Over the last century, the world’s Christian population has shifted dramatically. Although the percentage of Christians remains approximately the same (about one-third), they are much more spread out around the globe. According to the Pew Research Center, Europe is now home to only one-quarter of the world’s Christians, compared to two-thirds a century ago.[1] Brazil is home to twice as many Roman Catholics as Italy, and Nigeria has more than double the number of Protestants as Germany. More than a third of Christians live in the Americas, about one-quarter live in sub-Saharan Africa, and about one-eighth live in Asia and the Pacific.

This widespread geographical distribution has changed both the content and the methodologies involved in the study of Christianity. The Global Christianities workshop aims to call attention to the diverse manifestations of Christianity around the globe, both past and present. United by its object of study, the workshop seeks papers with diverse methodologies and approaches to the study of religion: anthropological, comparative, ethical, historical, literary, philosophical, political, psychological, sociological, theological, and so on. We encourage participation of students from throughout the University. Given its interdisciplinary nature, we hope this workshop will help graduate students make connections across departments, clarify their own questions and methodologies, and collaborate on future research.

Meetings usually consist of a presentation from a student. Students are invited to bring work in progress, so that they can benefit as much as possible from the group discussion. Presentations can include portions of dissertation chapters or proposals, job talks, book reviews, pedagogical reflections, master’s theses, articles, conference papers, or other research. The workshop will also host discussions about key texts and articles related to the field and concept of Global Christianities, in order to enrich our knowledge of the diverse global manifestations of Christianity and give us resources for developing and teaching courses on Christianity.

If you are interested in presenting at the workshop, please send an email to contact-global-christianities@lists.uchicago.edu with the following information:

– A tentative title for your presentation
– Your program and departmental affiliation
– The type of work you will be presenting (dissertation chapter, article-in-progress, etc.)
– Your preferred term (fall, winter, or spring)
– A brief overview of your project (1-3 sentences)

You can subscribe to the Global Christianities Workshop email listserv to receive announcements about upcoming events at https://lists.uchicago.edu/web/info/global-christianities.

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[1] Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion and Public Life, Global Christianity: A Report on the Size and Distribution of the World’s Christian Population (Washington, D.C.: Pew Research Center, 2011), 9. The full report is available online at http://www.pewforum.org/files/2011/12/Christianity-fullreport-web.pdf