Seminars explore global Christianity
The talks feature speakers from the mainland and Japan
The ways Christianity has been adapted and incorporated by different cultures will be explored in a two-day conference Thursday and Friday at the University of Hawaii-Manoa.
Speakers will present perspectives of indigenous people in Europe, Japan, Korea, Burma, Guam and Hawaii in the program on "Global Christianities in Comparative Perspective."
The symposium organized by the University of Hawaii Religion Department is free and open to the public. The Thursday session will be in Krauss Hall, Yukiyoshi Room, on the Manoa campus. The Friday program will be in the East-West Center Imin International Conference Center. It is funded by the University Research Council and the Berry Lectures in Christianity Fund.
The conference opens at 8:30 a.m. Thursday with an introduction by UH religion professor Andrew Crislip, followed by UH professor Karen Jolly speaking on "Indigenization of Christianity in Medieval Northern Europe."
The Thursday program continues:
» 10:30 a.m., "The Ways of Japanese Christianity" by Mark Mullins, a professor at Sophia University in Tokyo.
» 1 p.m., "Negotiating Global Versus Local Forms of Christianity in Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa" by Ann Marie Bahr, South Dakota State University professor.
» 2:15 p.m., "Christian Missions in Burma" by UH professor Michael Aung-Thwin.
» 3:45 p.m., "Issues in Korean Christian Theology" by Hyun Kyung Chung, Union Theological Seminary professor.
The Friday program will include:
» 9 a.m., UH professor Hokulani Aikau speaking on "Resisting Exile in the Promised Land: He Mo'olelo no Laie."
» 10:30 a.m., University of North Dakota professor Charles Miller will discuss "Ephraim Weston Clark and the Face of Colonialism in Early 19th Century Hawaii."
» 1:30 p.m., Brigham Young University-Hawaii professor James Tueller will talk on "Chamorro Christianity and Jesuit Lists in 18th Century Guam."
» 3 p.m., "Issues in Hawaiian and Polynesian Theology" will be discussed by UH professor John Charlot; the Rev. David Kaapu, retired United Church of Christ minister; and the Rev. Tom Van Culin, vicar of St. Matthew's Episcopal Church in Waimanalo.