This book is the first volume in the Brill Series “Studies in Global Catholicism,” that we inaugurated as co-editors since 2020. We appreciate the vision and commitment of the Brill leadership with whom we have worked as well as the many fine authors who have crafted proposals for the series, or who will be doing so. We likewise thank members of our Editorial Advisory Board, including those who will serve in the future. We thank here the charter members of our Editorial Advisory Board, who with us launched the Series in 2020: Maria Clara Lucchetti Bingemer, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Agnes M. Brazal, De la Salle University, Manila, Philippines; Judith Hahn, University of Bonn, Germany; Shaji George Kochuthara, CMI, Dharmaram Vidya Kshetram, Bangalore, India; Laurenti Magesa, Jesuit School of Theology, Hekima University College, Catholic University of Eastern Africa, Nairobi, Kenya; Ormond Rush, Australian Catholic University, Brisbane, Australia; Carlos Schickendantz, Alberto Hurtado University, Chile; and Mathew Schmalz, College of the Holy Cross, USA.
This by no means represents the first effort to approach this exciting and growing field. We gratefully acknowledge the leadership of Holy Cross College, USA and its Journal of Global Catholicism; St. Leo University, USA, and its Journal of African Catholicism; DePaul University, USA, and its Center for World Catholicism and Intercultural Theology, founded in 2008, and its book series, Studies in World Catholicism, published by Wipf and Stock. We look forward to the work of the Center for Global Catholicism, established in 2023 at Saint Louis University, USA, and to a range of other initiatives presently unfolding around the world. When the field of Global Catholicism is linked, as it should be, with that of World Christianity, many, many more institutions, publications, and colleagues bear mentioning. While these limited pages do not allow that, we want our gratitude and appreciation to be clear. This series stands on the shoulders of giants.
This book, and the series it introduces, has a long trajectory from the past and represents high hopes moving forward. Its theological vision is best understood as a fruit of the Second Vatican Council, the global ecclesial experience that prepared the way for the time of disruption and encounter in which the Catholic Church—and the world—are now living. As such, we offer this volume and the series it initiates, to bring forth a forward-looking view as we enter the third millennium of the Church and the promise of a Global Catholicism that becomes truly cosmopolitan. May the dawning of that millennium inaugurate
Massimo Faggioli
Bryan Froehle
Series co-editors