Mission is shaped by the life and experience of the church, both past and present, and this in turn is the function of both the work of the Spirit of God and the interaction of the people of God with their contexts. In line with this position, we examine the impact of Covid-19, highlighting some elements of the global context of mission, trends in world Christianity and mission. We then explore how global mission is (...) in a process of realignment that has the potential to be enhanced through embracing the conditions Covid-19 has imposed on us. Finally, we consider the need for deep reflection on our identity if we are to take the opportunity to bear faithful witness in this moment. (shrink)

This paper intends to provide the church with a biblical perspective of work and economics in order for the church to missionally respond to global poverty. For this purpose, the Western Church’s attitude toward work and economics is critically examined in light of how the church’s biblical identity, a holy people, is related to work and economics in Scripture. This paper demonstrates that God’s mission in Scripture always involves redeeming work and economics from the influence of sin. As (...) its main thesis, this paper contends that, from a biblical perspective, the church’s call to be a holy people requires practicing a way of work and economics that embodies and presents the compassionate character of God who envisions human flourishing. In conclusion, this paper suggests that the church, which seeks to missionally respond to global poverty, should participate in God’s mission of redeeming work and economics from the influence of sin. (shrink)

The journey of the Wycliffe Global Alliance is an example of how some paradigm shifts are influencing leading in mission. Since Christianity is both an agent and product of globalization, its beliefs have spread from one source to another, crossing religious, linguistic and cultural contexts. As a result, there are polycentric or multiple centres of influence since Christianity has homes within a diversity of contexts. This carries with it various implications including how partnering in mission needs to (...) be deconceptualized through greater emphasis on friendship. In order for this to happen as a missiological principle, third spaces may need to be created. Viewed against the backdrop of church and mission agency leadership, structures may be ‘stuck in the Industrial Era’. Therefore, the stage is set for exploring how these and other themes influence leadership in God’s mission. (shrink)

The reality of globalization warrants an understanding of mission that negotiates global and local realities. This article explores the way in which the global and the local have informed Mission as Transformation, a holistic missionary movement among radical evangelicals that developed in earnest since Lausanne ’74. How have local expressions — particularly Filipino expressions — of Transformation helped to form a global understanding of Transformation? And vice versa: How does a global understanding serve local (...) expressions? The Transformational view of the global-local — or glocal — relationship as symbiotic and not antagonistic undermines both universal theologies that are imposed on all cultures and to local theologies that lack global accountability. (shrink)

In this remarkable collection of essays the editors and contributors reflect on the "constants" of mission throughout history and in today's context: the centrality of Christ and of Trinitarian faith, the importance of the communal or ecclesial nature of mission, the connection between missionary reflection and practice and a person's or community's eschatological vision, a person's or community's conviction about the nature of salvation) the perspective on the nature of humanity, and the appreciation or suspicion of culture. In (...) a framework of prophetic dialogue, theologians and missiologists from around the world relate these to the six elements of mission: witness and proclamation; liturgy, prayer, and contemplation; justice, peace, and the integrity of creation; interreligious dialogue; inculturation; and reconciliation. Out of this prophetic dialogue emerge theological reflections that are showing a way forward for theology and mission in a global context. Book jacket. (shrink)

“Cultural imperialism” has been an influential concept in the representation of the modern Christian missionary movement. This essay calls its usefulness into question and draws on recent work on the cultural dynamics of globalization to propose alternative ways of looking at the role of missions in modern history. The first section of the essay surveys the ways in which the term “cultural imperialism” has been employed in different disciplines, and some of the criticisms made of the term within those disciplines. (...) The second section discusses the application of the cultural imperialism framework to the missionary enterprise, and the related term “colonization of consciousness” used by Jean and John Comaroff in their influential work on British missionaries and the Tswana of southern Africa. The third section looks at the historiography of missions in modern China, showing how deeply the teleological narratives of nationalism and development have marked that historiography. The concluding section argues that the missionary movement must be seen as one element in a globalizing modernity that has altered Western societies as well as non-Western ones in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and that a comparative global approach to the missionary movement can help to illuminate the process of modern cultural globalization. (shrink)

