Mas e eu? Black Lives Matter e o Cristianismo

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.

Fotografia obtida por Jacqueline Cabrera

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? 

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But what about me? BLM and Christianity

For 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.

Photo taken by Jacqueline Cabrera

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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What is the Study of World Christianity?

Last week I was in Atlanta, Georgia, USA to discuss precisely that question. Invited by Jehu Hanciles and hosted by faculty and students of Emory University, 25 scholars grappled with the slippery entity we call ‘World Christianity’. Is it a field, or a lens or even a discipline? Who studies it and why? How did it emerge? Why is it found mainly in Europe and North America? Has it a Protestant bias? What is the relationship between the study of World Christianity and the Christians across the globe who are studied? How do our studies connect with other academic studies like missiology, area studies, demography and anthropology of Christianity? These questions have been asked many times before but I welcomed the opportunity to ruminate collectively with scholars who had carefully prepared and shared papers beforehand. Individual contributions were influenced by the primary discipline of contributors, the areas of the world with which they were most familiar, and how far their institution, post or programme deployed the term ‘World Christianity.’ 

The team at Emory will distil our papers and conversation for public consumption. In the meantime, I have attempted to articulate my description of the present state of World Christianity. I think that because we deliberately cross boundaries of other disciplines when we study World Christianity, it is similar to other emerging foci of study—Global History, intercultural theology etc. However, perhaps the combination of all the following elements does give World Christianity some distinctiveness beyond a useful ‘hold all’ term:

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John Mbiti (1931–2019)

John Mbiti, a pioneer of both modern African theology and the study of religion in Anglophone Africa has died at the age of 88.

Mbiti was part of the pan-African intellectual movement that influenced nationalist discourse as African countries gained independence from colonial rule.  His books, like African Religion and Philosophy (1969), New Testament Eschatology in an African Background (1971), Introduction of African Religion (1975) and Bible and Theology (1986), became best sellers. Mbiti critiqued the international disregard for African religion and demonstrated the religious literacy of Africans. In his cross-continental surveys and his classifications of proverbs and religious practice, Mbiti identified a praeparatio evangelica of Christianity in the African past, with a universal deity at its centre.  For Mbiti the mingling of Christianity and indigenous religion enriched the lives of African people. He was not without his critics. Okot p’Bitek, his colleague at Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda in the 1960s, railed against the making of African spiritual beings into a God with Christian attributes. For Bitek this diminished and destroyed indigenous practices.  In later life, Mbiti continued to work from his home in Switzerland – translating the NT from Greek into his native Kikamba (Kenya). This project allowed him to reflect further on the intrusion of western concepts into biblical translations. His thought continues to have a profound influence on the work of African scholars and church leaders.