BSIR Scholars

DEI in the Boston Missionary Training School and Its Impact on the Formation of the Early Baptist Church in Korea, Manchuria, and Siberia

Rev. Dr. Daniel S.H. Ahn is currently an assistant professor of Global Christianity at Gordon College in Greater Boston. He has extensive experience in intercultural missions as well as teaching across Europe, North America, Africa, and Asia, where he also served as an ordained pastor in various multiethnic communities. His specialization lies in multiethnicity, global diaspora studies, and World Christianity, exploring how Christianity spread into diverse cultural and linguistic contexts, with a focus on the problems of translating Christian concepts into local languages and cultures. He received his Ph.D. in World Christianity from the University of Edinburgh and earned an M. Div. and M. A. in intercultural studies from Fuller Theological Seminary. Before his academic career, he worked as a mechanical engineer at the R&D center of Hyun-Dai Motor Company with a B.S. and M.S. in mechanical engineering. 

Local Voice in Global Faith: Kazakh Perspectives on Western and Post-Soviet Baptist Evangelism and Missions

Dr. Talant S. Aktanzhanov is on faculty at Grace School of Theology (Almaty Extension). He earned a PhD in World Religions (2023) from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY. His previous degrees include a M.A. in Islamic Studies (2018) from Donetsk Christian University in Donetsk, Ukraine and a B.A. in Christian Theology (2014). His publications include serving as the Chief Editor for the Kazakh Biblical Theological Dictionary, as well as translating into Kazakh Robert Plummer’s 40 Questions about Interpreting the Bible (2019) and Mark Dever’s What Is a Healthy Church? (2020) Dr. Aktanzhanov has also published in Russian and in English, including a chapter, “The Biblical Doctrine of God,” in the Central Asian Bible Commentary: A Contemporary Evangelical Perspective (2023).

Teófilo Barocio Ondarza: First Mexican Baptist Pastor and Missionary in Cuba, 1899-1905

Rubí Barocio Castells is the Director of the Historical Archive of the National Baptist Convention of Mexico. She was born in Mexico City and into one of the first Baptist families in Mexico. Rubí earned both a Bachelor's and Master’s degree in History from the Universidad Iberoamericana, specialized  in Museum Project Management in 2023, and is currently seeking a diploma in Leadership Studies from the Christian Latina Leadership Institute. She is a member of the Research Network of the Religious Phenomenon in Mexico (RIFREM), the Latin American Association for the Study of Religions (ALER), member of The Baptist History and Heritage Society, and the Latin American Theological Fraternity (FTL). Her research focuses on Protestantism in Mexico.

Left-behind: Elderly Parents and Hong Kong Baptist Churches

Dr. Ann Gillian Chu is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Religion and Philosophy at Hong Kong Baptist University in Hong Kong, and a Visiting Fellow at the Centre of Religion and Public Life in the School of Philosophy, Religion, and History of Science at the University of Leeds in the United Kingdom. Dr Chu received her Doctor of Philosophy from the University of St Andrews in the United Kingdom. She graduated with a Master of Divinity from Regent College in Vancouver, Canada, and a Master of Arts (Hons) in English Language from the University of Edinburgh in the United Kingdom. Dr Chu recently published an article in Practical Theology, titled “Stanley Hauerwas and ‘Chan Tai-man’: an Analysis of Hong Kong Laypeople’s Lived Theology and Hong Kong Theologians’ Engagement with Stanley Hauerwas’s Political Theology from a Practical Theology Perspective.” (2023)

Baptist Re-Rooting: Unveiling the Influence of Baptist Epistemic Borderlines on the American Global South

Dr. Oscar García-Johnson, a distinguished professor of theology and Latino/a studies, serves as the chief of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (2021–2023) and the academic dean for the Center for the Study of Hispanic Church and Community (2015–2021) at Fuller Seminary. His professional journey began as an electrical engineer in Honduras before shifting to theological studies after a vocational conversion. García-Johnson is known for his unique "transoccidentality" hermeneutic approach, integrating de/postcolonial studies with classical theologies and US Latino/Latin American studies. His scholarly contributions include works like Introducción a la Teológía del Nuevo Mundo, (one of seven volumes) Spirit Outside the Gate, Theology Without Borders (co-authored) and The Mestizo/a Community of the Spirit. An ordained minister with the American Baptist Churches USA, he planted four churches and served as Regional Minister with the American Baptist Churches of Los Angeles for a decade. García-Johnson is a member of several theological associations and speaks globally on leadership and decolonial theology.

