The Changing Face of Christianity?

March 9, 2005 == MEDIA ADVISORY

Calvin College will host a trio of events to celebrate the publication of "The
Changing Face of Christianity: Africa, the West, and the World."

The book is edited by Calvin's Joel Carpenter and Yale's Lamin Sanneh,
includes contributions from Calvin professors Richard Plantinga and Todd Vanden
Berg and is published by Oxford University Press. This book began with a
summer of 2000 seminar at Calvin that was directed by Sanneh and funded by the
Pew Charitable Trusts.

All of the upcoming events are open to the public and are being jointly
sponsored by the Provost's Office at Calvin College, the Calvin Seminars in
Christian Scholarship, Calvin Theological Seminary and Reformed Bible College.

The first event will be a dinner discussion and panel presentation called
simply "The Changing Face of Christianity" and will feature Sanneh and
Carpenter. It will be held in the West Dining Room, DeWitt College Center, at
Reformed Bible College on March 30 at 5 p.m.

Those interested in attending are invited to purchase dinner in the Walters
Dining Room (cost is $4) at 5 before proceeding to the West Dining Room where
the discussion will begin at 5:15.

Sanneh and Carpenter will join attendees in a discussion on the changing role
of world Christianity, Christianity in Africa and world Christianity as
practiced right here in the U.S.

The next day, March 31, at 10 am Sanneh will speak in the Calvin Theological
Seminary Auditorium on "Post-Western Christian Resurgence: Too Much, Too
Early?"

Says Sanneh: "Confidence in a century of Western missions was on the wane
when, in the 1960s, the current Christian resurgence kicked in, catching us off
guard. Is that loss of confidence too far advanced to be reversible even by
mounting evidence of an unflagging resurgence? What are the implications of the
gulf between a resurgent post-Western Christianity and an increasingly
post-Christian West?"

Finally that day, March 31, at 3:30 pm, Calvin will host a book reception and
panel discussion called "The Changing Face of Christianity: Africa, the West
and the World," featuring Sanneh, Carpenter, Vanden Berg and Plantinga. That
will be held in the Meeter Center Lecture Hall at Calvin.

For more information contact the Seminars in Christian Scholarship at Calvin
at 526-8558 or seminars@calvin.edu
Also see http://www.calvin.edu/scs/sanneh
For more on the book see
http://www.calvin.edu/news/releases/2004_05/changing_face.htm

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Received on Wed Mar 9 09:25:11 2005