Featured JES Author: Minjung Noh on Evangelical Inheritance and the Infrastructure of Crisis: Korean Women Missionaries Reconsidered

Issue 60.4 of the Journal of Ecumenical Studies is now available via Project Muse.

For each issue, the Diablogue features one author and makes a full-text PDF version of their article available on Project Muse for 60 days.

In this issue, we feature Minjung Noh’s "Evangelical Inheritance and the Infrastructure of Crisis: Korean Women Missionaries Reconsidered."

Minjun Noh is a as associate professor at Lehigh University, in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

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In two sentences, what is the central argument of your J.E.S. article?

My article argues that contemporary evangelical missions often rely on a notion of disaster as something that can be managed and controlled through spiritual and material aid, while paying insufficient attention to the structural networks that perpetuate conditions of crisis. Using South Korean missions as a case study, I critically assess the gendered dynamics at work, while emphasizing that this discourse of disaster is not unique to Korean missions, but is widespread across global evangelical mission practices.

Your essay challenges how Christian missions often frame suffering as a call to act rather than a condition shaped by more profound injustices. What do you hope readers from different Christian traditions will rethink about how faith communities respond to crisis and suffering?

The difference between integrative or more progressive missiologies and evangelical missions (such as those associated with Lausanne or more conservative models) is significant, yet the latter are often overlooked or caricatured in both secular academic literature and progressive Christian discourse. While critical engagement with evangelical missions is essential, and while I write as a secular scholar of religion, I argue that this conversation must continue within ecumenical frameworks. Liberationist and progressive evangelicals do exist, and even comparatively conservative evangelical missiology and practice can acknowledge and address broader theological, structural, and global challenges. This essay approaches evangelical missions as objects of critical analysis rather than theological advocacy, attending to their global influence while resisting reductive or dismissive framings.

I aim to avoid othering or alienating particular theological perspectives from scholarly and public discourse simply because they do not align with modern liberal frameworks. In a moment marked by the climate crisis, neoliberal economic inequality, and political polarization, scholars, practitioners, and informed publics alike must pursue responses that move across theological and ideological differences. Religious studies is a field trained to think seriously about differences such as religious, racial, gendered, economic, and otherwise, and I see mission and missiology as a productive testing ground for how Christian communities might reimagine resource allocation and collective responses to chronic inequality. I hope this essay demonstrates a way of taking evangelical missions seriously from a critical perspective while offering insights that are both analytically rigorous and practically useful.

How did you get interested in the topic?

I conducted my doctoral dissertation research on Korean missionaries in Haiti, and I have been particularly interested in both the continuities and the new dynamics of this contemporary phenomenon. South Korean church history emerged from North American missions, and the fact that a missionized church is now actively missionizing the Americas raises important questions about reverse mission, transnational religious flows, and shifting centers of Christian authority, and these questions remain central to my research.

What is your next project?

I am currently preparing to revise my dissertation into an academic monograph. Alongside this work, I am developing several additional projects, most notably a reassessment of shamanism and possession traditions in comparative and diasporic contexts.

Minjung Noh has been Assistant Professor in the Department of Religion, Culture, and Society at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, PA, since 2024. A scholar of transnational Christianity and gender, she examines Korean missionary movements through a critical-religious-studies lens, with particular attention to how race, gender, and power shape evangelical engagement in post-disaster contexts. Her research interrogates the infrastructures and ideologies that sustain missionary activity, situating them within Cold War geopolitics, U.S.-Korean religious alliances, and global evangelical soft power. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in Haiti and archival research in Korea, France, and the U.S., her scholarship shows how Korean women missionaries both navigate and reproduce the structural logics of evangelical mission, including moralized care work, gendered labor, and centralized theological control and what it means in the transnational religious landscape. She holds a Ph.D. in Religion from Temple University, Philadelphia (2021), and an M.A. and B.A. in Religious Studies from Seoul National University. She has held previous positions at Drew Theological School, Madison, NJ (Louisville Institute Postdoctoral Fellow in Transnational Christianity and Gender Studies, 2021–23); Wartburg College, Waverly, IA (Visiting Assistant Professor of World Religions, 2019–20); and Temple University (Instructor of record, 2016–21). Her research has been published in the Journal of Korean Religions, the Journal of Ecumenical Studies, and Religion, State and Society. Her current book project, "Transnational Salvations: Korean Women Missionaries in Haiti," is the first monograph that investigates the multidirectional religious dynamics among South Korea, the U.S., and Haiti through the angle of the evangelical missionary network built between and among these three nation-states.

Interested in the Journal?

Featured J.E.S. Author: Russell Johnson on The Next Word: Tutu and Bakhtin on Dialogical Disagreement

Issue 60.3 of the Journal of Ecumenical Studies is now available via Project Muse. The issue features articles on memory, truth and reconciliation.

For this issue, we highlight Russell Johnson’s essay “The Next Word: Tutu and Bakhtin on Dialogical Disagreement” which can be accessed HERE.

In two sentences, what is the main argument of your J.E.S. article?

Instead of trying to have “the last word,” we should strive to say “the next word”—to respond to others and invite them to respond to us. This dialogical approach is compatible with protest on matters of ethics, politics, and theology because it demands that everyone act responsibly and recognize their interdependence.

In bringing the work of Desmond Tutu and Mikhail Bakhtin into conversation with each other, you explicitly place both in a philosophical context which neither are popularly associated with. What were the challenges in examining these two thinkers outside of the fields to which they are usually assigned?

