Dr. Jiushuang Chen

Visiting Research Scholar at Fuller Theological Seminary, Art Critic, and Practicing Artist

Topic: Christianity and Chinese Contemporary Art

Biography:
Jiushuang Chen (PhD, Tsinghua University) is an art critic, practicing artist, and scholar working at the intersection of Christianity and Chinese modern and contemporary art. A fourth-generation Christian who witnessed the post–Cultural Revolution revival of faith in China, Chen brings an insider’s attention to how religious experience becomes public—especially under shifting institutional and cultural constraints. Trained in both studio practice and art criticism, Chen has taught drawing and painting and art theory at the China Academy of Art. His scholarship appears in the Journal of Chinese Theology (Brill) and in edited volumes including Modern Chinese Theologies III (Fortress Press, 2024). He regularly presents at academic conferences (CAA, AAR) and has exhibited internationally, including solo exhibitions in Beijing, Hangzhou, and Oxford.

Dr. Eun Ah Cho

Dean of Gordon-Conwell Institute and Associate Professor of Intercultural Studies

Topic: Christianity in Korea’s Religious Context

Biography:
Dr. Eun Ah Cho is a seasoned cross-cultural leader whose life embodies the integration of scholarship, ministry, and creative expression. Born in Korea and raised primarily in Canada, she earned her undergraduate degree in Russian philology from Russian State Pedagogical University in St. Petersburg, Russia before completing both her MA and PhD at Fuller Theological Seminary’s School of Intercultural Studies. Her academic credentials are grounded in years of frontline ministry. Alongside her husband, she trained Christian leaders and planted a multiethnic church in Kokshetau, Kazakhstan, ministering fluently in Russian, Korean, and English. This cross-cultural experience deeply informs her theological vision and pedagogical approach. Dr. Cho is also a gifted poet who authored one of Korea’s most beloved praise songs, demonstrating how creative artistry can give voice to profound theological truth. Her work seamlessly weaves together scholarly rigor, pastoral wisdom, and artistic sensitivity.

Rev. Dr. Jae Hoon Lee

Senior Pastor, Onnuri Church

Topic: An Acts-Shaped Missional Ecclesiology: Onnuri Church and Critical Contextualization

Biography:
Reverend Jae Hoon Lee serves as the senior pastor at Onnuri Church, a church committed to fulfilling the Great Commission. Onnuri, which translates to “all nations,” is dedicated to spreading and embodying the transformative message of the gospel worldwide. Onnuri Church is committed to global missions and has deployed 876 missionaries to seventy-five countries, and also has embraced various ethnic groups coming to Korea, including migrant workers and refugees, by offering worship services and community care service in twenty-one languages across eleven Korean campuses and thirty campuses abroad. Onnuri Church operates CGN (Christian Global Network), a Christian satellite broadcasting network offering programs in seven languages; and A Better World, a non-profit organization dedicated to infrastructure development in thirty-two countries. Rev. Lee serves as the chairperson of Handong Global University, recognized as the most biblical and transformative university in South Korea, and also serves the Lausanne Movement as the chair of the Lausanne Korea committee and co-chair of the organizing committee for the 2024 Lausanne Congress in Seoul. Rev. Lee holds degrees from Myongji University (BA), Hapdong Theological Graduate School (MDiv), Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (ThM), Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary (DMin), and Presbyterian University and Theological Seminary (DD).

Dr. Todd M. Johnson

Co-Director of Center for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and Professor of Mission and Global Christianity

Topic: Christianity Among Asian Religions

Biography:
Todd M. Johnson (PhD, William Carey International University) is the Eva B. and Paul E. Toms Distinguished Professor of Mission and Global Christianity and co-director of the Center for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. Johnson is Research Associate at Boston University’s Institute for Culture, Religion and World Affairs leading a research project on international religious demography. He is co-author of the World Christian Encyclopedia (2nd and 3rd editions), co-editor of the Atlas of Global Christianity, and series editor (with Ken Ross) of the 10-volume Edinburgh Companions to Global Christianity series. He is associate editor of the World Christian Database and the World Religion Database (Brill).

Rev. Dr. Yutaka Morishima

Professor and University Chaplain, School of Culture and Creative Studies, Aoyama Gakuin University in Japan

Topic: Christian Witness and Presence in Japan Today

Yutaka Morishima is a professor and university chaplain at Aoyama Gakuin University in Japan and visiting scholar at OMSC in Princeton Theological Seminary (2023-2024). The subject of his Ph.D. dissertation was the Atonement Theology of P.T. Forsyth. He has served as a Protestant church pastor in Nagasaki, where the atomic bomb was dropped. His recent research is on the ideological history of human rights, especially the formation process of a unique human rights concept in Asia. In particular, the use of terms such as “human rights” and “peace state” in political documents is demonstrated to support the concept of Japan’s national polity, shedding new light on the formation of modern imperial ideology.

