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Missiology Lectures • October 15–17, 2025
1 day in person & online | 2 days fully online
Since the founding of the School of World Mission in 1965, Fuller Seminary has hosted the annual Missiology Lectures—a tradition now six decades strong. This year’s 60th-anniversary gathering, Missiology in a New ...
Martin Rodriguez speaks with Fr. Dr. Francis Oborji about how context, dialogue, and experience have shaped his missiological vision. They reflect on the transition from Pope Francis to Pope Leo XIV, discuss AI as both opportunity and moral challenge, and trace the influences behind Oborji’s work, including Concepts of Mission (2006). The conversation culminates in his call for “theological pilgrimage,” a two-way dialogue between churches of the North and South.
Francis Anekwe Oborji is a Catholic priest, missiologist, and Professor Ordinarius of Contextual Theology and Inculturation Theology at the Pontifical Urbaniana University in Rome, where he has taught since 1999. A leading voice in African missiology, his work engages questions of mission, culture, reconciliation, memory, and the social challenges facing Christianity in African contexts.
Born in Aguleri, Anambra State, Eastern Nigeria, Oborji’s early education was disrupted by the Nigeria–Biafra War, an experience that has shaped his enduring theological attention to memory, violence, and peace. He studied philosophy and theology at Bigard Memorial Seminary and earned his degrees from the Pontifical Urbaniana University, where he later completed doctoral studies in missiology. Ordained to the priesthood in 1989, he served in parish ministry and seminary teaching in Onitsha and was founding coordinator of the Onitsha Archdiocesan School of Evangelization. He is a member of the International Association for Mission Studies and a founding member of the International Association of Catholic Missiologists, serving as its Executive Secretary from 2000 to 2004.
Oborji’s publications include Concepts of Mission: The Evolution of Contemporary Missiology (Orbis Books, 2006), Mission and Reconciliation: Theology and Pastoral Challenges of Social Violence (2015), and the three-volume essay collection Towards African Missiology, Theology and Social Issues in Africa, and Memory and Peace (2020).
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Darrell Whiteman's consulting ministry. From the website:
The mission of Global Development is to enable missionaries, pastors, and lay people to better distinguish the universal message of the gospel from their local interpretation and practice of living out the gospel within their communities.
The strategies for accomplishing ...
