Abstracts and Full-text of Papers presented at the DABOH Mission and Memory Conference, IAMS Assembly, Balaton, 2008

See also Papers presented at DABOH Balaton 2008

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Africa

During the celebration of its 20th anniversary, the Archives and Library Centre of FJKM wishes to emphasize its mission – make FJKM and its scope better known as an institution, preserve its memory, define the means that would enable it to reach its objectives, i.e. make FJKM better known to its components, so as to assist them in their decision-taking and quest for high performance in their actions, and also to assert the uniqueness of FJKM in the world in which it is working.   Although, like all Christian churches, FJKM is an institution based on multifold values from the Gospel, it acts as a “good shepherd”, looking after its members, while working to draw in new “sheep” in those nations and various cultures where it is situated. It is led, linked, bound together, through its components, by the Word of God which is its primary source for inspiration in its actions in society.


This paper will thus expand on how the Archives and Library Centre of FJKM is a tool to understand the past of FJKM, but also how to this Church, it is an essential tool for present and future action.

Americas

This report covers the background and current status of two Web sites useful for mission studies. The two are the History of Missiology Web site, which has been active for some time, and the “Biblioteca Electronica de Misiologia” (BEM), now in the initial stages of development. Both projects were launched by Dana Robert, professor of mission at Boston University School of Theology. Both sites are hosted by servers at BU’s School of Theology library. The Overseas Ministries Study Center has made and continues to make a modest contribution to the development of the History of Missiology Web site. It also is contributing in a small way to getting the second Web site underway. 

This paper examines the economic, political, and legal issues in disseminating material from the perspective of Yale Divinity Library’s implementation of the Kenneth Scott Latourette Initiative for the Documentation of World Christianity. The context for the discussion are the issues raised by current discussions of intellectual property, copyright, and ownership. Through the Latourette Initiative Yale has established partnerships with various repositories and commercial vendors to preserve and provide access to the literature of world Christianity, both published and unpublished. Yale works with the repositories to identify material that complements Yale’s collections. Yale and the repositories sign agreements authorizing Yale to copy and distribute copies of the material. Yale also signs agreements with the vendors to manage the projects, create microfilm, and distribute copies. Proceeds from the sales of microfilm (or digital copies) go toward further preservation microfilming.

Mission Documentation in North America (full text)

Asia

This report aims to introduce The Documentation of Christianity in Asia Consortium (DCIA), a collaborative project launched in 2005 between three East Asian Christian educational institutions and Yale Divinity School Library. It discusses the purposes of the consortium; and its development, present tasks, challenges, and prospects in the diverse situations in Asia today.

Analysis of the development and characteristics of the studies of the history of the Catholic Church in China reveals one great weakness: work on archival materials. The challenge of archival work today lies on two fronts: first, in the West, where we find an abundant collection of pre-1949 materials belonging to different missionary congregations, universities, sinological research institutes, the Vatican archives and the archives of the Congregation for the Evangelization of the Peoples; second, in mainland China, where the vast majority of pre-1949 materials preserved in Church archives have been destroyed. The task in the West is to make the archival materials accessible to scholars who would study them for what they can tell us about the past. In mainland China, the task is twofold: the first and the most urgent is to ‘save history’, i.e., by collecting materials that survived the destruction and recording the memory of the surviving eyewitnesses of history; the second is to promote archival work in the Church, i.e., the ongoing preservation of materials that record the events in the life of the Church today for future generations. This paper also introduces the archive of Northern Shanxi Church documents from 1900 to 1949 preserved in the collection of Fr. Li Jianhua.

Effective and fruitful research depends largely on the ability to locate well-documented resources on the selected topic of research. As such, documentation and good finding tools are key to research. Whilst Western Christianity, by and large, is fairly well documented and finding tools are reasonably accessible, such facilities and the impetus for their development have been sadly lacking for Asian resources.

However, the past two decades or so has seen a growing awareness of the significance of Asian Christianity in the whole story and history of Christianity. More emphasis has also been given in Asian theological institutions on the Christian faith as understood, experienced and lived out in our own local context, culture and history. This has led to increased activity in documenting Asian Christianity, but the task is faced with many challenges.

Realizing the importance of collecting Asian resources in the teaching, constructing and utilization of theology in Asian contexts, the Forum of Asian Theological Librarians (ForATL) was formed in 1991 in order to facilitate the development and exchange of resources for theology in the Asian context, and to develop an Asia-wide network of theological libraries.

This report intends to give a brief introduction to ForATL and its initiatives towards the documentation of Christianity in Asia, as well as the challenges faced.

The task of collecting and preserving oral histories should be understood as a call to keep alive the memories of Christians. These memories are the Acts of the Apostles as they continue to unfold today, not only the deeds of our modern times leaders who follow in the footsteps of Peter and Paul, but also the stories of no less important local figures, our contemporary Stephen, Cornelius, Priscilla, Lydia, Gaius, and so on.

Among the many issues related to collecting oral histories, this presentation discusses the design of the Oral History project, the preparation on the ground, the local context (political, social, religious, and racial/ethnic), and the importance of cultural sensitivity.

Issues related to the physical preservation of oral histories ultimately belong to the domain of archives and libraries. Materials should as soon as possible be turned over to these institutions. The paper therefore discusses how researchers who partake in an Oral History project need to ensure the quality of recordings and transcriptions, work out a comprehensive thematic analysis of each transcript, and actively promote the dissemination of their findings.

Europe

In February 2007, the Defap library has started a preservation and dissemination project for its iconographic  archive. This project is still ongoing. This paper proposes to describe its history and development : motives, purposes, financial plan, storage of the photographic materials, technical choices  made for digitisation and cataloguing, legal issues, follow up of the project.

 

New Zealand

This paper outlines the history of DAB within IAMS and analyses its attempt to develop an internationally accepted bibliographical database for the sharing of resources for mission studies. If the DAB project reflected the cultural assumptions of the era, and was ultimately not feasible within the resources of IAMS, the attempt highlighted the difficulties mission studies continues to have in defining the centre and boundaries of the discipline and the terms by which missiologically relevant material should be identified catalogued. If it is accepted that a broad vision of the scope of God's mission, the calling of the church and the interests of mission studies means that this is the nature of the cae, it also highlights the importance of having a view of the epistemology of mission which engages with this dynamic.

Documentation and Archives will continue to generate material in the language of its contexts and Bibliographies and other finding aids will utilize information technology to ensure that the practitioners and theoreticians of mission have access to the empirical evidence of Christian mission. As such it must remain close to what the discipline understands itself to be about.

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