World Christianity

World Christianity or global Christianity has been defined both as a term that attempts to convey the global nature of the Christian religion{{cite book |author-last=Barreto |author-first=Raimundo C. |year=2021 |chapter=Decoloniality and Interculturality in World Christianity: A Latin American Perspective |chapter-url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1163/j.ctv1sr6jvr.7 |editor1-last=Frederiks |editor1-first=Martha |editor2-last=Nagy |editor2-first=Dorottya |title=World Christianity: Methodological Considerations |location=Leiden and Boston |publisher=Brill Publishers |series=Theology and Mission in World Christianity |volume=19 |pages=65–91 |doi=10.1163/9789004444867_005 |doi-access=free |isbn=978-90-04-44486-7 |issn=2452-2953 |jstor=j.ctv1sr6jvr.7 |s2cid=234580589}} 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.{{cite web |last=Bonk |first=Jonathan J. |date=20 December 2014 |title=Why "World" Christianity? |url=https://www.bu.edu/cgcm/annual-theme/why-world-christianity/ |url-status=live |location=Boston |publisher=The Center for Global Christianity and Mission at the Boston University School of Theology |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141220034741/https://www.bu.edu/cgcm/annual-theme/why-world-christianity/ |archive-date=20 December 2014 |access-date=18 February 2022}} 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."{{cite book |author1-last=Kim |author1-first=Sebastian |author1-link=Sebastian Kim |author2-last=Kim |author2-first=Kirsteen |author2-link=Kirsteen Kim |year=2008 |chapter=Christianity as a World Religion |title=Christianity as a World Religion |location=London and New York |publisher=Continuum International |pages=1–22 |doi=10.5040/9781472548894.ch-001 |isbn=978-1-4725-4889-4|s2cid=152998021 }} It also includes Indigenous or diasporic forms of Christianity in the Caribbean,{{cite book |author-last=Schneider |author-first=Nicolas I. |year=2022 |chapter=Pentecostals/Charismatics |editor1-last=Ross |editor1-first=Kenneth R. |editor2-last=Bidegain |editor2-first=Ana M. |editor3-last=Johnson |editor3-first=Todd M. |title=Christianity in Latin America and the Caribbean |location=Edinburgh |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |series=Edinburgh Companions to Global Christianity |pages=322–334 |isbn=9781474492164 |jstor=10.3366/j.ctv2mzb0p5}} South America, Western Europe,{{cite book |last=Hanciles |first=Jehu J. |year=2008 |title=Beyond Christendom: Globalization, African Migration, and the Transformation of the West |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vmCDAwAAQBAJ |location=Maryknoll, New York |publisher=Orbis Books |isbn=978-1-60833-103-1 |oclc=221663356}} and North America.

History of the term

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|image1=Countries by percentage of Protestants 1938.svg

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|caption2=Countries by percentage of Protestant Christians in 1938 and 2010. Pentecostal and Evangelical denominations within Protestantism fueled much of the global growth of Christianity in Latin America, the Caribbean, Oceania, and Sub-Saharan Africa.}}

The term world Christianity can first be found in the writings of Francis John McConnell in 1929 and Henry P. Van Dusen in 1947.{{Cite book|title=Human needs and world Christianity|last=McConnell|first=Francis John|date=1929|publisher=Friendship Press|location=New York|oclc = 893126|language=en}}{{Cite book|title=World Christianity: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow|url=https://archive.org/details/worldchristianit00vand|url-access=registration|last=Van Dusen|first=Henry P.|date=1947|publisher=Abingdon-Cokesbury Press|location=New York|oclc = 823535|language=en}} 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.{{cite book|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZztwsP89iZYC&pg=PA148|title=Understanding World Christianity: The Vision and Work of Andrew F. Walls|author-last=Robert|author-first=Dana L.|publisher=Orbis Books|isbn=978-1-60833-021-8|editor-last1=Burrows|editor-first1=William R.|pages=148–|chapter=Historiographic Foundations|author-link=Dana L. Robert|editor-last2=Gornik|editor-first2=Mark R.|editor-last3=McLean|editor-first3=Janice A.}} 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".{{cite book |author-last=Latourette |author-first=Kenneth Scott |author-link=Kenneth Scott Latourette |year=1938 |title=Toward a world Christian fellowship |url=https://archive.org/details/MN41419ucmf_3 |location=New York City |publisher=Association Press |oclc=1149344}}{{cite book |author-last=Latourette |author-first=Kenneth Scott |year=1949 |title=The Emergence of a World Christian Community |location=New Haven, Connecticut |publisher=Yale University Press |oclc=396146}} 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.{{cite journal |author-last=Phan |author-first=Peter C. |author-link=Peter C. Phan |date=March 2013 |title=World Christianity: Its Implications for History, Religious Studies, and Theology |journal=Horizons |location=Cambridge and New York City |publisher=Cambridge University Press on behalf of the College Theology Society, Villanova University |volume=39 |issue=2 |pages=171–188 |doi=10.1017/S0360966900010665 |issn=2050-8557 |lccn=77648693 |oclc=858609197 |s2cid=170971032}}