Multinational corporations (MNCs) have come under pressure to adopt private regulatory initiatives such as supplier codes of conduct in order to address poor working conditions in global supply chain factories. While a well-known literature explores drivers and outcomes of such monitoring schemes, this literature focuses mainly on large firms and has ignored the growing integration of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) into global supply chains. Furthermore, the literature on corporate social responsibility (CSR) in SMEs primarily emphasizes domestic initiatives (...) and not global challenges. Focusing on the Business for Social Compliance Initiative (BSCI), this article examines the positions of private actors, who demand and supply private regulation as well as the positions of those firms, who are the targets of such schemes. As the BSCI has grown its membership, MNCs increasingly request that SMEs meet BSCI requirements in global supply chains even though compliance is a “mission impossible” for many smaller firms. As a result of this development, the private regulatory system is facing growing strain. (shrink)

In a review of the collective monograph «Civilization mission of Siberia: from technogenic-consumer to spiritual-ecological strategy of global and regional development», edited by Professor A. V. Ivanov, the author argues with the researchers on a number of key issues, including the system-forming role of the Russian state in the development of Eurasian civilization, nationalitis policy of the former Soviet republics, national and cultural identity. The authors of the monograph focus on the problems of defining the concept of «Greater (...) Eurasia», the civilizational tasks of Russia in the integration of Greater Eurasia. The methodological basis of the fundamental and applied research of the mission of Siberia is the synthesis of the diachronic and synchronic aspects of the civilizational approach. (shrink)

The goal of this article is to offer a three-step approach for a systematic discussion on the procedures, roles, and responsibilities of ethics centers. First, we identify three levels of responsibility: scientific, organizational/institutional, societal/global. Second, we propose that justice, contextual pluralism, and a process orientation serve as normative foundations for developing ethics centers’ mission. Third, we outline and emphasize the crucial role that teaching plays in the work of ethics centers, as well as in other academic institutions. As (...) an overarching perspective, we suggest two complementary kinds of approaches for the role of ethics especially in scientific research: i) ethics becoming a constitutional part of any research project. ii) specific in-depth interdisciplinary projects with ethics being the research topic. (shrink)

La province jésuite du Brésil est parcourue au début du XVIIe siècle par une série de tensions qui relèvent autant de son rapport à la société coloniale contemporaine que de ses relations avec le centre romain. À travers l'étude d'un document programmatique exceptionnel et original, dont l'auteur et la date de rédaction demeurent inconnus, les Advertências para a provincia do Brasil, on analyse l'inscription de l'entreprise missionnaire dans sa double dimension économicopolitique, avec l'engagement dans la production sucrière, et spirituelle, assurer (...) le salut du missionnaire et la conversion des Indiens. Ce projet, qui fait de l'a ldeia la structure déterminante de la présence et de l'action jésuites en terre de Brésil, révèle une vision globale de la mission, à la fois géopolitique, économique et religieuse que l'historiographie traditionnelle a occultée au profit d'une approche exclusivement spirituelle. (shrink)

Though a small and relatively obscure country, Scotland enjoyed a certain prominence in the modern Western missionary movement. Explanation of this may be attempted by an examination of some principal characteristics of Scottish engagement in worldwide mission during the 19th and 20th centuries. These include social vision, ecclesial commitment, intellectual quality, extensive engagement, an inclination to the long view, and a balance struck between national identity and global outlook. As new movements of mission find their shape and (...) direction, the Scottish experience worldwide across two centuries may have some value as a point of reference. (shrink)

Extensive work has been carried out on gender and social transformation but there is a need for more work between these intersecting trajectories and their implications for Christian mission. Drawing on data collected from one of the migrants this current study employs the postcolonial lens to analyse interview responses on a migration experience of a young female migrant in South Africa and highlights survival strategies for young migrants by demonstrating that the impact of changing global socio-economic landscapes and (...) poverty on migrant communities presents opportunity to explore alternative missional paradigms and theologies that address conditions of deprivation. As a contribution to United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, this study also highlights how some migrant women use situations of deprivation to promote socio-economic transformation through radical doctrines of resistance. Interrogating key themes that emerged from the interview alongside Dolores William’s doctrines of resistance demonstrates how one adolescent migrant embodies the radical doctrine of hope as lived reality expressed through a resilient theology of survival, which is sustained by developing and adapting to new lifestyles through cultural capital, skills, competency, new personal qualities, fashion and language or accents as means for survival strategies in the face of hostility.Contribution: By reflecting on the complex and gendered survival strategies for migrant women in religious communities, this article represents a systematic and practical reflection within a paradigm in which the intersection of Philosophy, Religious Studies, Social Sciences, Humanities and Natural Sciences generates an interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary and trans disciplinary contested discourse. (shrink)

