Cambridge Centre for Christianity Worldwide

Cambridge Centre for Christianity Worldwide
Tadmouri · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Name	Cambridge Centre for Christianity Worldwide
Formation	1990s
Location	Cambridge, United Kingdom
Headquarters	Ridley Hall, Cambridge
Leader title	Director
Parent organization	University of Cambridge

Contents

Cambridge Centre for Christianity Worldwide is a research and archive institution based at Ridley Hall, Cambridge, within the University of Cambridge environment, devoted to the study of global Christianity. The centre connects scholars, clergy, and curators from institutions such as University of Oxford, University of Edinburgh, Harvard University, Yale University and University of Toronto to examine historical and contemporary links among churches, mission societies and communities across Africa, Asia, Oceania, Europe and the Americas. It collaborates with museums, theological colleges and libraries including the British Library, Bodleian Library, The National Archives (United Kingdom), SOAS University of London and the Cambridge University Library.

History

The centre emerged from a lineage of nineteenth- and twentieth-century networks including Church Missionary Society, Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, London Missionary Society, China Inland Mission, Basel Mission, Scottish Missions, Methodist Missionary Society and the archives of denominational colleges such as Trinity College, Cambridge and Ridley Hall, Cambridge. Its institutional antecedents intersect with events like the Edinburgh Missionary Conference (1910), the ecumenical work of the World Council of Churches, and postcolonial studies prompted by scholars affiliated with King's College London, University of Glasgow and SOAS. The centre's founding drew on collections transferred from Cambridge Theological Federation partners and on projects linked to historians working on figures including David Livingstone, William Carey, Samuel Ajayi Crowther, Hudson Taylor and Mary Slessor.

The centre's mission aligns with comparative study models developed at Centre for the Study of World Christianity, Oxford Centre for Mission Studies, All Souls College, Oxford research groups and thematic programmes at American Academy of Religion conferences. Activities include convening seminars with speakers from Lund University, University of Oxford, Princeton University, Duke University and University of Cape Town; hosting conferences that bring together curators from Victoria and Albert Museum, historians from Institute of Historical Research and theologians from Westcott House, Cambridge; and partnering on digital projects in collaboration with Google Arts & Culture initiatives and datasets managed by Jisc.

The centre maintains archival holdings and object collections alongside materials deposited at the Cambridge University Library, the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Cambridge, and denominational libraries such as Selwyn College, Cambridge and Fitzwilliam Museum custodial arrangements. Holdings include correspondence of missionaries associated with Church Missionary Society, diaries from expeditions connected to Henry Martyn, administrative records from British and Foreign Bible Society, hymnals linked to Charles Wesley, and photographic albums documenting missionary activity in regions such as East Africa, South Asia, South China Sea missions and Pacific Islands. The collections are used by specialists studying archives comparable to those at National Library of Scotland, Birmingham Central Library, and the Africana Library at Rhodes University.

Scholars at the centre publish monographs, edited volumes and articles in journals commonly accessed by researchers at Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press, Routledge, Brill Publishers and specialist periodicals such as Journal of Ecclesiastical History, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, Church History, Studies in World Christianity, and Mission Studies. Research themes engage with biographies of figures associated with Evangelical Revival, case studies of congregations in Nairobi, Lagos, Kolkata, São Paulo, and analyses of encounters between missionaries and indigenous polities like the Zulu Kingdom, Qing dynasty, and Māori iwi. Projects have received fellowships and grants from bodies such as the Arts and Humanities Research Council (UK), the Leverhulme Trust, the British Academy, European Research Council, and international foundations associated with Ford Foundation grants.

The centre contributes to postgraduate supervision within faculties including Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge and collaborates on courses offered by Ridley Hall, Cambridge, Westcott House, Cambridge, St Edmund's College, Cambridge and MSc/PhD programmes linked to Cambridge Theological Federation. It stages public lectures featuring historians from University of Chicago, theologians from Princeton Theological Seminary, and community partners such as Cambridge City Council cultural teams and local congregations from denominations like the Anglican Communion, Methodist Church in Britain, Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales and Baptist Union of Great Britain. Outreach includes exhibitions curated with Museum of Cambridge, oral-history projects aligned with British Oral History Society, and school programmes in partnership with Cambridge Assessment initiatives.

Governance is provided through a board composed of academics, clergy and archivists drawn from institutions such as Ridley Hall, Cambridge, Trinity Hall, Cambridge, Queens' College, Cambridge and external partners like Union Theological Seminary (New York), University of the Western Cape and Australian Catholic University. Funding sources include grants from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (UK), endowments associated with donor families and trusts, collaborative project funding from European Union research streams, and revenue from publications via Cambridge University Press. The centre also benefits from in-kind support from partner institutions such as Cambridge University Library, Fitzwilliam Museum, and denominational archives including Lambeth Palace Library.

Category:Research institutes in Cambridge