Christianity as a world religion
World Christianity or global Christianity has been defined both as a term that attempts to convey the global nature of the
Christian religion
[1]
[2]
[3] and an academic field of study that encompasses analysis of the histories, practices, and discourses of Christianity as a
world religion and its various forms as they are found on the
six continents .
[4] However, the term often focuses on "non-
Western Christianity " which "comprises (usually the exotic) instances of Christian faith in 'the
global South ', in
Asia ,
Africa , and
Latin America ."
[5] It also includes
Indigenous or
diasporic forms of Christianity in the
Caribbean ,
[6]
South America ,
[6]
Western Europe ,
[7] and
North America .
[7]
History of the term
The term world Christianity can first be found in the writings of
Francis John McConnell in 1929 and Henry P. Van Dusen in 1947.
[10]
[11] Van Dusen was also instrumental in establishing the
Henry W. Luce Visiting Professorship in World Christianity at
Union Theological Seminary in 1945, with
Francis C. M. Wei invited as its first incumbent.
[12] The term would likewise be used by the American historian and Baptist missionary
Kenneth Scott Latourette , Professor of the
History of Christianity at
Yale Divinity School , to speak of the "World Christian Fellowship" and "World Christian Community".
[13]
[14] For these individuals, world Christianity was meant to promote the idea of
Christian missions and
ecumenical unity . However,
after the end of World War II , as Christian missions ended in many countries, such as
North Korea and
China , and parts of Asia and Africa shifted due to
decolonization and
national independence , these aspects of world Christianity were largely lost.
[15]
The current usage of the term puts much less emphasis in
missions and
ecumenism .
[15] A number of historians have noted a twentieth-century "global shift" in Christianity, from a religion largely found in Europe and the Americas to one which is found in the
Global South and
Third World countries.
[2]
[3]
[8]
[9]
[16] Hence, world Christianity has more recently been used to describe the diversity and the multiplicity of Christianity across its two-thousand-year history.
[15]
Another term that is often used as analogous to world Christianity is the term global Christianity . However, scholars such as
Lamin Sanneh have argued that global Christianity refers to a
Eurocentric understanding of Christianity that emphasizes the replication of Christian forms and patterns in Europe, whereas world Christianity refers to the multiplicity of
Indigenous responses to the Christian gospel.
[17]
Philip Jenkins and
Graham Joseph Hill contend that Sanneh's distinction between world Christianity and global Christianity is artificial and unnecessary.
[18]
[19]
Notable figures
Andrew Walls , a key pioneer in the field of World Christianity
Some notable figures in the academic study of world Christianity include
Andrew Walls ,
[20]
Lamin Sanneh ,
[21] and
Brian Stanley ,
[22] all three of whom are associated with the "Yale-Edinburgh Group on the History of the Missionary Movement and World Christianity".
[23] More recently,
Klaus Koschorke and the “Munich School” of World Christianity has been highlighted for its contribution in understanding the polycentric nature of world Christianity.
[24]
In contrast to these historians, there is a growing number of
theologians who have been engaging the field of world Christianity from the discipline of
systematic theology ,
ecclesiology , and
missiology . Some examples of this include the Pentecostal
Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen , Catholic
Peter C. Phan , and the Baptist
Graham Joseph Hill .
[25]
[26]
[27]
[28]
See also
References
^ Barreto, Raimundo C. (2021).
"Decoloniality and Interculturality in World Christianity: A Latin American Perspective" . In Frederiks, Martha; Nagy, Dorottya (eds.). World Christianity: Methodological Considerations . Theology and Mission in World Christianity. Vol. 19.
Leiden and
Boston :
Brill Publishers . pp. 65–91.
doi :
10.1163/9789004444867_005 .
ISBN
978-90-04-44486-7 .
ISSN
2452-2953 .
JSTOR
j.ctv1sr6jvr.7 .
S2CID
234580589 .
^
a
b
c
Jenkins, Philip (2011).
"The Rise of the New Christianity" . The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity .
Oxford and
New York :
Oxford University Press . pp. 101–133.
ISBN
9780199767465 .
LCCN
2010046058 .
^
a
b
c
Robert, Dana L. (April 2000). Hastings, Thomas J. (ed.).
"Shifting Southward: Global Christianity Since 1945" (PDF) .
International Bulletin of Missionary Research . 24 (2).
SAGE Publications on behalf of the Overseas Ministries Study Center: 50–58.
doi :
10.1177/239693930002400201 .
ISSN
0272-6122 .
S2CID
152096915 .
Archived (PDF) from the original on 30 January 2022. Retrieved 16 February 2022 .