While Bakhtin insisted he was a philosopher, people think of him primarily as a literary theorist. This is because much of his philosophical work is grounded in the interpretation of novels. Likewise, Tutu is best known for his activism, and his theology of reconciliation is grounded in the situation in South Africa. Fittingly, they are both responsive thinkers—not building a system in isolation but taking inspiration from others and speaking to audiences. The biggest challenge for me was comparing their ideas without compromising the dialogical quality of their thinking.

In your discussion of Bakhtin, you briefly contrast his dialogism with Stalin's project, which "insists it knows the end of history and presumes to have 'the last word.'" How would you contrast Tutu and Bakhtin with Christian projects which see Christ's second coming as a similar moment of inevitable historical completion?

Though neither author says much about eschatology, their work reminds us that any end Christ brings about will only be an end to sin and not an end to our interactions with one another and with God. I see some similarities between their work and dynamic visions of the afterlife, like Gregory of Nyssa’s, in which people are always learning, always becoming more loving, always coming to appreciate more and more of God’s infinite goodness.

In some sense, God will have the last word. But just as God’s power is “made perfect in weakness,” we can expect that this ending will reconfigure how we imagine finality.

You insist on a few occasions that you are not advocating relativism. How have dialogue and relativism become associated, and what are the shortcomings of that association?

For a lot of people, “dialogue” names a way of interacting that is non-confrontational. Especially following the work of David Bohm, dialogue is seen as an open-ended process in which we refrain from trying to persuade one another or figuring out what’s right. It’s easy to slide from “every perspective has something to contribute” to “every perspective is equally true.” By contrast, Bakhtin and Tutu help us think about disagreeing dialogically, which means going beyond “you have your story and I have mine” and into collaborative, and sometimes confrontational, discernment. It is because we care about the truth that we listen to our opponents who might be able to shed light on facets of the situation that we had misunderstood. It is because we care about the truth that we insist on what we know, even if it makes people angry—as Rosa Luxemburg said, “The most revolutionary thing one can do is always to proclaim loudly what is happening.”

How did you get interested in the topic?

I first read Tutu when I was studying nonviolent direct action. As with so many practitioners of nonviolence, Tutu’s ethics is not simply about obeying the command to love your enemies, but encompasses a comprehensive vision of humanity, communication, and social change. While this vision helps us name the evils of apartheid (sadly, something that is still necessary), it can also help us navigate disagreements morally and effectively. That’s something I’ve been interested in for as long as I can remember.

What is your next project?

I am working on my second book, titled Opposites Attract: A Brief Introduction to Dialogue and Dialectic. I’m looking at philosophical dialogue as a genre to explore how the interaction of multiple voices within a text can make readers more engaged and more willing to think outside dualistic, us-versus-them frameworks.

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Russell P. Johnson (Mennonite) is the associate director of the University of Chicago’s Undergraduate Religious Studies Program and Core Sequence and was a Divinity Teaching Fellow at the University in 2019–21. He teaches courses on comparative religious ethics, epistemology, and religion and film. He holds a B.A. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; an M.T.S. from Duke University, Durham, NC; and both an M.A. in philosophy and a Ph.D. (2019) in philosophy of religions from the University of Chicago. His Beyond Civility in Social Conflict: Dialogue, Critique, and Religious Ethics was published by Cambridge University Press in 2024, and Opposites Attract: A Primer on Dialogue and Dialectic is expected from Integratio Press in 2026. A dozen of his journal articles have been published, as have nine book chapters and nearly twenty reviews.

He has also written for more popular audiences and has been a monthly columnist and now editor of Sightings. In addition to public lectures, he has delivered papers at two dozen scholarly conferences throughout the U.S. and in Canada. He has refereed manuscripts, moderated panels, and served as a panelist and a conference coordinator on several occasions. A member of the American Academy of Religion since 2011, he has co-chaired its Ethics Unit since 2023, as well as being a board member of the Fellowship of Protestant Ethics. He is also a member of the Society of Christian Ethics and the Religious Communication Association. This is his second article for J.E.S.

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Featured J.E.S. Author: Marianne Moyaert on the Role of Race in Interreligious Dialogue

Issue 60.2 of the Journal of Ecumenical Studies is now available via Project Muse. For this issue, we highlight Marianne Moyaert’s essay “Interreligious Dialogue, the Religiosecular, and the Race-Religion Divide: Musing from an Interfaith Scholar (and a Catholic Theologian),” which can be accessed HERE.

What is the central argument of your J.E.S. essay?

In this essay, I explore how, in Christian and, more specifically, Roman Catholic calls for interreligious dialogue, the acceptance of the so-called religiosecular divide goes hand-in-hand with the projection of the distinction between race and religion. I hypothesize that the dialogical turn in the Roman Catholic Church contributes to what Anya Topolski has called the masking of the religioracial constellation and what Geraldine Heng has called the refusal of race. Ironically, this becomes especially clear in the document We Remember, in which the Roman Catholic Church dedicated itself to exploring the extent to which it was co-responsible for the Shoah.

How did you become interested in this topic?

As a theologian of religions and interfaith educator, I was trained—like many—to treat religion and race as distinct domains. But over time, I became increasingly aware of how this separation restricted the critical scope of my work. Engaging with scholarship in critical race and secularism studies helped me see how deeply entangled these categories are, and how theology has often functioned to obscure that entanglement.

