When professors at Princeton Theological Seminary began planning this year’s World Christianity Conference, they chose a theme they thought might resonate with scholars across nations and academic disciplines. It worked.
The theme of “Migration, Diaspora and Transnationalism in World Christianity” proved successful beyond expectations. Scholars from nearly 40 nations participated in the weeklong conference in March, with many, nearly 200, traveling to campus to present their research in person. And as participants gathered in Stuart Hall on the first day, the conference theme, with its evocation of cross-border movements, seemed to take on new urgency.
Afe Adogame, Maxwell M. Upson Professor of Christianity and Society, one of three principal organizers, related the theme to the current political moment in the United States, as immigration authorities carry out sudden and swift deportations and detentions. Scholars, Adogame said, have a responsibility to fully engage with such issues.
We’re indeed excited to be able to focus on this theme as the U.S. and other parts of the world grapple with the increasing politicization of immigration and criminalization of immigrants.
He thanked international scholars for attending the conference, saying their presence showed courage as well as a commitment to World Christianity, an emerging field that examines the growth of Christianity across the Global South and its impact on the Global North.
“Your participation gives us a lot of hope and optimism for the future of this conversation,” said Adogame, who was joined in the opening discussions by fellow organizers Raimundo Barreto associate professor of World Christianity and Soojin Chung, director of the Overseas Ministries Study Center.
Over the next several days, attendees fully unpacked the theme, exploring the ever-shifting global Christian landscape from multiple perspectives. The breadth of topics covered was evident in the titles of the panels and presentations, from “Sisters of the Spirit: Black American and African Women” to “Norwegian Lutherans in Minnesota.” There was also “An Asian American Theology of Identity, Belonging, and Mission” and “Diaspora Pastors, Megachurches, and Global Christian Networks.”
One lively session had musician, missiologist and minister Eric Sarwar singing Psalm 51 in Punjabi, inviting the audience to sing along, and joking that a musical performance might seem a bit out of place in “a cognitive institution.” But his performance had scholarly intent: to demonstrate the “psalmody” style of worship that’s used in the North Indian Pakistani congregations in North America.
“Every country has a distinct identity in the global context,” Sarwar said. “India has a spirituality and a sound, so that’s why I will be delving into that spirituality and sound.”
Scholar Christina Liu opened her lecture with a traditional greeting from Tonga, an island country in Polynesia. She then discussed the role of Tonga women in Christian history, which she said has been marginalized.
“These women have not only shaped their immediate communities but have also contributed to the enduring presence of Christianity in the Pacific,” Liu said.
The World Christianity Conference started at Princeton Seminary in 2018 and has been growing every year, with the exception of a gap during the Covid-19 pandemic, positioning the Seminary as a leader in the field. Last year, organizers took the conference to Ghana as part of a commitment to convene overseas every two years. The 2026 conference will be held in Brazil.
Barreto, one of the organizers, said the conference has become a phenomenon.
This is the largest gathering of scholars of World Christianity anywhere in the world and the most diverse by far. The mere fact that we can do that every year is a milestone in the development of this still very-young field.
Princeton Theological Seminary’s President Jonathan Lee Walton praised the conference’s deep scholarship, noting in his opening remarks that engaging the global church is an essential part of a theological education in the 21st century. “For over two centuries, Princeton Seminary has professed to train leaders for service in the church, academy, and public life,” Walton said. “But now we can say more than ever we understand that we do not do this in isolation.”
Our mission here in Princeton is inextricably tied to the broader borderless body of Christ.
This year’s theme of migration, diaspora, and transnationalism drew an influx of scholars from fields outside World Christianity, such as race and ethnicity studies, demography, and Asian American history. “This is exactly what we wanted,” Chung said. “We wanted to broaden the field and have very rich, diverse conversations, with contributions from social sciences, religious demography, and anthropology.”
Barreto agreed. “We opened the conversation to people who don’t identify as World Christianity scholars,” he said. “We invited people from the social sciences and other fields and disciplines because we want to see the full scope of what is available for anyone studying World Christianity.”
The 2025 theme also widened the lens from previous conferences by exploring how World Christianity is taking shape in the Global North through migration.
When scholars think of World Christianity, they think of Asia, Africa, and Latin America. But what about Asian diaspora communities in Europe or North America or Japanese migrants living in Brazil?
That question was answered throughout the week in multiple stories and discussions. One scholar shined a light on how African immigrants in England are navigating their Pentecostal belief in divine healing as they build lives in a largely secular society. Abel Ugba told the story of a nurse from Ghana who refrains from publicly praying for patients in the South London hospital where she works because she knows it isn’t accepted. But she finds other ways to exercise her faith, including praying silently or in “safe spaces” like the changing room.
“Divine healing is being creatively, innovatively remade in ways that make it conform to secular norms, but also challenges [secularism],” said Ugba, a professor in the School of Sociology and Social Policy at the University of Leeds. Ugba delivered one of three Gerald H. Anderson Lectures, a staple of the conference that led off the first three days. The lectures honor namesake Anderson, an eminent scholar who led the OMSC from 1976 to 2000.
Another Anderson lecture was delivered by Princeton Seminary alum Deanna Womack, who shared a startling story of her visit to a Coptic Orthodox Christian convent run by a nun named Mother Veronica. The convent observes venerable traditions such as covering and uncovering novitiates with the altar curtain in a symbolic death and rebirth.
But, surprisingly, the convent is located in the Southern United States, and most of the nuns are American or Canadian—a reflection of the longtime migration of Middle East Christians to North America. “This convent is not in the secluded deserts of Egypt, but Dawsonville, Georgia, a 20-minute drive from the start of the Appalachian Trail and 60 miles north of Atlanta where Mother Veronica grew up,” said Womack, a professor at Emory University’s Candler School of Theology.
The Anderson Lecture that led off the conference was titled Heartbroken History, an apt name for its exploration of a particularly dark chapter in American history. Stanford University historian Kathryn Gin Lum detailed the lives of 19th-century Chinese immigrants who were demonized by white Christians in the lead-up to the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.
That legacy lingers, she said. “We need to expose our inheritance of this Christian case for exclusion because it is still very much with us today,” Lum said. “And we still live in a time when feckless men can catapult themselves to power on the force of anti-immigrant hate.”
Over the course of the week, conference participants also honored two seminal scholars, Klaus Koschorke and the late David D. Daniels III. Korschorke, a professor of church history at the University of Munich, and one of the pioneering figures in the study of World Christianity. Daniels, who died Oct. 10, 2024, was a professor at McCormick Theological Seminary and a renowned scholar of Pentecostal Christianity.
In the end, attendees not only enjoyed the conference but also felt a deep sense of gratitude.“They went back feeling really fulfilled, and this was what we wanted to do,” said Adogame. “We are very inspired by the way we are moving. To be honest, Princeton Seminary is now the place to be when it comes to the interdisciplinary study of World Christianity.”