October 2012 Lecture
Richard Nenge, Nagel Visiting Scholar
The Challenge of Fighting HIV/AIDS in an African Instituted Church
Even with the availability of drugs that can stop the onset of AIDS, community health leaders in Africa puzzle over the hesitation they frequently see in African communities. What is going on? Plenty, it seems. Researchers have found causes of resistance to AIDS treatment in traditional customs and worldviews, but much less is known about the role that religion plays in the battle against HIV/AIDS. Richard Nenge, a theologian and an IIE visiting scholar at Calvin this year from Zimbabwe, has found some answers. He has studied the role of religious beliefs in the treatment of AIDS in one of the largest African Instituted Churches in the southern region of Africa, and he wants to report his findings to us.
February Public Lecture
Jay Case
An Unpredictable Gospel: American Evangelicals and World Christianity, 1812-1920
Monday, February 27
3:30 PM
Many scholars and Christian leaders today have noted that world Christianity has recently made an impact in Europe and North America, usually through immigrant groups, missionaries, or Christian leaders from Africa, Asia or Latin America who have settled and established ministries. Yet the influence of world Christianity in the United States did not begin with the movement of these individuals to America. Though few people noticed it at the time, world Christianity had already begun to shape America in the nineteenth century, even without the presence of non-western Christians in the nation. For instance, through the conduits established by the missionary movement, world Christianity convinced white evangelicals to establish leadership programs that led to their support for black colleges. It shaped the dynamics of African American Christianity. It intensified the ecstatic and wonder-working dimensions of the holiness movement, providing critical components to the birth of Pentecostalism. These dynamics did not just grow out of the development of global transportation, media and economic network. They emerged from the very characteristics of Christianity and evangelicalism itself.
Cosponsored by the Nagel Institute, History and Religion Departments
October 2011 Public Nagel Lectures
Industrial Education and Global Black Christianity, 1880-1930:
What did Booker T. Washington, Marcus Garvey and John Chilembwe have in common?
Andrew Barnes
Associate Professor of History
Arizona State University
Tuesday, October 25 @ 3:30 PM
Meeter Center Lecture Hall
Cosponsored by The History Department, Africa & African Dispora Studies and The Nagel Institute
The Role of Youth in Emerging Democracies:
Egypt, Korea, China and Papua
Robert A. Evans
Executive Director of Plowshares Institute
Monday, October 31 @ 3:30 PM
Covenant Fine Arts Recital Hall
Sponsored by The Nagel Institute
Public Lectures
Lian Xi
Filling in the Gaps in Modern Chinese Church History
Monday, April 19
3:30pm
Meeter Center Lecture Hall
The Christian Movement in Modern China
Tuesday, April 20
3:30 PM
Meeter Center Lecture Hall
Cosponsored with the Hubers Asian Studies Program
Lian Xi's latest publication, Redeemed by Fire
This book is the first to address the history and future of 
homegrown,mass Chinese Christianity. Drawing on a large collection of fresh sources—including contemporaneous accounts, diaries, memoirs, archival material, and interviews—Lian Xi traces the transformation of Protestant Christianity in twentieth-century Chinafrom a small, beleaguered “missionary” church buffeted by antiforeignism to an indigenous popular religion energized by nationalism andmillenarianism.
