involved in the planning and running of the event are reminiscent of the very dynamics that make Christianity a world religion: linguistic differences, cultural incomprehension, and the need to cross long geographical distances. But a common disposition motivated the group: the eagerness to share innovative research with peers, learn from students and scholars in different career stages, and find common ground.