As a theologian of religions and interfaith educator, I was trained—like many—to treat religion and race as distinct domains. But over time, I became increasingly aware of how this separation restricted the critical scope of my work. This insight deepened while writing my recent book, Christian Imaginations of the Religious Other: A History of Religionization (Wiley-Blackwell, 2024), in which I trace how Christians throughout history have imagined religious others—Jews, Muslims, heretics, and pagans—and examine how these processes of religionization intersect with racialization. Engaging with critical race and secularism studies alongside this historical work made it increasingly clear how theology has often contributed to obscuring these entanglements, rather than confronting them.

You call attention to the corpus christianum and how excluding the religio-racial other was presented as a matter of societal health in the Middle Ages—an argument that draws comparisons to xenophobic violence in both the 20th and 21st centuries. If modern racism is not, in fact, modern, how do you think it has changed in the last hundred years?

What’s changed is not the logic of exclusion but the terms in which it is justified. In the Middle Ages, Christian authorities framed Jews, Muslims, and others as bodily threats to the purity of the Christian social body. Today, that same logic resurfaces in secularized language—invoking security, civility, or integration—but continues to mark certain bodies and beliefs as out of place. Understanding these continuities is essential for meaningful theological engagement with race.

What is your next project?

My next project, co-authored with Michelle Voss Roberts, is titled Multiple Voices, Multiple Salvations: Entangling Theologies of Religions. This comparative theological project reimagines salvation by engaging voices long excluded from dominant Christian theology, foregrounding race, gender, coloniality, and ecology. Each chapter brings Christian traditions into conversation with other theological perspectives, reworking central themes through embodied and entangled approaches to explore what multiple, liberative visions of salvation might look like today.

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Marianne Moyaert, Ph.D., is a Professor at KU Leuven in Belgium, where she joined the Research Unit for Systematic Theology and the Study of Religions in 2023. Previously, she was Chair of Comparative Theology and Hermeneutics of Interreligious Dialogue at VU Amsterdam, where she led the master’s program in Interreligious Studies and the Emoena interfaith leadership program. Her research encompasses comparative theology, interreligious hermeneutics, and Jewish-Christian relations, with a particular interest in the ritual and material aspects of interfaith encounters. Since 2020, Dr. Moyaert has directed the VIDI research project Unequal Partners? a comparative ethnographic study examining how Christian-Jewish and Christian-Islamic couples in the Netherlands navigate their daily lives. She is also the editor-in-chief of Currents of Encounter, a Brill series at the intersection of theology, intercultural studies, and interfaith dialogue. A long-standing leader in the field, she serves on the steering committee for the Interreligious/Interfaith Studies group and has co-chaired the Comparative Theology group at the American Academy of Religion. Her magisterial new book, Christian Imaginations of the Religious Other: A History of Religionization (Wiley, 2024), crafts a Western European mosaic of religionization's turbulent history by unveiling how religious identities are constructed, hierarchies function, and how they are relevant for engaging diverse societies today worldwide.

Featured JES Author: Zulunungsang Lemtur's "Ao (Naga) Tribal People’s Practice of Aksü as Friendship"

Issue 60.1 of the Journal of Ecumenical Studies is now available via Penn Press. This issue features several articles on interreligious and ecumenical themes and multiple book reviews.

For each issue, the Diablogue features one author and makes a full-text PDF version of their article available on Project Muse. In this issue, we feature Zulunungsang Lemtur’s "Ao (Naga) Tribal People’s Practice of Aksü as Friendship: Relevance for Peace and Interreligious Friendship" which can be accessed HERE. 

Author Zulunungsang Lemtur

Zulunungsang Lemtur belongs to the Ao (Naga) tribe from Nagaland, India, and he currently teaches at Oikos University, Oakland. He received his PhD from the Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, CA, and he is the author of Climate Refugees: Towards a Tribal Theology of Restoration and Tribal Cultural Imagination and Theological Conversation. Zulu participated in a Dialogue Institute interfaith leadership training conducted with the Graduate Theological Union in 2021.

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In your article, you assert that the Ao concept of friendship could inspire the creation of interreligious dialogical models. What specific actions from the practice of aksü could lend themselves to religious dialogue aside from the general concept of Ao friendship?

For generations, aksü has helped Ao tribal society maintain peaceful relationships, and till today, aksü continues to be a means of peacebuilding and conflict management model for the Aos. Hence, community and mutual flourishing become vital for the Ao people’s approach to peace and friendship. The practice of aksü among the Ao tribe offers several specific actions that could be beneficial for religious dialogue beyond the general concept of Ao friendship. The practice of aksü emphasizes mutual respect and cooperation in their interactions. This approach can be applied to religious dialogue by encouraging participants to approach discussions with a genuine respect for each other's beliefs and a willingness to cooperate in finding common ground and mutual flourishing. Aksü fosters inter-tribal friendships that transcend mere power dynamics. This practice can inspire religious dialogue by promoting relationships that go beyond doctrinal differences and focus on establishing sincere relations based on shared values and mutual understanding. Also, aksü prioritizes harmony and social cohesion over individual or state dominance. In religious dialogue, this could mean prioritizing the community's well-being and fostering a sense of unity and harmony among different religious groups. I believe these actions from the practice of aksü can serve as valuable principles for creating meaningful and productive religious dialogues.