Read more about Redeemed by Fire from Yale University Press
Levi Obonyo, Mitchell Terpstra,
and Mark Fackler
"Should Media Bend Public Debate toward Peace? A Case Study in Kenya's
Post-Election Violence, 2007-2008"
November 16, 2009 3:30 pm
Alumni Association Board Room
Ben Quarshie
"Shaping the Future of Christianity: A Collective Responsibility"
October 29, 2009 3:30 pm
Meeter Center Lecture Hall
Mark Noll
"God and Race in American Politics"
September 17, 2009
Prince Conference Center
"World Christianity, American Christianity, & the Future"
September 18, 2009 @ 3:30 PM
Prince Conference Center
Melba Padilla Maggay
"Persistent Old Gods: Protestant Missions and Filipino Religious Consciousness"
May 12, 2009 @3:30 PM
Meeter Center Lecture Hall
Dianne Slager
"African Independent Church Leaders' Knowledge and Attitutes about HIV"
March 31, 2009 @ 3:30 PM
Meeter Center Lecture Hall
View the Text
Listen
Mariano Avila
"Preliminary Approaches to Spiritual Warfare in Worship Practices in Latin America"
March 31, 2009 @3:30 pm
Meeter Center Lecture Hall
View the Text
Listen
Cephas Omenyo
"African Christian Initiatives: Some Lessons for the West"
Tuesday, May 6 @ 3:30 PM
Alumni Association Board Room
The Rev. Dr. Chris Wright
"God, Israel, and the Future of the Nations
in Biblical Perspective"
Wednesday, April 23 @ 3:30 PM
Meeter Center Lecture Hall
Dr. Stephan Linton
Dr. Stephan Linton, visiting associate of the Korean Institute at Harvard University, will gave the following lectures to inaugurate the Korean Lectureship at Calvin College:
What Should Christians Do about North Korea?
Wednesday, March 26 @ 3:30 PM
Meeter Center Lecture HallWhy Should Koreans Care about North Korea?
Thursday, March 27 @ 3:30 PM
Calvin Seminary Auditorium
Cosponsored by: the Asian Studies Program at Calvin College & the Nagel Institute
Tibebe Eshete: Assistant Professor of History, Calvin College
Marxism & Religion: the Paradox of Church Growth in Ethiopia
October 31, 2007
"This lecture discussed church and state encounters during the period of the Ethiopian Revolution, 1974-1990. Eshete provided documentary information regarding the persecutions of the evangelical church and how the church both survived and thrived in the midst of a daunting challenge through its clandestine existence and operations"
Sponsored by the Nagel Institute for the Study of World Christianity and the Department of History, Calvin College
Dave Livermore, Ph.D.
Dave Livermore, Ph.D., Director of Global Learning Center at Grand Rapids Theological Seminary and Author of Serving with Eyes Wide Open: Doing Short-Term Missions with Cultural Intelligence (Baker Books, 2006), spoke at Calvin College about using cultural Intelligence (CQ) to improve short-term missions and service learning effectiveness.
"Looking In Before Reaching Out"
March 8, 2007
Calvin News & Media Coverage of the Lecture
Dr. Mariano Avila Lecture at Calvin College
Dr. Mariano Avila holds a Ph.D. Political Science and is a Professor of New Testament at Calvin Theological Seminary.
"The Political Role of Evangelicals in Mexican Democracy from 1991 to the recent Presidential Elections of 2006: Lessons and scenarios."
March 12, 2007
Calvin College
This lecture addresses Mexican Evangelicals'
- Role in Mexican political history
- Participation in recent Mexican presidential elections
- Future role in Mexican public affairs
Cosponsored with Calvin Theological Seminary
Dr. Yiyi Chen Lecture at Calvin College, February 12, 2007
As a scholar on the Hebrew Bible and Jewish culture, Dr. Yiyi Chen will reflect on the encountering between the religion and culture value behind the Bible and the Chinese culture during the last two centuries With the fast economical development of China for the last two decades, and ever intensifying interaction with the western world, more and more Chinese are looking into one of the corner stones of western civilization, the Bible, for experience and inspirations in order to solve many social problems. Read more » or View the Poster »
Dr. Solomon Nkesiga Lecture, October 3, 2006
Dr. Nkesiga, President of Kampala Evangelical School of Theology (KEST) in Uganda, gave the lecture:
"African Renaissance: Its Politico-Economic Initiatives, its Negations, and the Contribution of African Theology of Wisdom" 
This was a cosponsored by the Nagel Institute for the Study of World Christianity, African Diaspora Studies Program, and the International Development Studies Program.
Dedication of the Nagel Institute, May 2006
The keynote address was given by Lamin Sanneh, D. Willis James Professor of Mission and World Christianity and professor of history at Yale Divinity School.