George W. Braswell, Jr., and Family: The First Foreign Mission Board Missionaries to Iran, 1967 to 1974

Dr. Philip O. Hopkins is professor of missions at Gateway Seminary. He holds PhDs in applied theology from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary and Iranian history from the University of St Andrews. He lived outside of the United States (Armenia, Turkey, United Kingdom) for almost twenty years, analyzing ethnic and minority peoples and population segments in Iran, Turkey, and the Caucasus area. His main academic interests are Christians in Iran – both ethnic Christians and those who converted to Christianity – interact among themselves and among the general population. Prior to Gateway, he was research associate for the Centre of World Christianity at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London and lecturer at Russian-Armenian University in Yerevan, Armenia. He has published with Brill, Palgrave Macmillan, Broadman and Holman and serves on the editorial board of Iran and the Caucasus (Brill) and Iran (British Institute of Persian Studies).

Impacts Of Mojola Agbebi on the Emergence of Ethiopianism and Nationalism in Africa

Deborah Bosede Oyelakin is an ordained minister of the Nigerian Baptist Convention. She had served as a Convention missionary with her husband for over a decade. She is a PhD candidate in the Department of Intercultural Studies of The Nigerian Baptist Theological Seminary, Ogbomoso. Her specializations include Missiology, Church History and Pastoral Care and Counseling. A selection of her publications include “Collegiate Church Planting as a Strategy For Expanding the Frontier of Missions in the African Context” (2023), “An Appraisal of Pentecostalism’s Impact on Urban Christian Missions in Nigeria” (2022), and “Financial Stewardship as an Impetus for Mobilizing the Church for Missions in the African Context” (2003).

The Hermeneutics of Fire: The Subversive Baptist Legacy in Samuel Sharpe's Libertarian and Anti-Slavery Preaching in Jamaica

Rev. Ronilso Pacheco da Silva has a bachelor's degree in theology from the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro and an M.A. in Religion and Society from the Union Theological Seminary in New York, where he studied Black theology with James Cone and Cornel West. He is an assistant pastor at the Baptist Community in São Gonçalo and a member of the Brazilian Baptist Alliance. In addition, Pacheco da Silva is the author of "Occupy, Resist, Subvert: Church and Theology in Times of Violence, Racism and Oppression" (2016) and Black Theology: The Anti-Racist Breath of the Spirit" (2019). He is program director at the Institute for Religious Studies [ISER] in Rio de Janeiro and a graduate student in the Philosophy program at the University of Oklahoma, where he is affiliated to the Center of Brazil Studies. Pacheco da Silva is a BSIR Jackson Scholar for Latin American Studies.

Beyond Borders: Exploring the Global Mission of Brazilian Immigrant Churches Amidst Polarization

Dr. Rodrigo Serrão is a Brazilian sociologist and a licensed Texas Baptist pastor living and working in the United States. He is an assistant professor of sociology at Hope College in Holland, Michigan. His research interests include race and ethnicity, religion, and immigration, with a focus on the Latinx experience in the U.S. He has published several articles in academic journals and edited volumes in esteemed publications such as Review of Religious Research, Latin American Perspectives, Perspectives of Religious Studies, International Journal of Latin American Religions, Sociology of Religion, and Religião & Sociedade (Brazil). He is currently working on a project that explores how Latinx students perceive their racial identity and sense of belonging at a historically White college. He holds a Ph.D. in sociology and a graduate certificate in Latin American and Caribbean Studies from the University of South Florida.