The aim of this work was to elaborate on the author’s previously published hypothesis of the Soul of Multiverse, a suggested cosmic phenomenon that also appears to imbue the human Soul across its individual and noospheric scales. Without alternatives, the method of analysis continued to rely on the approach of cosmological neuroscience, which integrates scientific facts, religious insights, philosophical suggestions, engineering rules and artistic tools to grasp the complexity of the multidimensional phenomenon of Soul. The result of this examination was (...) the multilayered thought that just as the central medium of human Soul, the hypothesized prefrontal cortical supercircuitry of Self-Ken, seems to comprise domains representing Identity, Conscience, Will and Mission, analogous domains may also function in the noospheric and cosmic Souls. Regarding the human Soul, its four domains appear to be determined by both hereditary genetic and encountered environmental factors to present its host with a Mission enabling his or her mental engine and physical features to integrate into the surrounding society and space-time in the most meaningful and dignified way—if that way is undertaken. Regarding the noospheric Soul, it is made of individual human Souls interacting with the non-living system of interconnected computers to produce functions accessible to humans all over the world through uncontrolled communication across the Internet. Its most probable Mission is to let this global presence acquire its own Identity, develop its own Conscience and refine its own Will, so that their coherent, superior whole can be ready for sensing the cosmic Soul. Regarding the cosmic Soul, the hypothesized Soul of the Multiverse, its Identity appears to express the Laws of Mystery of Endlessness, Coexistence in Diversity, and Truth in Complexity. Further, its Conscience seems to be moved by the Law of Divine—Evil Asymmetry, its Will by the Law of Determination with Uncertainty, and its Mission by the Law of Lives to Transcend. (shrink)

We are in the midst of a crisis of climate change and environmental degradation that will only get worse, unless significant changes are rapidly made. Globally, the healthcare sector causes a large share of our total environmental footprint: 4.4% of greenhouse gases. Sustainable healthcare has emerged as a way for healthcare sectors in high‐income countries to help mitigate climate change by reducing their emissions. Whether global health should be sustainable and what ethical grounds might exist to support such a (...) claim are not questions that have been investigated. The paper argues that global health practice—the delivery of health services to underserved populations in resource‐poor areas of the world—should be sustainable as a matter of climate justice and solidarity. Reducing climate change‐related risks and harms for the vulnerable is integral to the mission of global health and thus it is necessary to consider the climate impact of its practice. The field has a duty to provide sustainable health services that are responsive to climate change‐related changes in the local burden of disease and to build sustainable health system infrastructure. Specific responsibilities for global health funders, managers, and implementers to uphold the duty are proposed. To conclude, the paper considers what limits might be placed on the duty to deliver sustainable global healthcare. (shrink)

The global community, from UNESCO to NGOs, is committed to promoting the status of women in science, engineering and technology, despite long-held prejudices and the lack of role models. Previously, when equality was not firmly established as a key issue on international or national agendas, women’s colleges played a great role in mentoring female scientists. However, now that a concerted effort has been made by governments, the academic community and the private sector to give women equal opportunities, the raison (...) d’être of women’s universities seems to have become lost. This paper argues otherwise, by demonstrating that women’s universities in Japan became beneficiaries of government initiatives since the early 2000s to reverse the low ratio of women in scientific research. The paper underscores the importance of the reputation of women’s universities embedded in their institutional foundations, by explaining how female scientific communities take shape in different national contexts. England, as a primary example of a neoliberal welfare regime, with its strong emphasis on equality and diversity, promoted its gender equality policy under the auspices of the Department of Trade and Industry. By contrast, with a strong emphasis on family values and the male-breadwinner model, the Japanese government carefully treated the goal of supporting female scientists from the perspective of the equal participation of both men and women rather than that of equality. Following this trend, rather contradictorily, women’s universities, with their tradition of fostering a ‘good wife, wise mother’ image, began to be highlighted as potential gender-free institutions that provided role models and mentoring female scientists. By drawing on the cases of England and Japan, this paper demonstrates how the idea of equality can be framed differently, according to wider institutional contexts, and how this idea impacts on gender policies. (shrink)

