Buies Creek–The Campbell University Divinity School announced Tuesday that it has opened a new World Religions and Global Cultures Centers to enhance students’ understanding of other cultures and religious beliefs. Dr. Michael Cogdill, dean of the Divinity School, said the time for the center had come.”We have been very careful throughout our first decade as a Divinity School about the work and projects that we should be about,” Cogdill said, “but God has confirmed for us that the time to develop this center is now.”The World Religions and Global Cultures Center will offer courses in world religions and world cultures for divinity students, as well as workshops and speaking opportunities for students, ministers and religious leaders.Dr. George W. Braswell, Jr., one of the world’s leading experts on Islam and senior professor of World Religions at the Campbell Divinity School, will be the director of the center.”Fifty-five years ago, churches were crying for people to go over to places such as India and China to preach the Gospel of Christ,” Braswell said. “In the intervening years, Christianity has hardly scratched the surface of the Muslim, Hindu and Buddhist religions.”In fact Christianity has lost ground. While Islam represents 22 percent of the world’s population and has doubled in size over the past several decades; Christianity has failed to increase beyond 31 percent of the world population in the same time period.Christianity’s protracted growth underlies the reason for the center, Braswell added. The export of Hinduism, Islam and other religions to the U.S. has been occurring at a rapid pace. Raleigh is now the home of one of the largest mosques on the eastern seaboard and Hindu leaders have purchased over 7,000 acres near the Blue Ridge Parkway.”I have been a pastor, I have been a missionary to Iran and I have been a professor,” said Braswell. “And religious pluralism and cultural diversity are two of the greatest challenges we face not just around the world, but in our own back yard.Expanding our education and understanding will better enable us to reach out and share the good news with our religious neighbors.”For more information, contact the Campbell University Divinity School at 800.760.9827, ext. 1506 or 893.1849., or email Dr. George Braswell at [email protected]/* */.Photo Copy: Dr. Michael Cogdill, dean of the Campbell Divinity School; Dr. George Braswell, director of the school’s new World Religions and Global Cultures Center; divinity student Robert Pan, co-pastor of the Chinese church at Forest Hills Baptist Church in Raleigh; and Dr. Rick Speas, first vice president of the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina. Photo by Shannon Ryals.
Campbell Divinity School opens World Religions and Global Cultures Center