Though political realism is concerned mainly with the activity of states, it asserts that political bodies act for the growth of power and that the international sphere is a self-help system. How does the Ao tribe, in its concept of friendship and using aksü, challenge these notions?

I guess the Ao tribal people’s understanding of friendship and their practice of aksü might present a unique challenge to the notions of political realism. Unlike the self-help and power-centric approaches of political realism enacted through the state agency that gives primacy to power and self-interest, the Ao tribal people accentuate mutual respect, cooperation, and relationships. Through aksü, the Ao people foster friendships that transcend mere power dynamics by encouraging a communal ethos that gives importance to mutual flourishing and well-being of the community over individualism or state dominance. This practice through aksü showcases an alternative model where relational harmony and social cohesion take precedence over political power and self-interest. For the Aos, to have friendship is to make peace with the community, and this is the crux of aksü. This serves as the moral principle and virtue that connects people to a path of friendship and wellbeing that is just, inclusive, and one that respects the rights and dignity of fellow beings. This idea of friendship moves beyond political compromise and seeks the good of common well-being, even when it warrants personal sacrifice.

What specific innovations do tribal cultures bring to peacebuilding, and how might new models of interfaith dialogue emerge from this practice?

In my PhD research, using the Naga tribal practice of peacebuilding (aksü and prukeila), I developed a model for interreligious dialogue called “Peaceable Dialogue,” This model addresses three forms of dialogue: restorative justice praxis that focuses on the restoration of communities, cultural-spiritual dialogue that promotes cultural competencies and spiritualities, and social justice forums that seek to analyze issues pertaining to the society. The “Peaceable Dialogue” model emphasizes the personal, relational, and structural transformation of the community through the nonviolent process and envisages a society based on the shared social vision of all communities, irrespective of race, gender, religion, ethnicity, or social affiliation. Such concepts are essential for peacebuilding and interreligious dialogue because they offer windows into the working of process structure, which is vital for sustaining peace and community. My proposed model recognizes that promoting justice and positive peace requires personal and social transformation. Such transformation happens through developing strong community relations. This is why the model draws from the tribal philosophy of friendship, and cultivating and exercising virtue as a community of friends is an essential element in peacebuilding and dialogue.

How did you get interested in the topic?

Too often, the missing element in peacebuilding and interfaith dialogue is the tribal people's voices. My work seeks to correct this weakness by offering a model and rationale for fuller engagement with all people in this context. Moreover, I feel that it is vital that tribal voices are heard so that their approach to peace and friendship can contribute to the ongoing climate of interreligious dialogue.

What is your next project? 

I am currently completing an essay on “Beyond Colonial Shadows: Decolonizing Indigenous Narratives.” I am also working towards publishing my PhD dissertation, “Reclaiming Community-Reclaiming Democracy: Tribal Explorations in Indian Interfaith Dialogue and Peacebuilding.” This will be followed by something close to my heart, “Ecology and the Future of Interreligious Dialogue.”

Featured JES Author: So Jung Kim on "Speaking In-Between: Vernacular Spirituality of a Woman in Late Chosǒn Korea"

The Fall Issue 58.4 of the Journal of Ecumenical Studies is now available! For each issue, the Diablogue features one author and makes a full-text PDF version of their article available for 30 days on Project Muse. In this issue, we are featuring So Jung Kim’s "Speaking In-Between: Vernacular Spirituality of a Woman in Late Chosǒn Korea." A full-text PDF version of the article can be accessed HERE.

So Jung Kim (Presbyterian Church, USA) is the Associate for Theology in the Office of Theology and Worship of the Presbyterian Mission Agency, PCUSA. She has a Ph.D. (2021) from the University of Chicago (IL) Divinity School. Her entries on James Cone and Womanist Theology are included in Charles Taliaferro and Elsa J. Marty, eds., A Dictionary of Philosophy of Religion, 2nd ed. She has published a reflection on liturgy during the pandemic in Call to Worship: Liturgy, Music, Preaching, and the Arts and a book review for the International Review of Mission. She has taught as an adjunct at McCormick Theological Seminary, Chicago, and in her present position, teaches and resources Presbyterian constituents in local, national, and global settings.

She has presented at workshops and panels in several settings in the U.S., including, most recently, the 2023 Parliament of the World’s Religions in Chicago. Ordained as a Minister of Word and Sacrament in the Presbyterian Church (USA), her research interests involve several forms of theology, anthropology, Korean Christianity, and ecumenism.

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In two sentences, what is the argument of your J.E.S. article?

In my scholarly exploration, I examine the transcultural and transhistorical ramifications of ordinary language usage on Christian spirituality. The focal point of my analysis is the case of Yi Suni, a Korean female martyr. I posit that Yi Suni’s employment of sermo humilis, a literary style historically linked with Augustine, signifies a Spirit-inspired influence independent of Western missionary involvement. While prior research has addressed Yi Suni’s dual identity as a Confucian woman and a Catholic, I underscore the significance of scrutinizing her linguistic expressions, particularly evident in her letters, to understand better the challenges she faced within her transcultural milieu.

How does your reading of Yi Suni’s letters from prison help us to see her as more than a “virgin martyr” as typically understood among Korean Catholics?

In the ensuing section of this exposition, my attention is directed toward the spiritual dimensions of sermo humilis within Yi Suni’s correspondence penned on her deathbed letters. I delve into the intricate interplay between Confucian and Christian virtues, as evident in her writings. The discussion navigates through Yi Suni’s intricate negotiation of her conflated identity as a Confucian daughter and a Christian virgin martyr. I highlight the nuanced perspective that the contemporary emphasis on her ascetic life as a virgin martyr might present an incomplete portrayal of who she is – still, a filial daughter and a wife in a Confucian society.