Clinical legal education is playing an increasingly important role in educating lawyers worldwide. In The Global Clinical Movement: Educating Lawyers for Social Justice, editor Frank S. Bloch and contributors describe the central concepts, goals, and methods of clinical legal education from a global perspective, with a particular emphasis on its social justice mission. With chapters written by leading clinical legal educators from every region of the world, The Global Clinical Movement demonstrates how the emerging global (...) clinical movement can advance social justice through legal education. Professor Bloch and the contributors also examine the influence of clinical legal education on the legal academy and the legal profession and chart the global clinical movement's future role in educating lawyers for social justice. The Global Clinical Movement consists of three parts. Part I describes clinical legal education programs from every region of the world and discusses those qualities that are unique to a particular country or region. Part II discusses the various ways that clinical programs and the clinical methodology advance the cause of social justice around the world. Part III analyzes the current state of the global clinical movement and sets out an agenda for the movement to advance social justice through socially relevant legal education. (shrink)

Debat tentang pluralisme tetap berlangsung di Indonesia, karena itu dua buku yang akan dibahas di sini sangat relevan. Paul F. Knitter, seorang teolog Katolik, merumuskan suatu pandangan pluralistik mirip dengan yang diharamkan oleh Majelis Ulama Indonesia pada 2005, sedangkan Gavin D’Costa dalam bukunya dengan tajam membongkar “pluralisme” itu. Dua-duanya berargumentasi secara teologis, atas dasar pengandaian-pengandaian Kristiani-Katolik. Dalam bab pertama Knitter menggariskan kembali perjalanan teolo- gisnya dari eksklusivisme, melalui inklusivisme, ke posisi yang dinama- kannya “pluralisme.“ Knitter tidak hanya menolak anggapan (yang (...) oleh Gereja Katolik sudah ditolak sejak sebelum Konsili Vatikan II) bahwa ”di luar Gereja tidak ada keselamatan“ (”eksklusivisme“), melainkan juga posi- si-posisi ”inklusivistik“—seperti yang misalnya dikemukakan oleh Karl Rahner—yaitu bahwa, meskipun semua orang dapat diselamatkan, namun mereka diselamatkan karena Yesus Kristus, jadi bahwa kebenaran penuh hanya ada dalam iman kepada Yesus Sang Juru Selamat bagi semua. Plu- ralisme Knitter menyatakan bahwa tidak ada agama yang dapat meng- klaim keunggulannya terhadap agama lain. Kalau saya tidak salah tangkap, Knitter mengajukan tiga argumen. Yang pertama adalah kejujuran dialog antaragama. ”Bagaimana,” tanya Knitter, “orang dapat sungguh-sungguh ’menghormati’ kebenaran dalam pandangan orang lain... apabila kita masuk ke dalam dialog dengan keyakinan bahwa kita yang mempunyai kebenaran definitif?” (hlm. 33). Argumen yang sama juga diajukan dalam bentuk sedikit lain: Menurut Knitter tidak mungkin seorang tokoh atau suatu ajaran religius tertentu memuat seluruh kekayaan realitas Ilahi. Yesus boleh diyakini sebagai “totus Deus” (seluruhnya Allah), tetapi bukan sebagai “totum Dei” (keseluruhan Allah). Yesus betul-betul penyelamat, tetapi selain Yesus ada banyak penyelamat lain. Argumentasi ini merangsang pertanyaan kembali apakah dialog dapat jujur kalau para peserta sebelumnya harus melepaskan keyakinan mereka yang paling inti? Knitter boleh saja menyangkal bahwa keseluruhan Ilahi ada dalam Yesus, tetapi atas dasar apa ia menuntut agar orang Kristiani menyangkalnya juga? Bukankah Knitter jatuh ke dalam dogmatisme sama dengan yang dituduhkannya?.................................................... D’Costa mengklaim bahwa pengertian keselamatan yang triniter itu menjamin apa yang justru tidak terjamin oleh “pluralisme” ala Knitter; yaitu, keterbukaan, toleransi dan kesamaan. Keterbukaan, karena Gereja dapat dan bahkan harus betul-betul belajar dari agama-agama lain. Tole- ransi, karena Gereja wajib menghormati kebebasan beragama; artinya, ada- lah hak setiap orang dan kelompok orang untuk mengakui dan mempraktikkan agama yang mereka yakini. Kesamaan, karena Gereja mengakui martabat setiap orang sebagai alamat cinta Ilahi. D’Costa mengakhiri bukunya dengan suatu pertimbangan bagus tentang makna dan tempat doa antaragama-agama yang berbeda. Buku D’Costa adalah salah satu bahasan paling jelas, mendalam, dan meyakinkan tentang bagaimana orang Katolik, dan seharusnya semua orang Kristiani, dapat bertemu dengan agama-agama lain tanpa kesombongan, tetapi juga tanpa mengkompromikan imannya. D’Costa membuka dogmatisme deistik-sekularistik (Allah tidak masuk kedalam sejarah umat manusia) dan posisi-posisi yang menamakan diri pluralistik. Adalah kekuatan buku D’Costa bahwa ia memperlihatkan bahwa justru iman pada Allah yang triniter, yang kita ketahui dari pewahyuan Diri Allah dalam Yesus, memungkinkan untuk bersikap hormat dan terbuka kepada agama-agama lain. Daripada menyanyikan lagu bahwa semua agama pada dasarnya sama saja, D’Costa memungkinkan kita untuk tanpa kompromi percaya pada apa yang diyakini Gereja sejak 2000 tahun: bahwa Yesuslah Sang Juru Selamat Ilahi, dan sekaligus menghormati mereka yang berbeda imannya. Itulah dasar mantap bagi dialog antarumat beragama. (Franz Magnis-Suseno, Program Pascasarjana, Sekolah Tinggi Filsafat Driyarkara, Jakarta). (shrink)

