Research News

Global efforts against human trafficking topic of Vanderbilt Divinity breakfast

Paul Lim (Steve Green/Vanderbilt)

Paul C.H. Lim will discuss “Global Evangelicalism and the Campaign Against Human Trafficking: Fad or Fixture?” at the Oct. 30 Vanderbilt Divinity School community breakfast.

The breakfast will be in the school’s Reading Room from 7:30 to 8:30 a.m.

Lim, an associate professor of the history of Christianity at the Divinity School, has a growing research interest in the history of evangelicalism and global Christianities. He is writing a book about the transformation of global evangelical attitudes toward and endeavors on eradication of human trafficking and structural poverty.

“For the past two years, I have been meeting and interviewing evangelical missionaries and others involved in global advocacy efforts in faraway countries such as India and South Korea as well as here in Nashville,” Lim said. “Nashville actually has a significant evangelical population and also many nonprofit organizations designed for global advocacy on a variety of humanitarian causes.”

Lim, who is also an associate professor of history in the College of Arts and Science, has a strong interest in young people’s attitudes toward these global advocacy efforts. “There is a generational shift among millennials,” he said. “They still care deeply about the Bible, but they care more deeply about Jesus and what he’s passionate about.” Lim served as a faculty sponsor for a summit at Vanderbilt last year on human trafficking.

Lim is an award-winning historian of Reformation and post-Reformation Europe. His latest book, Mystery Unveiled: The Crisis of the Trinity in Early Modern England (Oxford, 2012), won the 2013 Roland H. Bainton Prize as the best book in history/theology by the Sixteenth Century Society and Conference.

Those who would like to attend the breakfast, which costs $10, should make a reservation. Student registration is free. Please register online or call (615) 936-8453 by Sept. 14. Lim’s talk will be recorded and posted later on the Vanderbilt Divinity YouTube playlist.

The Divinity community breakfasts are made possible by a gift from Sylvia Sanders Kelley and Blaine Kelley Jr.