Introduction to World Christianity (WiSe23/24)

CENTER FOR RELIGIOUS STUDIES – CERES
Description of the WS 2023/24 Seminar
INTRODUCTION TO WORLD CHRISTIANITY
Content of the seminar:
The WS23/24 hybrid seminar “Introduction to World Christianity” focuses on the multiple
stories and trajectories of the Christian faith, claiming that there is not one single story to tell
about the history of Christianity, but that there are manifold narratives about a multiplicity of
Christianities that are intricately entangled through webs of connectivities. World Christianity
develops as an approach to studying Christian tradition(s), entailing a number of
methodological and theoretical perspectives, among them: the conceptualization of
Christianity as an inherently plural, cumulative tradition with multiple and variable centers of
authority, influence, and power that shape(d) the tradition(s) throughout its history(ies); the
multifaceted translocal connectivities between these Christianities; discernment and
recognition of the entanglements of the Christian tradition(s) with political, economic, social,
and cultural contexts as well as of Christian and other faith traditions and the subsequent range
of Christianities this has produced; the importance of synchronic and diachronic studies of
Christianity to uncover aforesaid entanglements and connectivities, among others.
Within this framework, it analyzes different phenomena as Church affiliation, practices,
beliefs, attitudes, orientations, and belongings. The first part of the seminar dedicates to
introducing the most salient concepts and logics which shape the project of World
Christianity, and presenting the main historic Christian traditions. These are: Oriental
Orthodoxy, Eastern Orthodoxy, Roman Catholicism and Western Protestantism. The second
part of the seminar analyzes much modern Christian trends such as: North American
evangelicalism, Latin American Liberation Theology, the African and Latin-American
Pentecostal awakening, Asian-Pacific Christianity, the current situation of “historic” Churches
in Europe, the global prophetic and apostolic movements, and the co-called “migrant” modern
churches.