^ Bonk, Jonathan J. (20 December 2014).
"Why "World" Christianity?" .
Boston : The Center for Global Christianity and Mission at the
Boston University School of Theology .
Archived from the original on 20 December 2014. Retrieved 18 February 2022 .
^
Kim, Sebastian ;
Kim, Kirsteen (2008). "Christianity as a World Religion". Christianity as a World Religion .
London and
New York :
Continuum International . pp. 1–22.
doi :
10.5040/9781472548894.ch-001 .
ISBN
978-1-4725-4889-4 .
S2CID
152998021 .
^
a
b
c Schneider, Nicolas I. (2022). "Pentecostals/Charismatics". In Ross, Kenneth R.; Bidegain, Ana M.; Johnson, Todd M. (eds.). Christianity in Latin America and the Caribbean . Edinburgh Companions to Global Christianity.
Edinburgh :
Edinburgh University Press . pp. 322–334.
ISBN
9781474492164 .
JSTOR
10.3366/j.ctv2mzb0p5 .
^
a
b Hanciles, Jehu J. (2008).
Beyond Christendom: Globalization, African Migration, and the Transformation of the West .
Maryknoll, New York :
Orbis Books .
ISBN
978-1-60833-103-1 .
OCLC
221663356 .
^
a
b Freston, Paul (2008).
"The Changing Face of Christian Proselytization: New Actors from the Global South" . In
Hackett, Rosalind I. J. (ed.). Proselytization Revisited: Rights Talk, Free Markets, and Culture Wars (1st ed.).
New York and
London :
Routledge . pp. 109–138.
ISBN
9781845532284 .
LCCN
2007046731 .
^
a
b Robbins, Joel (October 2004).
Brenneis, Don ;
Strier, Karen B. (eds.). "The Globalization of Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity".
Annual Review of Anthropology . 33 .
Annual Reviews : 117–143.
doi :
10.1146/annurev.anthro.32.061002.093421 .
ISSN
1545-4290 .
JSTOR
25064848 .
S2CID
145722188 .
^ McConnell, Francis John (1929). Human needs and world Christianity . New York: Friendship Press.
OCLC
893126 .
^ Van Dusen, Henry P. (1947).
World Christianity: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow . New York: Abingdon-Cokesbury Press.
OCLC
823535 .
^
Robert, Dana L.
"Historiographic Foundations" . In Burrows, William R.; Gornik, Mark R.; McLean, Janice A. (eds.). Understanding World Christianity: The Vision and Work of Andrew F. Walls . Orbis Books. pp. 148–.
ISBN
978-1-60833-021-8 .
^
Latourette, Kenneth Scott (1938).
Toward a world Christian fellowship .
New York City :
Association Press .
OCLC
1149344 .
^ Latourette, Kenneth Scott (1949). The Emergence of a World Christian Community .
New Haven, Connecticut :
Yale University Press .
OCLC
396146 .
^
a
b
c
Phan, Peter C. (March 2013). "World Christianity: Its Implications for History, Religious Studies, and Theology".
Horizons . 39 (2).
Cambridge and
New York City :
Cambridge University Press on behalf of the College Theology Society,
Villanova University : 171–188.
doi :
10.1017/S0360966900010665 .
ISSN
2050-8557 .
LCCN
77648693 .
OCLC
858609197 .
S2CID
170971032 .
^
Walls, Andrew F. (1996).
Missionary Movement in Christian History: Studies in the Transmission of Faith . Orbis Books.
ISBN
978-1-60833-106-2 .
^ Lamin Sanneh (9 October 2003).
Whose Religion Is Christianity?: The Gospel Beyond the West . Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. pp. 22–23.
ISBN
978-0-8028-2164-5 .
^ Hill, Graham Joseph (2016). Global Church: reshaping our conversations, renewing our mission, revitalizing our churches . Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic. pp. 419–420.
ISBN
978-0-8308-9903-6 .
OCLC
922799591 .
^ Jenkins, Philip (2007). The next Christendom: the coming of global Christianity (Rev. and expanded ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. xiii.
ISBN
978-0-19-518307-8 .
OCLC
71004136 .
^ Burrows, William R.; Gornik, Mark R.; McLean, Janice A., eds. (2011). Understanding World Christianity: The Vision and Work of Andrew F. Walls . Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books.
^ Akinade, Akintunde E., ed. (2010). A New Day: Essays on World Christianity in Honor of Lamin Sanneh . New York: Peter Lang.
^
"Professor Brian Stanley" . School of Divinity, University of Edinburgh . Retrieved 29 October 2016 .
^
"Yale-Edinburgh Group" . Yale Divinity Library . Retrieved 27 July 2016 .