From the perspective of Christianity, he has discerned overlooked aspects in the study of Japan’s national polity and State Shinto, specifically, the differences between Western and Japanese ideologies, gaining attention.

In 2015, he received the prestigious Ruikotsu Award for Excellence from the Chugai Nippo Press for his paper titled “The Influence and Challenges of Christian Human Rights Thought in Japan.” Furthermore, in 2021, he was awarded the Aoyama Gakuin Academic Prize for his work “The History of Thought on Resistance Rights and Human Rights: A Clash of the Western and Tenno (Japanese) Type.”

He has published widely for both academic and general readers in Japanese. He also studies why the Christianity is not spreading in Japan and, in his ministry, he makes various efforts to preach the gospel to young souls. 

Dr. Terry C. Muck

Professor of Religion, Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary (Retired)

Topic: Christianity and Buddhism

Biography:
Terry C. Muck is a scholar of religion, specializing in the study of Theravada Buddhism and the interactions among Buddhists and Christians. He was the executive director of the Louisville Institute from 2012-2015. He received his Ph.D. from Northwestern University in the History of Religions. He taught for ten years at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary and twelve years at Asbury Theological Seminary. Prior to that he served as editor of Christianity Today Magazine and as executive director of the Christianity Today Institute. He has authored ten books and numerous scholarly articles on religion and theological education. His published books include including Christianity Encountering World Religion (Baker Academic, 2009), Christian Handbook of Religion (Baker Academic 2014), and Why Study Religion? (Baker Academic, 2016). He is general editor of the NIV Application Commentary, a 44-volume biblical commentary published by Zondervan and the Faith In Action Study Bible. He and his wife, Frances S. Adeney, a professor emerita at Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, have six children and live in Oakland, California.

Dr. Wes Vander Lugt

Director, Leighton Ford Initiative in Theology, the Arts, and Gospel Witness

Topic: Christianity and Chinese Contemporary Art

Biography:
Dr. Wes Vander Lugt (PhD, University of St Andrews) teaches theology and directs the Leighton Ford Initiative in Theology, the Arts, and Gospel Witness at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and is the co-founder of Kinship Plot, a nonprofit that creates stories, places, and beautiful schemes of rooted belonging. Wes is the author of several books, including Living Theodrama: Reimagining Theological Ethics (Routledge, 2014), Beauty Is Oxygen: Finding a Faith that Breathes (Eerdmans, 2024), and Modern Protestant Theology: Introducing the Classics (T&T Clark, 2026) and editor of Theatrical Theology: Explorations in Performing the Faith (Wipf & Stock, 2014) and A Prophet in the Darkness: Exploring Theology in the Art of Georges Rouault (IVP Academic, 2024).

Dr. Zhiqiu Xu

Dean of Kepha Institute and professor, Columbia International University

Topic: Revitalizing the House Church Tradition: A Viable Path for the Churches in China

Biography:
Zhiqiu (Z.Q.) Xu: Born in Mainland China, became a follower of Christ at the age of 17 after hearing the Gospel message on the radio. He pursued higher education, earning a BA from Renmin University and a Master’s degree from Peking University. He advanced his theological studies with a Master of Divinity from Westminster Theological Seminary and a Ph.D. from Boston University. He was ordained in 2006 and served as a pastor for approximately 15 years. He is currently the Dean of the Kepha Institute and a Professor of Theology at Columbia International University in South Carolina. Zhiqiu is the author of Reconfiguring Natural Theology (Routledge) and has contributed multiple articles to various academic journals and magazines.

Dr. Peng Yang

Senior Research Fellow

Topic: Christianity and Confucianism

Peng Yang is a Chinese scholar and the author of thirteen books. His academic work focuses on comparative theology, with particular attention to the encounter between Christianity and the classical intellectual traditions of China.

Yang’s research seeks to reinterpret key theological and anthropological concepts embedded in classical Chinese texts—such as worldview, understandings of human life, social order, and historical consciousness—through sustained dialogue with Christian doctrine. His work aims to construct a cross-cultural theological framework that enables Christianity to be articulated meaningfully within the Chinese intellectual world.

In 2004, Yang published A Textual Study on the Origins of Shangdi in China, the first scholarly monograph in modern Chinese academic history to apply comparative religious methodology to a systematic study of the concept of Shangdi (the Supreme Deity) in pre-Qin texts. Since then, he has published theological and interpretive studies on major Chinese classics, including the Book of Documents, the Analects, the Dao De Jing, and The Great Learning.