The practice of religious conversion in the 21st century has revived academic interest in the subject. Most theories and frameworks for understanding religious conversion are still based on outdated models. Recent studies have focused primarily on converts’ testimonies, which is a valuable starting point for contextualizing religious conversion. However, much of this research has concentrated on individuals and their past religious worldviews. There is a significant gap in understanding the contextualization of religious conversion in relation to culture, theology, community, and other factors. In September, OCMS will address this gap through its MBL lecture series, focusing on the contextualization of religious conversion in the majority world. Full Programme Details here
Previous Lectures
OCMS: Embodying Integral Mission Research
Overview This lecture is primarily about the rise and dynamic nature of OCMS as a centre of research at the doctoral level and only secondarily concerns the history of the ideas and vision that gave rise to it. It draws from personal experience, interviews with founders, academic officers, faculty, alumni, and current students.
Speaker Tom Harvey
About the speaker Tom’s expertise is in China and Southeast Asian Church and State. In Singapore he served as Chair of the Theological Review and Response Committee of the Presbyterian Church and as an executive board member of the National Council of Churches. He authored Acquainted With Grief: Wang Mingdao’s Stand for the Persecuted Church in China as well as numerous articles on Christianity and Christian social engagement in Asia and Southeast Asia. Tom is a member of the Lausanne Congress Global Diaspora Network and European Coordinator of the Lausanne European Diaspora Educator’s Group and is a missionary co-worker with the Presbyterian Church USA.
Overview The lecture will delve into the Guided Research Program exploring other effective ways to present missional research to a broader audience beyond the traditional doctoral program format.
Speaker Rev Canon Mark Oxbrow
About the speaker Mark is an Anglican priest who has spent most of his ministry in cross-cultural mission, initially with the Church Mission Society as International Mission Director and then as the International Director of Faith2Share, a global network of mission agencies. He is now the Programme Director of the Guided Research Programme at Oxford Centre for Mission Studies, serves with the Anglican Communion Office and is a board member of a number of Christian organisations including chairing the board of Solomon Academic Trust which runs the Centre for Muslim-Christian Studies in Oxford.
Overview This lecture investigates ways that the integration of innovative mission research and transformative learning theory contribute to and enhance societal engagement and transformation of mission, using OCMS PhD students’ journeys as case study.
Speaker Sara Afshari & Anne Moseley
About the speaker Dr Sara Afshari is Research Tutor at Oxford Centre for Mission Studies. She received her PhD from Edinburgh University in Media Religion and Culture. She is co-founder and former Executive Director of SAT-7 PARS, a Christian television channel in Farsi/Persian language. Her recent book is titled: Religion, Media and Conversion in Iran: mediated Christianity in an Islamic Context. Dr Anne Moseley is an experienced educational researcher who has been working for the last 10 years in the areas of religious education and intercultural learning. She has been a primary school practitioner teaching across the curriculum from reception through to Y6 pupils for over 20 years. Anne is currently developing practical teaching resources in collaboration with the Rose Castle Foundation drawing on the findings that came out of her PhD research. The material is based on an age appropriate adaptation of Scriptural Reasoning principles and current religious education pedagogic principles.
Speaker Jeffrey B. Riley
About the speaker Jeffrey Riley (PhD, Ethics and Theology) is Professor of Ethics and Associate Dean of Graduate Studies at the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. His research, writing, and teaching have focused on theological and biblical ethics, spiritual and historical theology, and the implications of missional contextualization on ethics.
Speaker Prof. Paul Billingham
About the speaker Paul Billingham is Associate Professor of Political Theory in the Department Politics and International Relations at the University of Oxford, and a Fellow of Magdalen College. His work focuses on the implications of diversity and disagreement for politics, with a particular focus on religion.
Speaker Dr David Zac Niringiye
About the speaker Dr Niringiye is a bishop in the Church of Uganda, a scholar-practitioner theologian, a peace and social justice activist, and an organizational development consultant. He is currently an Academic Visitor at Wycliffe Hall, University of Oxford. His research interests are in Theology and Mission History, Church and Society, and Religion, Culture, and Public Life. Among Dr Niringiye’s publications are: The Church: God’s Pilgrim People (Carlisle, UK: Langham Global Library, 2014); and The Church in the World: A Historical-Ecclesiological Study of the Church of Uganda with Particular Reference to Post-Independence Uganda, 1962-1992 (Carlisle, Cumbria UK: Langham Monographs, 2016).
Lieu and Espace: Michel de Certeau and a Question of Means and Ends. Assessing Outcomes for Christian Mission
Speaker Jeffrey Robert Thomas
About the speaker Jeffrey Robert Thomas is a multi-skilled professional. He completed his doctoral research on Religious Spatiality with OCMS in 2021. He combines 8 years in local church leadership, with 14 years in the home construction and improvement industry, with research on development, inter-faith relations, and Christian mission to explore how genuine Christian “space” or praxis emerges within ostensibly secular “places”.
A Speculation of Digital Pneumatology: The Presence and Power of the Holy Spirit in the Metaverse
Speaker Dr Guichun Jun
About the speaker Dr Guichun Jun is an ordained minister who has experienced various ministry contexts in both Korea and the UK. He is a practitioner who is interested in discovering local knowledge of a particular congregation situated in a specific time and space to improve his and others’ understanding and skills of ministry and mission through understanding the congregants’ lived experiences and realities. Dr Jun is currently exploring theological controversies and missional potential of Virtual Reality Church.
Violence towards women in the political arena
Speaker Ms Florence Maina
About the speaker Ms. Florence Maina is an African Womanist theologian and a member of the Circle of Concerned African Theologies (St Paul’s University Kenya). She is a paralegal with experience on human rights and gender equality issues in Kenya. She is currently a master’s student at St. Paul’s University in the specialization of systematic theology, gender, and theology.
Speaker Wanjiku J. Mwangi
About the speaker Wanjiku J. Mwangi is a teacher, spiritual companion and integrated healer, within the Anglican tradition. She holds an MDiv-Biblical Studies and a PGDE from African International University (Formerly NEGST - Nairobi Evangelical Graduate School of Theology). Wanjiku is a published author who is the founder and leader at Integrated Living.
