Background

In 1914, the initial chair holder of Missiology at the University of Münster, Joseph Schmidlin, undertook his first extensive mission studies trip to Asia. At the occasion of the centenary of the oldest chair in German Catholic missiology, our institute commited itself to bringing Asian Christianity to Münster.

The centenary event launched a new initiative in Europe to engage the growing field of Christianity-in-Asia-Studies with a novel two week Intensive Study Programme (ISP) "Christianity in Asia". It brought together post-fieldwork M.A. and PhD. students with early-career researchers from different disciplines in a shared platform to discuss their ideas and research vis-à-vis the state of the art provided by the authors of the new Oxford Handbook on Christianity in Asia (2014).

From 2019 onwards the institute developed partnerships with universities in Asia in order to host international Summer Schools on Christianity in Asia in interaction with its religious others. The Summer School in Mashhad (October 12 - December 24 2020) explores Christianity in Asia in an Shia Islamic theological context. For autumn 2022 we aim at coordinating a Summer School in the context of predominantly Buddhist Myanmar in Rangoon.

The Summer Schools aim to foster interdisciplinary research collaborations as well as increase public awareness of this field’s growing relevance to Theology and Religious Studies, the Humanities and Social Sciences.

This format is coordinated by the Institute of Missiology and the Study of Theologies Beyond Europe at the University of Münster and carried out in collaboration with its global partners.