^ Hermann, Adrian; Burlacioiu, Ciprian (2016). "Introduction: Klaus Koschorke and the "Munich School" Perspective on the History of World Christianity". Journal of World Christianity . 6 (1): 4–27.
doi :
10.5325/jworlchri.6.1.0004 .
JSTOR
10.5325/jworlchri.6.1.0004 .
^
Yong, Amos (2015).
"Whither Evangelical Theology? The Work of Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen as a Case Study of Contemporary Trajectories" . The Dialogical Spirit: Christian Reason and Theological Method in the Third Millennium . Cambridge: James Clark and Co. pp. 121–148.
ISBN
9780227904350 .
^ Phan, Peter C. (2008). "Doing Theology in World Christianity: Different Resources and New Methods". Journal of World Christianity . 1 (1): 27–53.
doi :
10.5325/jworlchri.1.1.0027 .
JSTOR
10.5325/jworlchri.1.1.0027 .
^ Hill, Graham Joseph (2015).
Global Church: Reshaping Our Conversations, Renewing Our Mission, Revitalizing Our Churches . Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic.
ISBN
978-0-8308-4085-4 .
^ Hill, Graham Joseph (2020).
Salt, Light, and a City, Second Edition: Conformation—Ecclesiology for the Global Missional Community: Volume 2, Majority World Voices . Cascade Books.
ISBN
9781532603259 .
Further reading
Asamoah-Gyadu, Kwabena; Chow, Alexander; Wild-Wood, Emma (March 2021).
"Editorial: The COVID-19 Pandemic and World Christianity" . Studies in World Christianity . 26 (3).
Edinburgh :
Edinburgh University Press : 213–218.
doi :
10.3366/swc.2020.0306 .
eISSN
1750-0230 .
ISSN
1354-9901 .
Cabrita, Joel; Maxwell, David; Wild-Wood, Emma, eds. (2017). Relocating World Christianity: Interdisciplinary Studies in Universal and Local Expressions of the Christian Faith . Theology and Mission in World Christianity. Vol. 7.
Leiden :
Brill Publishers .
doi :
10.1163/9789004355026 .
ISBN
978-90-04-34262-0 .
ISSN
2452-2953 .
Frederiks, Martha; Nagy, Dorottya, eds. (2020). World Christianity: Methodological Considerations . Theology and Mission in World Christianity. Vol. 19.
Leiden :
Brill Publishers .
doi :
10.1163/9789004444867 .
ISBN
978-90-04-44166-8 .
ISSN
2452-2953 .
S2CID
228894117 .
Hastings, Adrian , ed. (2000) [1999].
A World History of Christianity .
Cambridge, U.K. and
Grand Rapids, Michigan :
Wm. B. Eerdmans .
ISBN
978-0-8028-4875-8 .
Hunt, Stephen J. , ed. (2015). Handbook of Global Contemporary Christianity: Themes and Developments in Culture, Politics, and Society . Brill Handbooks on Contemporary Religion. Vol. 10.
Leiden :
Brill Publishers .
doi :
10.1163/9789004291027 .
ISBN
978-90-04-26538-7 .
ISSN
1874-6691 .
Brenneman, Todd M. "
Fundamentalist Christianity: From the American Margins to the Global Stage ". In
Hunt (2015) , pp. 75–92.
Ng, Peter Tze Ming. "
Chinese Christianity: A ‘Global-Local’ Perspective ". In
Hunt (2015) , pp. 152–166.
Poon, Michael. "
Christian Social Engagement in a Globalising Age ". In
Hunt (2015) , pp. 247–265.
Thorsen, Jakob Egeris. "
Trends in Global Catholicism: The Refractions and Transformations of a World Church ". In
Hunt (2015) , pp. 27–48.
Wilkinson, Michael. "
The Emergence, Development, and Pluralisation of Global Pentecostalism ". In
Hunt (2015) , pp. 93–112.
Jenkins, Philip (2011).
The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity (3rd ed.).
New York :
Oxford University Press .
doi :
10.1093/0195146166.001.0001 .
ISBN
9780199767465 .
LCCN
2010046058 .
OCLC
678924439 .
Wilken, Robert Louis (2013).
The First Thousand Years: A Global History of Christianity .
New Haven and
London :
Yale University Press .
ISBN
978-0-300-11884-1 .
JSTOR
j.ctt32bd7m .
LCCN
2012021755 .
Young, F. Lionel III (2021).
World Christianity and the Unfinished Task: A Very Short Introduction . Eugene, OR: Cascade Books.
ISBN
978-1-7252-6654-4