In scrutinizing the text, I aim to unravel the multifaceted aspects of her identity, the messages conveyed therein, and how she grapples with the complexities of her era in a nuanced way. In the West, people tend to be classified into rigid religious categories such as Christian or Confucian.

What can Yi Suni’s story teach us about the fluidity of religious identities? 

The emergence of stringent religious categorizations in the modern Westernized world can be attributed not merely to “the West,” but specifically to its colonial and imperial impact. This influence has, in turn, engendered diverse forms of religious conflicts in the world under Western colonial influence. Yi Suni’s correspondence marks an early instance of this modern religious inclination, albeit an independent attempt to choose Catholicism with agency. However, despite the agency, her letters illustrate the inherent challenge in the notion of being committed to one religion between religious identities. The reality reflected in the letters underscores the coexistence of multiple religious affiliations within an individual’s identity and contextual framework.

I pose the question of whether the compelling force of Western religion, which necessitates choosing one religious identity over another, may engender confusion and potentially violate one’s choice to remain who she is in between more than two languages, cultures, and religions. Simultaneously, I wonder whether the possibility that acknowledging the fluidity of religious identities could alleviate such inner turmoil. Yi Suni’s utilization of diglossic vernacular language in her letters serves as a manifestation of this struggle, highlighting the complexity inherent in navigating diverse religious influences within her identity. However, we are still left with “what if?”

How did you get interested in the topic?

My academic journey has been centered on exploring various facets of Christianity and its global trajectory, encompassing both theoretical and practical dimensions. This led me to complete a doctoral dissertation at the University of Chicago, Divinity School, which delves into the transformation of everyday language use in Christian religiosity and spirituality, examining its evolution within transhistorical and transcultural contexts. During this research journey, I encountered Yi Suni’s letters, which became a focal point in a chapter of my dissertation.

What is your next project?

As for my next project, I am developing my doctoral dissertation into a comprehensive book. This endeavor aims to serve as a foundational theory aligned with future works, contributing to academic discourse and offering valuable insights to religious communities in the diaspora.

Furthermore, my ongoing research expands into the intricate tapestry of Christianity as a religion and its spiritual practices. I explore how it integrates cultural, ethnic, and diasporic elements, focusing on the intersections of nationality, racial-ethnic identity, gender, and sexuality. This exploration is grounded in the understanding that these intersecting factors shape the lived, everyday experiences of individuals within the Asian diaspora. The resonance of these experiences extends across the transcultural and transnational journey of Christianity, manifesting on local, national, and global scales.

Thank you, Dr. Kim!

Featured JES Author: Effiong Joseph Udo on Dialogue and Democracy in Africa

The Summer Issue 58.3 of the Journal of Ecumenical Studies is now available. For each issue, the Diablogue features one author and makes available a full-text version of their article for 30 days on Project Muse. In this issue, we are featuring Effiong Joseph Udo's "A Reimagination of Dialogue and Democracy in Africa via an Afrocentric Reading of the Parable of the Sower (Lk. 8:4–8)." A full-text version of the article can be accessed HERE.

Effiong Joseph Udo, Ph.D., currently teaches New Testament Literature, Hermeneutics, and Dialogue at the Department of Religious and Cultural Studies, Faculty of Arts, University of Uyo, Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria. He is president of The Pan-African Dialogue Institute and director at the Centre for Deep Dialogue and Critical Thinking at the same University. His doctoral thesis on St Luke’s soteria (salvation) concept grounded his understanding of the ministry of Jesus as a spirit-filled campaign for prioritization of justice and human well-being in the society of his days. This inspired Dr. Udo’s research interests in biblical exegesis to promote social justice, human rights, peacebuilding, interfaith relations, as well as ecumenism.

He is an Ambassador for Peace of the Universal Peace Federation, New York, a member of Professors World Peace Academy, as well as a postdoctoral International dialogue fellow of King Abdullah Abdulaziz International Centre for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue (KAICIID), Vienna, Austria.

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In two sentences, what is the argument of your J.E.S. article?

In the article, I attempted to show how a pan-Africanist reading of the Second Testament Parable of the Sower in Lk. 8:4–8 informs a reimagination of dialogue and democracy in Africa. The study suggests that dialogue and democracy—which are ethically guided by the principles of equality, tolerance, cooperation, participation, and inclusion—are, in practice, complementary and mutually reinforcing, and these widely embraced values are present in African social systems, such as the ethics of communalism and ubuntu.

Many observers have characterized democracy as a Western import to African societies, but you have shown that many values and practices in traditional African societies are deeply democratic. What can democracies in Europe and North America learn from democratic African societies?

Guided by the lived ethics of ubuntu and communalism, Africans are socially and culturally oriented in values toward relationships, friendship, hospitality, cooperation, and tolerance of ‘the other’. I recommend that sustained efforts must be made by all stakeholders to deepen the knowledge and practice of these values in order to strengthen democratic engagements in Africa, Europe, North America, and other democratic societies in the world.

How did you get interested in the topic?