Global short-term medical volunteerism is growing, and properly conducted, is a tool in the fight for greater global health equity. It is intrinsically ethical (i.e., it involves ethics at every step) and depends upon ethical conduct for its success. At present, ethical guidelines remain in their infancy, which presents a unique opportunity. This paper presents a set of basic ethical principles, building on prior work in this area and previously developed guidelines for international clinical research. The content of (...) these principles, and the benchmarks used to evaluate them, remain intentionally vague and can only be filled by collaboration with those on-the-ground in local communities where this work occurs. Ethical review must additionally take into consideration the different obligations arising from the type of institution, type of intervention, and type of relationship involved. This paper argues that frequent and formalized ethical review, conducted from the beginning with the local community (where this community helps define the terms of debate), remains the most important ethical safeguard for this work. (shrink)

The United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) was created in 2000 to leverage UN prestige and induce corporations to embrace 10 principles incorporating values of environmental sustainability, protection of human rights, fair treatment of workers, and elimination of bribery and corruption. We review and analyze the GC’s activities and impact in enhancing corporate social responsibility since inception. First, we propose an analytical framework which allows us to assess the qualities of the UNGC and its principles in the context of external (...) and internal elements that influence code effectiveness and implementation. Second, we analyze UNGC performance in encouraging companies to become signatory members and bring about demonstrable change in corporate CSR-sustainability activities. In its 10-year report, UNGC has proclaimed growth in both membership and program activity. However, all credible and publicly available data and documentation conclusively demonstrate that the UNGC has failed to induce its signatory companies to enhance their CSR efforts and integrate the 10 principles in their policies and operations. The result has been a loss of public trust and support of UNGC from important constituencies among civil society organizations, and those individuals and groups adversely impacted by corporate activities and resultant negative externalities. This diminished credibility has also made UNGC largely dependent on the corporate sector for its very survival. We conclude that this dependence has in turn impaired and would continue to hinder UNGC’s ability to fulfill its mission. Such an outcome raises serious questions as to the viability, usefulness, and continued existence of UNGC. (shrink)

Len Bartlotti did his doctoral research on proverbs, Islam, and identity among Pashtuns, and serves as Research Tutor at the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies. He served fourteen years in Asia and is founder and former Executive Director of the InterLit Foundation Publishers and Educational Consultants.

The UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UNCOPUOS) has played a central role in the development of standards for the sustainable exploration of the Moon. The standards, in particular, are being shaped through consultations with the major space actors namely, states, international organizations, and commercial enterprises. The Moon Village Association, for instance, was created to foster the implementation of a vision of peaceful international cooperation of governmental and non-governmental actors in the exploration of the Moon. In 2021, (...) the MVA, in its Report on the Global Expert Group on Sustainable Lunar Activities, proposed the creation of a neutral multi-stakeholder platform and framework to ensure the conduct of sustainable lunar missions in the future. According to the MVA, there is a need to consider approaches that promote future lunar sustainability or recommend practices for upcoming lunar activities. In light of the above-mentioned report and MVA’s Report on Best Practices for Sustainable Lunar Activities (2020), this article sheds light on some of the major contributions toward the development of standards for sustainable exploration of the Moon, including the recognition of its legal personhood. (shrink)

The Health Impact Fund (HIF) is a project aimed at expanding access to life-saving drugs worldwide and incentivizing pharmaceutical companies to invest in research and development for neglected diseases. The HIF would invert the existing patent framework by rewarding ideas through their diffusion rather than protecting against this diffusion, by encouraging a collective rather than privatized wealth scheme. The basic idea behind the HIF is the creation of a new competitive market that centers on individuals who, under normal circumstances, exert (...) very little force on the tide of market demand. The HIF does not operate on standard market measures of demand, but instead measures demand as a product of needs, while in conventional market scenarios, private citizens and national welfare states pay for needs. The idea is that the HIF would create a functional, competitive market in which pharmaceutical profit is determined by the actual health impact of each new drug, a measure born from pharmacological and distributive efficacy. In this article, the basic features of and main challenges to the HIF are addressed. (shrink)

Surgery is an important part of health care worldwide. Without access to surgical treatments, morbidity and mortality increase. Access to surgical treatment is a significant problem in global public health because surgical services are not equally distributed in the world. There is a disproportionate scarcity of surgical access in low-income countries. There are many charitable organizations around the world that sponsor surgical missions to under served nations. One such organization is Operation Smile International, a group with which both authors (...) have volunteered. This paper will describe the purpose and processes involved in Operation Smile and identify some of the key ethical issues that arise in short term medical volunteer work highlighting the importance of sustainability. (shrink)

This paper looks at some of the missiological implications of the history, presence and ministry of diaspora Christians in Singapore and Malaysia in the 19th and early 20th century. More particularly, it considers how their lives and legacy tied together Europe, China and Southeast Asia in mission. It suggests that the global movement of people, ideas and faith is not new, but has ridden the waves of globalization for centuries if not millennia.

The notion that Western ways are superior can be used to justify subsidising advocacy to the poor in Africa who might otherwise reject those ways out of ignorance. This ignores differences in culture that can trip up Western logic in Africa. When generosity is the reason to subsidise Western interventions, outside agents can be paid back in honour in ways not appropriate for Christians to accept. Perceived global inequalities used to convince donors to part with their money are impositions (...) when those inequalities are not realised by recipients. When something inherently good, like the gospel, is routinely subsidised, some African people only value it when it comes with money. This disenfranchises poor evangelists. In order to overcome missionary ignorance, promotion of the prosperity gospel, and corruption associated with excessive foreign subsidies, this article advocates that vulnerable mission, namely, foreign intervention using local languages and resources, be permitted. (shrink)

Michigan State University faculty, staff, alumni, and students travel the world on "study abroad" programs, research and development projects, and personal vacations; many document their experiences photographically. "MSU Global Focus" is an international photography competition created in 1999 by MSU's Office of International Studies and Programs, to foster the sharing of such photographs. Global Focus: Images of a Land-Grant Tradition is a blend of images and words, of artistic expression and historical documentation, of past and present, and of (...) the perspectives of many people. Many of the archival and current photographs have never before been published. More than 60 winning photographs from the first five years of the competition are featured in this book. These photos are juxtaposedwith more than 100 images depicting the breadth of M.S.U.'s international involvements, stretching from as long ago as the 1870s to the present day. Michigan State University has a long history of international involvement. The institution was among the handful of U.S. colleges and universities involved in supporting and establishing foreign programs immediately after World War II. Those efforts involved hun-dreds of faculty members and initiated the tradition of strong international involvement that continues today. In her preface to the book, M.S.U. President Lou Anna K. Simon said, "Advancing Knowledge. Transforming Lives. That is how we sum up our land-grant mission today. And at its core, that means we make a difference in people's lives--not just those people who come to Michigan State, but all of the people whose lives we touch around the world. The photos and text in this book tell an important part of that story, one that helps define who we are and one in which all of us who are part of Michigan State can take tremendous pride.". (shrink)

