ASCH Heads to Oxford

Heath Carter

The American Society of Church History will hold its spring meeting jointly this year with Britain’s Ecclesiastical History Society.  Oxford University will host the conference, which is set for April 3rd-5th.

 The meeting’s primary theme is “Migration and Mission in Christian History.”  As the call for papers explains: “From the scattering of the Jerusalem Church in 70 CE through the ‘barbarian’ invasions of the Roman Empire, the Anglo-SAxon and Viking settlements of England, and the migrations of the religious refugees in the Reformation era, to the Atlantic slave trade, the Irish, Scottish and European diasporas of the nineteenth century and the African and Asian ones of the twentieth, people movements have profoundly shaped the course of Christian history.  They have disrupted religious commitments, forged new ones, and inspired and constrained mission.  There is hence enormous scope for papers from all periods of Christian history.”

The official conference schedule has not yet been released (it’s coming soon, by the way!), but I was able to get a sneak peek at a list of the accepted panels.  Amongst the many exciting offerings:

“Historicizing ‘Sin’ in Nineteenth-Century America”

“Missionary Hagiography and American History: The Marketing of America and Protestantism”

“The Word in Motion: Textual and Human Migrations in Asian Missions”

“Missions, Migrations and Motivations in China and its Diaspora”

“(Re-)Creating Communities: Missionary Periodicals and Communication Networks in the New World”

I’ll be participating in a roundtable on the state of the field in Social Gospel studies, which will also feature contributions from Drs. Amanda Porterfield (chair), Christopher Evans, Wendy Deichmann, Eugene McCarraher, Rima Lunin Schultz, and Ralph Luker.  I’ll make sure to report back on what should be a stimulating conversation.

In the meantime, you can find all the relevant details about the conference over at the ASCH site.  Hope to see many of you there!