Theme

BOUNDARY-MAKING, LOCAL ENTANGLEMENTS, AND CONVIVIALITY IN WORLD CHRISTIANITY

Seventh International, Interdisciplinary Conference

In an increasingly fragmented world, the discourse on the evolving landscape of religious boundaries, cultural entanglements, and how world Christianity responds to the challenges of expanding conviviality is pertinent. The study of World Christianity in the past several decades has revealed a vast diversity of Christian practices and beliefs worldwide, in ways that render earlier focuses on institutional unity and theological dialogue insufficient. In his keynote address at the inaugural World Christianity Conference in 2018, Dale Irvin highlighted the tensions between an “old ecumenism” haunted by the lingering influence of historical colonial structures, ideologies, and memories, and a “new ecumenism,” characterized by fluid, transnational, and trans-denominational networks operating beyond traditional church-state frameworks. In the context of Christianity’s demographic shift towards the Global South, new questions about boundary-making, entanglements, and conviviality or convivência (a most common vocable among Portuguese and Spanish speakers) must address structural injustices and challenges faced by marginalized groups. On the other hand, conservative forms of Christianity in the same context have seen those challenges as threatening to orthodoxy and unacceptable, engaging in forms of “culture wars” with both secular and religious others. Orlando Espin employs the concept of inter-transculturation and intercultural dialogue to challenge binary perspectives on ‘truth’ and promote convivência among diverse cultural and religious traditions, advocating for an intercultural approach to the ecumenical quest. Edmund Kee-Fook Chia challenges traditional ecumenical structures against the backdrop of increasingly fragmented and independent churches, particularly in the Global South. Notably, 2026 marks the 60th anniversary of the Ecumenical Association of Third World Theologians (EATWOT), a Global South movement that significantly contributed to reimagining ecumenicity. A number of other more fluid ecumenical and interfaith networks have emerged since then, many of which in the global South.

The seventh World Christianity Conference will focus on the multifaceted dynamics of religious boundary-making, entanglements, and conviviality in World Christianity and beyond. Relevant topics may include but are not limited to: religious boundary-making, entanglements, conviviality, ecumenism, ecumenical networks, intra- and inter-faith relations, cross-border networks, borderlands, power dynamics, and social justice across the lines of gender, sexual orientation, poverty, cultures, identity, ethnicity, race, media, environment, Indigenous peoples, indigenous churches, marginalized communities, hybridity, interculturality, intersectionality, nationalism, transnationalism, migration and diaspora. We seek to address interrelated questions such as: How do religious communities construct, contest, and negotiate boundaries in various cultural, social, and geopolitical contexts? How do religious entanglements foster or hinder conviviality and mutual understanding within and across different religious traditions? How do processes of boundary-making influence identity formation, authority, exclusion, marginalization, or social cohesion within and among religious communities and movements? How do contemporary phenomena such as mass migration, social media, hybridity, nationalism, interfaith dialogue, and fundamentalism impact religious boundary-making and entanglements? How important are matters of justice, fair-play, civility, freedom, and equity in broadening conviviality and fostering broader entanglements?

We welcome panel and paper proposals from any discipline on any topic relevant to the conference theme, whether contemporary or historical. While proposals from ethical, theological, and missiological perspectives are welcome, we particularly encourage studies grounded in historical, ethnographic, and other empirical methods.