Jehu J. Hanciles has been appointed director of the new CMR.
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08/12/09
Fuller Seminary’s School of Intercultural Studies has announced the development of a new research center designed to better serve the needs of advanced degree students, and more comprehensively address the challenges of the global church. The new Center for Missiological Research (CMR) will administer the PhD program in the School of Intercultural Studies. With a central emphasis on creating a “community of scholars,” the CMR aims to promote collaborative research among Western and non-Western scholars on emerging missiological issues. Jehu J. Hanciles, Fuller’s Associate Professor of History of Christianity and Globalization, has been appointed director of the new CMR. For the past nine years Dr. Hanciles has directed the Global Research Institute, which has become a part of the CMR as a postdoctoral fellowship program for non-Western scholars. David Scott joins Hanciles as associate director of the center.
The creation of the CMR, Hanciles explains, originated with a desire to enhance the academic vigor and cooperative spirit of the School of Intercultural Studies’ PhD program. “Many PhD programs focus on one-on-one interaction between students and faculty,” says Dr. Hanciles. “We developed the CMR because we wanted to reinvigorate a sense of academic community, not only within the program, but also with scholars and practitioners outside of Fuller.”
To this end, students, fellows, and faculty will develop and exchange ideas through regular seminars and quarterly public lectures, as well as through the selection of center “associates”—outside scholars, mission administrators, and practitioners who promote the CMR and serve as resources for the community. Additionally, the CMR will devote a significant portion of its funding to academic publications and expects PhD candidates and postdoctoral fellows to publish at least one peer-reviewed journal article and one monograph, respectively.
Hanciles states that he hopes the CMR’s voices will echo around the world through these resources, adding to the chorus of scholars and practitioners developing theologically sound, culturally appropriate, well-researched methods of building God’s Kingdom. “The CMR brings together academics from around the world in order to produce new missiological theory,” he says. “Our DMiss and master’s-level students will study and develop this emerging theory, entering the mission field equipped to address the pressing needs of the global church.”