christian globalism
How do Christians imagine and even experience 'the globe' without leaving home?
My research responds to this question by tracing how U.S. Christians at home cultivate
discourse, aesthetics, and sensations related to feeling connected to the world as a whole.
My research responds to this question by tracing how U.S. Christians at home cultivate
discourse, aesthetics, and sensations related to feeling connected to the world as a whole.
“How the World Has United,” Map (American Committee for Armenian and Syrian Relief/Near East Relief), 1918.
Because globalism takes shape within specific contexts, I focus on one site in particular: child sponsorship programs. This fundraising model, which began in Protestant missions two centuries ago, requests a defined monthly amount for ongoing support of a child and provides some level of communication between donors and recipients.
Sponsorship is an excellent vantage point from which to explore the production of Christian globalism since only about 1% of U.S. sponsors meet the child they support. Yet they participate in an enterprise that circulates billions of dollars and millions of letters and photos around the globe every year. Arguably the most profitable private Christian fundraising tool today, sponsorship expresses and champions some of Christianity’s biggest world-making dreams.
That world-making—its hopes and limitations—is the subject of my study.
Want to know more? Read about my book or one of my published articles on the topic. Download my New Books Network interview for free.
Themes I explore in the book include the connection between sentimentalism & Christian globalism; statistical aesthetics and the production of "immensity"; links between missions and early humanitarianism; "kin-like" relations with foreign children; concerns about materialism and capitalism, as well as 'audit culture' and trust creation in NGOs; print and digital media; racialized universalism and 'diversity' imagery. I've written up some ideas for how to use the book, based on these themes, in classrooms. You can access that guide here.
Sponsorship is an excellent vantage point from which to explore the production of Christian globalism since only about 1% of U.S. sponsors meet the child they support. Yet they participate in an enterprise that circulates billions of dollars and millions of letters and photos around the globe every year. Arguably the most profitable private Christian fundraising tool today, sponsorship expresses and champions some of Christianity’s biggest world-making dreams.
That world-making—its hopes and limitations—is the subject of my study.
Want to know more? Read about my book or one of my published articles on the topic. Download my New Books Network interview for free.
Themes I explore in the book include the connection between sentimentalism & Christian globalism; statistical aesthetics and the production of "immensity"; links between missions and early humanitarianism; "kin-like" relations with foreign children; concerns about materialism and capitalism, as well as 'audit culture' and trust creation in NGOs; print and digital media; racialized universalism and 'diversity' imagery. I've written up some ideas for how to use the book, based on these themes, in classrooms. You can access that guide here.