The African Union 2063 Agenda track on peace and democracy motivated my research. I sought to understand the presence, nature, and effects of civil society organizations’ engagements with African states and people to promote peace, human rights, and democratic ideals in the continent. I hoped that the effort would help in widening the Dialogue Institute’s contributions to deepening democratic ideals of freedom through its scholarship in dialogue and training in religious pluralism and democracy around the world. Working with Dr. David Krueger as a dialogue consultant for Africa with the Dialogue Institute, I also thought the Institute would be enriched by the exchange of experiences and perspectives of Africa’s traditional, academic, political, and religious leaders, youth, women, professional groups, and institutions because their dialogue and peacebuilding engagements are directed toward the African Renaissance.

In a few sentences, can you describe how the articles in this issue of the JES connect to the vision for The Pan-African Dialogue Institute?

It is remarkable that the project also gave birth to The Pan-African Dialogue Institute. In the course of my travels, I was able to bring together colleagues, civic leaders, and professionals in various disciplines, as well as youth and women’s groups from a number of African countries; and together we created The Pan-African Dialogue Institute. One could learn more by visiting: www.africadialogue.org. So far, members of the new institute include people from 18 African countries, and this number is still growing. Some individuals who had been on the DI African contacts, including the Study of the U.S. Institute on Religious Pluralism alumni, have also joined the Institute. Part of the rationale for creating the Institute was to serve the DI Board with a central body to relate with whenever Africa is on the agenda. 

I believe that the creation of The Pan-African Dialogue Institute represents a significant milestone for the DI under the leadership of Dr. Krueger as well as a lasting testimony of Prof. Leonard Swidler’s inspiration. It flows from Swidler’s mentorship and encouragement to Dr. Mutombo Nkulu-N’Sengha, founder of the DI-supported Bumuntu Peace Institute in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and my humble self of the University of Uyo in Nigeria to unite African scholars and professionals to embrace dialogue. This is why the Institute will remain in constant collaboration with the Dialogue Institute at Temple University. Created to foster multi-sectoral dialogue on issues in religion, culture, sciences, environment, law, economy, information, communications, technology, gender, and politics that promote democratic ideals and human rights in the Continent, and so on, the Institute is established as a civil society think tank. It seeks to unite African professionals and leaders to promote dialogue engagement that is rooted in Pan-Africanism and contribute to the building of policies and practices for the sustainable development of Africa. African professionals who are based in the continent and in the diaspora, from any field of life, as well as friends of Africa are welcome to join us; for dialogue is at its best in company, and not in isolation. 

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Journal of Ecumenical Studies Issue 58.3

Introduction to the Conference Papers

Effiong J. Udo, David M. Krueger

A Reimagination of Dialogue and Democracy in Africa via an Afrocentric Reading of the Parable of the Sower (Lk. 8:4–8)

Effiong Joseph Udo

Democracy and Interreligious Dialogue in Africa: Prolegomenon for an African Political Theology

Mutombo Nkulu-N'Sengha

Dialogue to Uphold the Ethos of Human Rights in a Democratic Society

Wendy Chinonyerem Benaiah

Religion, State, and Constitution in Ghana: Disputed Realms of Neutrality

Cosmas Ebo Sarbah

Dialogue of Social Encounter: Toward Transforming Interreligious Conflict in Nigeria

Mary Lilian Akhere Ehidiamhen

Democratic Ideals for Political, Economic, and Social Development in a Pluralistic African Society: The Case of Kaduna State

Isaac Peter Maichiki, Samuel Victor Akwe

African Peacemaking Database: Beginning the World's First Grassroots Peace Index

Seth Kinzie, Geoffrey Manasseh

Light of Life Christian Group as a New Branch on Zimbabwe's Ecumenical Tree: Toward a New Theology of the Inner Church in Southern Africa

Misheck Mudyiwa

Featured JES Author: Robert B. Slocum on Bonhoeffer’s Theology of Resistance

The Winter issue 58.1 of the Journal of Ecumenical Studies is now available. For each issue, the Diablogue features one author and makes available a full-text version of their article for 30 days. In this issue, we are featuring Robert B. Slocum's "Thrown into God’s Arms: The Sacrificial Grace of Dietrich Bonhoeffer." A full-text version of his article is available on Project Muse and be accessed HERE.

Robert B. Slocum

Robert B. Slocum (Episcopal Church) has been an assistant professor in the University of Kentucky's College of Medicine, Dept. of Internal Medicine (voluntary faculty), in Lexington, KY, since 2017, and a Narrative Medicine Facility program coordinator for the University of KY HealthCare since 2015. He teaches an elective course for fourth-year medical students on the narrative basis for patient care and resilient practice. He taught at St. Catharine College, Springfield, KY, 2008–16, and was dean of its School of Arts & Sciences, 2011–13. He has also taught theology and religion at Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI; Mount Mary College (now University), Milwaukee; Carthage College, Kenosha, WI; and Nashotah (WI) House Seminary, During 1986–2002 and 2007–09, he served in ordained ministry positions and as a part-time chaplain, 1993–98, in a Veterans Administration Medical Center in Milwaukee. He was a Judge Advocate in the U.S. Air Force, 1978–83. His B.A. and J.D. are from Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN; his M.Div. from Nashotah House Seminary; his D. Min. from the University of the South, Sewanee, TN; and his Ph.D. (1997) in systematic theology from Marquette University. He has authored four books, most recently The Anglican Imagination: Portraits and Sketches of Modern Anglican Theologians (Ashgate, 2015; Routledge, 2016), and edited or co-edited ten others, including Discovering Common Mission: Lutherans and Episcopalians Together (with Don S. Armentrout; Church Publishing, 2003). His nearly forty articles have appeared in theological or medical journals and as book chapters, and he has made presentations at more than two dozen theological and medical conferences. He is married to Victoria Slocum and has three adult children.

