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.
The topic was chosen to engage some of the key concerns and anxieties of Latin American academics. The relationship Christian communities, leaders, and institutions established with the fast-moving political changes of the recent decades – the collapse of the military dictatorships in the 1980s and 1990s, the transition back to democratic rule, the social reformism of the ‘pink tide’ in the 2000s, their demise in the following decade, and the turbulent rise of far-right populism in recent years – occupied a prominent place in the media and universities in Latin America. These concerns transcended, of course, the Latin American experience and found close resonance with delegates. The two keynote lectures and various panels explored the complex interactions between religious communities, the authority of the state, and the imagining of the nation around the world through historical case studies, ethnographies, theological/ethical interrogations into the politicisation of religion, and media studies.
This issue offers a glimpse into the variety of themes, contexts, and disciplinary expertise showcased at the conference. Some of the essays reconstruct wide-ranging historical, legal, and theological reconfigurations that repositioned religious communities in relation to the nation and the state.
- Hilary M. Carey, Felicity Jensz, and Michael F. Wandusim, ‘Nationalism and the Global Bible: Investigations from the Arctic, Australia and Oceania, and West Africa’
- Paula Montero, ‘Religion, Ethnicity and Race in Brazilian Pluralism: Semiotic Constructions of the Secular’
- Szilveszter Füsti-Molnár, ‘Baptism or Blood? Reformed Identity, Nation and Transborder Belonging in Hungary’
- Luca Lima Iacomini, ‘From Geneva to São Paulo: Charles Harper, Jaime Wright, Paulo Arns and the Role of the World Council of Churches in the Ecumenical Resistance to Latin American Dictatorships’ (Walls—Bediako Memorial Article)
- Grace Vargas, ‘A New Cuba: Cuban Baptists on the Shifting Sands of Faith and Nation’
- Vinícius Gomes, ‘Municipal Elections: Trajectories and Disputes of Evangelical Women Legislators in the City of Guarulhos’
This is an excerpt from the editorial of SWC 32.3 by Pedro Feitoza, entitled ‘Editorial: Yale-Edinburgh Conference in São Paulo: Christianity, Democracy and Nationalism’.