The Centre of Mission and Global Studies (SMG) has a new name. It is now the Centre for the Study of World Christianity and Religion (Senter for global kristendom og religion). – The change of name or ‘rebranding’ reflects a renewed way of looking at Christianity, explains the Centre director Daniela Rapisarda.
The Centre is the home of the Ph.D. programme in Theology and Religion at VID and is part of the Faculty of Theology and Social Sciences (FTS).
- We are moving away from a centre-versus-peripheries way of looking at Christianity and rather understand it as polycentric. The change of name also points to the importance of studying Christianity in relation to other world religions, she says.
The expression ‘World Christianity’ has indicated a field of research since the 1920s. Academic texts on the topic of World Christianity were published at the end of the 1930s. From the beginning ‘World Christianity’ referred to multiple expressions of the Christian faith around the world as the result of missionary work. In the last decades, the discipline of World Christianity has focused on minority perspectives, indigenous issues, gender issues and postcolonial perspectives on the missionary enterprise, she adds.
VID’s history is closely related to the Norwegian missionary movement and our research interests have over a long period focused on the African and Asian continents. Because of the networks the Ph.D. programme in Theology ad Religion at VID is part of, the expression ‘World Christianity’ aptly describes who we are and what we do, continues Rapisarda.
Programme
13.30–13.35 Welcome and introduction, Vebjørn Horsfjord, Dean FTS
13.35–13.40 Looking back, moving forward, Daniela Lucia Rapisarda, Director CWCR
13.40–14.00 CWCR and the wider world – VID at the 6th World Christianity Conference in Princeton 2025, Tomas Sundnes Drønen, Retief Müller and Stian Sørlie Eriksen, Academic staff at CWCR
14.00–14.20 Glimpses of doctoral research projects at CWCR:
Charlotte Sibanyoni: Reading Psalm 137 in the South African context
Tsion Alemayehu: Gender Based Violence and the Mekane Yesus Church in Ethiopia
Brury Eko Saputra: The Social Identity Reading of the Shema in I Corinthians
Fredrik Berge: Pentecostal Pastors as Men of God in Côte d'Ivoire
14.20–14.30 Conversation
14.30–15.00 Cake and mingling