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In two sentences, what is the argument of your J.E.S. article?

Identifying with the oppressed in both the U.S. and Germany, Dietrich Bonhoeffer said the church of Christ lives in all people, beyond all national, political, social, and racial boundaries. He offered an ecumenical vision of the Christian church that greatly transcends the Christian nationalism of National Socialism in Germany; he saw that God’s love for the world and incarnational Christian spirituality can be expressed through political action and active resistance.

How did you get interested in the topic?

I was fascinated by Bonhoeffer's heartfelt devotion and academic achievement that provided the foundation for his unflinching Christian witness, resistance, and sacrifice. He spoke up and acted with great courage at a time when many Christians in his country looked the other way in the face of great evil. The story of his willingness to apply his faith in resistance and direct action against Nazi tyranny also provided an effective example and good material for discussion in undergraduate courses I taught on topics such as Christ and culture, quests for God, and applied ethics.

Your article poses a stark contrast between the Confessing church movement associated with Bonhoeffer and the dominant German Christian movement that became co-opted by Nazi ideology. Do you see parallels in the world today and how best can Bonhoeffer speak to the challenges we face?

Like us, Bonhoeffer lived in a time of great conflict and abuse of vulnerable minorities who were seen as outsiders by the powerful. The response of German Christians to the threats of National Socialism generally ranged from anemic to complacent to complicit;  Bonhoeffer's frustration was palpable.  He expressed faith through prayer and justice instead of powerful religious organizations and sought a future form of the church that might be unexpected—nonreligious in a conventional sense, but able to convert and transform. He consistently sacrificed his own safety to resist the oppression of the German people, while expressing and living the unity of faith and action in the world through sacrificial grace. 

What is your next project?

I am continuing to explore perspectives on "war and faith" from the mid-19th century to the present. I define "war" broadly to include intense struggles outside the context of declared wars such as civil rights and the proliferation of nuclear weapons, as well as declared wars. I believe that sometimes in the worst situations, we reach out for the divine most earnestly, stating our beliefs, understandings, and sources of meaning most clearly. I am currently beginning to research the writings and witness of Dorothy Day.

Article Abstract:

Dietrich Bonhoeffer encountered Aryan nationalism and racism with sacrificial grace and Christian opposition. One of the first and the very few to speak out against the Nazis and to follow through with active resistance, he resisted Nazi intrusions into the life of the German church and the impact of Nazi bigotry on Jews and others excluded from full participation in German society. During his time in New York City at Union Theological Seminary and at Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, he witnessed the impact of racism in the United States. Identifying with the oppressed in both the U.S. and Germany, he said the church of Christ lives in all people, beyond all national, political, social, and racial boundaries. Offering an ecumenical vision of the Christian church that greatly transcends the Christian nationalism of National Socialism, he moved from academic and pastoral ministry to direct action against Nazi oppression by smuggling Jews out of Germany, using ecumenical contexts to spread word about resistance to the Nazis, and seeking the overthrow of Nazi leadership. Self-sacrificing in his devotion to public activism, he saw that God’s love for the world and incarnational Christian spirituality could be expressed through political action. He expressed faith through prayer and justice, not in powerful religious organizations, and sought a future form of the church that might be unexpected—nonreligious in a conventional sense, but able to convert and transform. He consistently sacrificed his own safety to resist the oppression of the German people, while expressing the unity of faith and action in the world through sacrificial grace. 

Featured JES Author: Gabrielle Thomas on Receptive Ecumenism

Dr. Gabrielle Thomas

The Fall issue 57:4 of the Journal of Ecumenical Studies is now available. For each issue, the Diablogue features one author and makes available a full-text version of their article for 30 days. In this issue, we are featuring Gabrielle Rachel Thomas's "The Gift of Power in Methodism: Learning from Women’s Experiences of Working in Diverse Churches in England through Receptive Ecumenism."

Gabrielle Thomas is an Assistant Professor of Early Christianity and Anglican Studies, at the Candler School of Theology, Emory University, in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S., and is a member of the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Theological Reflection Group in the U.K.  She earned her Ph.D. in Historical Theology from the University of Nottingham in Nottingham, U.K. in 2017.

In two sentences, what is the argument of your J.E.S. article?

My article identifies possible ecclesial learning by using receptive ecumenism to explore women’s experiences of working in diverse churches in England. I examine a Methodist approach to power and use it to critique current practices across diverse Christian traditions in England, providing the potential for churches to transform the way that power is distributed, especially with respect to women flourishing in leadership roles.

How does your article help us better understand Receptive Ecumenism?

Simply put, receptive ecumenism asks, “What do we need to learn from another Christian tradition to help us address some of the wounds and weaknesses in our own?” My contribution puts Receptive Ecumenism to the test with a practical example of women who follow the way of receptive ecumenism to explore their experiences of working in churches in England, with a view to identifying areas for potential ecclesial learning.

How did you get interested in the topic?

I have long been committed to Christian unity. Receptive Ecumenism is a fresh way into the conversation. With respect to the project I developed on exploring women’s experiences– I am ordained in the Church of England and am interested in ministry from the perspective of a researcher but also as a practitioner.

