Profs. Daniels and Esterline among delegates to Edinburgh 2010

McCormick Professors David Daniels and David Esterline are among the approximately 250 scholars and church leaders invited to participate in Edinburgh 2010, a major conference on global Christianity convened on June 2-6, the centennial anniversary of the first world mission event of its kind held in Edinburgh in 1910.

The event gathers representatives from a wide variety of Christian traditions around nine different themes:

• Foundations for mission
• Christian mission among other faiths
• Mission and post-modernities
• Mission and power
• Forms of missionary engagement
• Theological education and formation
• Christian communities in contemporary contexts
• Mission and unity - ecclesiology and mission
• Mission spirituality and authentic discipleship

Many of the participants are members of commissions assigned to one of the themes and tasked with preparing written reports that identify key questions and priorities, review developments since 1910, and make strategic recommendations for further discussion at the June event.

Among the desired outcomes of Edinburgh 2010 is the initiation of a conversation between mission leaders of older mission movements of the North and the new mission movements from the South and East. Toward this end, 60 percent of the delegates are from the global south, half are women, and approximately 20 percent are under the age of 30.

The Rev. Dr. David Esterline comes to Edinburgh 2010 as a delegate for the World Council of Churches. In the fall of 2008, he was invited to participate in the International Study Group on Theological Education, which was asked to prepare a major report on the future of theological education in the 21st century in preparation for Edinburgh 2010. Esterline is also co-editor of the forthcoming The Handbook on Theological Education in World Christianity (Regnum International) and currently serves as Director of the Institute for Cross-cultural Theological Education and Associate Professor of Cross-cultural Education and Ministry at McCormick.

The Rev. Dr. David Daniels III succeeds Dr. Ogbu Kalu as the Luce Professor of World Christianity at McCormick and is attending Edinburgh 2010 as a member of a Pentecostal delegation. An ordained minister in the Church of God in Christ (COGIC) since 1980, he was appointed chair of the denomination’s Global Board of Education last year and is the delegation’s sole COGIC and African American representative.

Find more information on Edinburgh 2010 [1] or read McCormick faculty bios [2].