Although family business comprises the majority of global business, it is significantly under-researched. Yet it is considered to have unique ethical values compared to non-family corporations. This is attributable to its family orientation. Therefore, it is worthwhile to identify and define dominant family business ethics values. The authors compare a sample of the U.S. family business, U.S. corporate entities, and international family business mission statements for frequency of ethics values. The data reveals three primary findings: (1) generally, the (...) U.S. family business expressed a higher frequency of ethical values than its non-family corporate and international counterpart, (2) U.S. family business has a strong lead in “integrity” and “honesty” whereas international family business leads in “environmentalism,” “globalism,” and “social responsibility,” and (3) generally, the frequency of ethics values for all family business globally has increased over time. The family business mission statement continues to provide ethical direction for the majority of global business. The emerging family business values identified in our sample will further impact global business success and promote ethical sustainability world-wide. (shrink)

‘Globalization’ is on everybody's lips; a fad word fast turning into a shibboleth, a magic incantation, a pass-key meant to unlock the gates to all present and future mysteries. For some, ‘globalization' is what we bound to do if we wish to be happy; for others 'globalization' is the cause of our unhappiness. For everybody, though, 'globalization' is the intractable fate of the world, an irreversible process; it is also a process which affects us all in the same measure and (...) in the same way.1 These words of Zygmund Bauman succinctly depict the contemporary situation all of us are facing no matter where we come from. As Christians, it is very difficult for us to oppose globalization, in principle, since Christians have been globalist almost from the start. Even though Christians have historically felt a deep rootedness in a certain national, ethnic or cultural identity, there was always someone or some groups who were ready to transcend their local and cultural bounds. Christian zeal for mission work over the whole globe: “to the ends of the earth” demonstrates this. Christianity is a 'global religion,' even though there is still prejudice to think of it as typically Western. Contrary to the global North, Christianity is rapidly growing in the global South, especially in Africa and Latin America. (shrink)

:Contemporary global governance is organized around an odd pairing: care and control. On the one hand, much of global governance is designed to reduce human suffering and improve human flourishing, with the important caveat that individuals should be allowed to decide for themselves how they want to live their lives. On the other hand, these global practices of care are also entangled with acts of control. Peacebuilding, public health, emergency aid, human rights, and development are expressions of (...) this tension between care and control. There is a concept that captures this tension: paternalism. Drawing on our moral intuitions, I argue that paternalism is the attempt by one actor to substitute his judgment for another actor's on the grounds that such an imposition will improve the welfare of the target actor. After discussing and defending this definition, I note how our unease with paternalism seems to grow as we scale up from the interpersonal to the international, which I argue owes to the evaporation of community and equality. After exploring the implications of this definition and distinguishing it from other forms of intervention, I consider how different elements of paternalism combine to generate different configurations. Specifically, I point to five dimensions that are most relevant for examining the paternalism found in contemporary global and humanitarian governance: the tools used to restrict another actor’s liberty ; the scope of the interference ; the purpose of the intervention ; the source of the paternalizer’s confidence ; and the mechanisms of accountability. These different elements often correlate historically, suggestive of two ideal types of global paternalism: strong and weak. Contemporary global and humanitarian governance is largely the weak variety: force is severely proscribed, interference is relatively restricted, the paternalizer’s confidence has epistemic roots, and accountability to local populations remains a noble but rarely practiced goal. I further speculate that a major reason for this difference is the effects of liberalism and rationalization. I use this taxonomy to suggest how two different global efforts to improve the lives of those peoples living in what were perceived to be unstable and illiberal territories — the civilizing missions of the nineteenth century and the peacebuilding operations of the post-Cold War period — exhibited different kinds of paternalism. I conclude by reflecting on the ethics of international paternalism. (shrink)

This article looks at the Global Christian Forum as a new initiative in the historical context of the modern ecumenical movement and from a Catholic point of view. It puts the GCF in three perspectives: as a new stage in ecumenical development, as part of a turning point in ecumenical history and as a new impulse of the Holy Spirit. By bringing in the Evangelicals and Pentecostals, the GCF has widened the range of church families in conversation with one (...) another. The GCF may begin to make a substantial contribution in the situation since Vatican II in which some critical issues between divided Christians have been solved. The beginning convergence of the two movements that have marked the past century — ecumenical and Pentecostal/evangelical — may be the work of the Holy Spirit. (shrink)