What is your next project?

My next project explores a theology of the Devil bringing into conversation the perspective and experience of diverse traditions such as Pentecostal, Anglican, Catholic, and Orthodox.

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Article Abstract:

Global attention to receptive ecumenism has grown in recent years, prompting ecumenical theologians to ask, “What do we need to learn from another Christian tradition to help us address some of the wounds and weaknesses in our own?” Hitherto, much of the published work on receptive ecumenism has focused on its place in the formal ecumenical movement with little attention directed toward the grassroots. This contribution is a case study that identifies possible ecclesial learning by using receptive ecumenism to explore women’s experiences of working in diverse churches in England. It focuses on a particular example emerging from the broader research, during which Baptist women identified how the distribution of power in their churches can inhibit women’s flourishing, particularly in ministerial roles. Following the way of receptive ecumenism, after outlining the research context, I examine gifts shared by Methodist participants who spoke of positive structures of power. These, I argue, critique current practices, not only in the Baptist tradition but across diverse Christian traditions in England, providing the potential for churches to transform the way that power is distributed, especially with respect to women’s flourishing in leadership roles.

The full text article can be accessed via Project Muse HERE.  

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Featured JES Author: Ellen Charry on Van Buren's Theology of Jewish-Christian Reality

Dr. Ellen Charry, Margaret W. Harmon Professor of Systematic Theology Emerita at Princeton Theological Seminary.

Summer issue 57.3 of the Journal of Ecumenical Studies is now available. For each issue, the Diablogue features one author and makes available a full-text version of their article for 30 days. This issue, we are featuring “Paul M. van Buren's A Theology of the Jewish-Christian Reality” by Dr. Ellen Charry, Margaret W. Harmon Professor of Systematic Theology Emerita at Princeton Theological Seminary. Dr. Charry has taught interfaith theology and historical and systematic theology. She earned her PhD from Temple University and is a former student of Prof. Leonard Swidler, co-founder of the J.E.S.

In two sentences, what is the argument of your J.E.S. article?

The argument of my JES article on my beloved mentor, Paul M. van Buren, is that he is far more radical than associating him with the “death of God” movement recognized. He never understood himself as proclaiming “the death of God,” but as recognizing that classical Greek metaphysics could not account for history that is essential for rendering Christianity understandable.

How does your article help us better understand Jewish-Christian relations?

Paul’s radicality lies in his recognition that the Jewish No to Christ is a Yes to God that Christians need to take seriously. He was the first Christian theologian not only to recognize this but to work it through Christian theology, particularly through Christology that remained a central concern throughout his career. His three-volume Theology of the Jewish-Christian Reality (1980-88) remains the premier Christian theology proposing how Christian contempt for Judaism can dissolve into companioning Judaism in its walk with God alongside Christianity.

How did you get interested in the topic?

I have engaged this topic since I was three years old. It became the intellectual core of my life struggle.

What is your next project?

My current project is Who is the Israel of God? It is a peace proposal for putting down the mutual enmity that characterizes two thousand years of the Christian-Jewish relationship.

Article Abstract:

Paul M. van Buren was the first Christian theologian to argue that the Jewish No to Jesus is a Yes to God. He offered Christians and Jews fresh ways of understanding both themselves and the other. His trilogy, A Theology of the Jewish-Christian Reality, begins by honoring God's enduring covenant with the Jews and then proceeds to identify false turns both traditions have taken in their walks with God. He called both to critical self-reflection in theological conversation with the other's identity and missteps. He turned the church from being against the Jews to being alongside them and called Jews to return to God's covenant with them in order that Christian rethinking not be theologically empty.

The full text article can be accessed via Project Muse HERE.

Featured JES Author: Kashshaf Ghani on Piety, Dialogue, and Sufi Devotionalism

Spring issue 57.2 of the Journal of Ecumenical Studies is now available. For each issue, the Diablogue features one author and makes available a full-text version of their article for 30 days. This issue, we are featuring “Creating Space for Piety and Dialogue: North American Sufi Devotionalism” by Dr. Kashshaf Ghani, assistant professor of history at Nalanda University in Rajgir, Bihar, India. Dr. Ghani spent the summer of 2018 with the Dialogue Institute as a Study of the U.S. Institutes (SUSI) scholar studying religious pluralism in the United States. The genesis of the article began with a visit to Bawa Muhaiyaddeen Fellowship, a Sufi mosque in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

ABSTRACT: The following essay studies the early history of Islamic devotional tradition in the U.S. particularly through the rise of the Sufi movements. I intend to approach this study primarily from the vantage point of historical origins and development of Sufi groups in the U.S. from the late-20th century. This approach will be grounded on the perspective of Sufism as a minority faith practice and its various manifestations in the U.S – spiritual practices, devotional exercises, artistic expression, and cross-cultural dialogue. Sufism being one such manifestation, its career in the U.S. can be identified along multiple positions of ideology and practice – drawing from normative Islamic teaching and morals, following an eclectic and universalist approach, and transplantation of Sufi practices from parent societies, like South Asia and Africa. The essay will conclude by focusing on the dimension of transnationalism through the career of a South Asian Sufi master in Philadelphia – Bawa Muhaiyadeen.

The full text article can be accessed via Project Muse HERE.

The 2018 SUSI Scholars visited the Bawa Muhaiyaddeen Fellowship, a Sufi Muslim community, in the Overbrook section of Philadelphia.