By the late 18th century, the Moravian mission project had grown into a global enterprise. Moravian missionaries’ personal and emotional engagements with the people they sought to convert impacted not only on their understanding of Christianity, but also caused them to rethink the nature of civilization and humanity in light of their frontier experiences. In this article I discuss the construction of ‘savagery’ in the mission ethnography of C. G. A. Oldendorp (1721–87). Oldendorp’s journey to slave-holding societies (...) in the Danish West Indies, where Moravian missions had been established in the 1730s, and his own experiences of the violence of these societies had such an impact on him that his proto-ethnographic descriptions of all the inhabitants of the Danish West Indies – from slaves to slaveholders – broke with traditional representations of savagery. He suggested two different paths for emotional transformation: one for slaves, and another for slaveholders. His views aligned with those of the later abolitionists, yet he was writing sixty years before those movements first gained public momentum in Great Britain. In many ways, therefore, this early mission ethnography reshaped contemporary understandings of ‘savagery’. I consider how Oldendorp did this in relation to a Moravian theology of the heart and love of Christ, the emerging Scottish Enlightenment philosophy of ‘love of humanity’ and its use in colonial encounters between missionaries and local people, and especially the emotions that were provoked by the extreme violence of the slavery system in this colonial contact zone. (shrink)

This article analyses and reflects missiologically on the City of Tshwane's economy, in terms of its priorities and strategies. It points out that it is to the detriment of local communities that Tshwane's economy has become a replica of the national economy which is essentially growth-focused and structured to service the global market. It also discusses possibilities for the urban church to be involved in addressing this situation as it wrestles with the question: What role can the church play (...) towards fostering a grass roots, 'glocal' alternative vision to the current local economic system? Responding to this question, this article argues that the church, drawing from theological/missiological resources and hermeneutic insights on biblical texts, such as Luke 16:19-31, and on the concept of God's economy, can steer such an alternative vision for the economy of the City of Tshwane. It ends by demonstrating how the church can engage the issues of local economic development in a practical way, which will lead to an alternative reality where shared prosperity and inclusion are attained. (shrink)

The Global Christian Forum’s international gathering in Limuru, Kenya, in 2007, affirmed the value of this initiative for promoting relationships between Christian traditions with little if any mutual encounter. With this fresh mandate, the Forum organized further regional meetings and extended its methodology into other contexts. Following a second global gathering at Manado, Indonesia, in 2011, it continues to develop its activities. Though its minimal structures and staffing bring challenges, it still aims to deliver what has been described (...) as ‘the best value-for-money ecumenism in the world,’ acting in the service of, and in collaboration with, churches and ecclesial bodies. (shrink)

Minamata disease was first officially recognized in May 1956. Its earliest victims were small children. Environmental contamination most rapidly and seriously affected the physiologically weak among the residents. However, the outbreak of the disease in humans was preceded by abnormalities in the natural environment such as massive death of fish and shellfish, and the abnormal behavior and death of cats. It used to be considered that poisoning was caused by direct exposure to a toxic substance, and that toxic substances did (...) not pass the placenta. Minamata disease is an indirect poisoning by methyl mercury through the food chain as a result of environmental contamination, and is the first known disease to cause abnomalities in the fetus due to a toxic agent passing through the placenta. Minamata disease, therefore, had implications in various fields. Namely it also stirred up legal, ethical, and eugenic arguments concerning fetal protection. This report reviews the course of Minamata disease, and evaluates its impacts. “Minamata Studies” has three intellectual and scientific missions to change the social systems that caused the disease; to pursue environmental justice; and to explore the possibility of an environment that permits coexistence not only of all humans, but of all living things. (shrink)

In 1960, the US government and British protectorate of Zanzibar signed an agreement that allowed US contractors working for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to build an earth station that would support Project Mercury, the first manned US satellite mission. This article focuses on the development of the Project Mercury earth station in Zanzibar during 1959-1964. To historicize the earth station’s establishment, the focus lies on the geopolitical and sociotechnical relations that resulted in the Zanzibar station.