The current usage of the term puts much less emphasis in missions and ecumenism. 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.{{cite book |last=Jenkins |first=Philip |author-link=Philip Jenkins |year=2011 |title=The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity |chapter=The Rise of the New Christianity |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rPBoAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA101 |location=Oxford and New York |publisher=Oxford University Press |pages=101–133 |isbn=9780199767465 |lccn=2010046058}}{{cite journal |author-last=Robert |author-first=Dana L. |author-link=Dana L. Robert |date=April 2000 |title=Shifting Southward: Global Christianity Since 1945 |url=http://www.internationalbulletin.org/issues/2000-02/2000-02-050-robert.pdf |url-status=usurped |editor-last=Hastings |editor-first=Thomas J. |journal=International Bulletin of Missionary Research |publisher=SAGE Publications on behalf of the Overseas Ministries Study Center |volume=24 |issue=2 |pages=50–58 |doi=10.1177/239693930002400201 |issn=0272-6122 |s2cid=152096915 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220130215756/http://www.internationalbulletin.org/issues/2000-02/2000-02-050-robert.pdf |archive-date=30 January 2022 |access-date=16 February 2022}}{{cite book |author-last=Freston |author-first=Paul |year=2008 |chapter=The Changing Face of Christian Proselytization: New Actors from the Global South |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=y5TCBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA109 |editor-last=Hackett |editor-first=Rosalind I. J. |editor-link=Rosalind Hackett |title=Proselytization Revisited: Rights Talk, Free Markets, and Culture Wars |location=New York and London |publisher=Routledge |edition=1st |pages=109–138 |isbn=9781845532284 |lccn=2007046731}}{{cite journal |author-last=Robbins |author-first=Joel |date=October 2004 |title=The Globalization of Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity |editor1-last=Brenneis |editor1-first=Don |editor1-link=Don Brenneis |editor2-last=Strier |editor2-first=Karen B. |editor2-link=Karen B. Strier |journal=Annual Review of Anthropology |publisher=Annual Reviews |volume=33 |pages=117–143 |doi=10.1146/annurev.anthro.32.061002.093421 |issn=1545-4290 |jstor=25064848 |s2cid=145722188}}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hNq6BwAAQBAJ|title=Missionary Movement in Christian History: Studies in the Transmission of Faith|last=Walls|first=Andrew F.|date=1996|publisher=Orbis Books|isbn=978-1-60833-106-2|author-link=Andrew F. Walls}} Hence, world Christianity has more recently been used to describe the diversity and the multiplicity of Christianity across its two-thousand-year history.

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.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8gbz-xMP1zYC|title=Whose Religion Is Christianity?: The Gospel Beyond the West|date=9 October 2003|publisher=Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing|isbn=978-0-8028-2164-5|pages=22–23|author=Lamin Sanneh}} Philip Jenkins and Graham Joseph Hill contend that Sanneh's distinction between world Christianity and global Christianity is artificial and unnecessary.{{Cite book|last=Hill|first=Graham Joseph |title=Global Church: reshaping our conversations, renewing our mission, revitalizing our churches |publisher=IVP Academic |year=2016 |isbn=978-0-8308-9903-6 |location=Downers Grove, IL |pages=419–420 |oclc=922799591}}{{Cite book|last=Jenkins|first=Philip |title=The next Christendom: the coming of global Christianity |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-19-518307-8 |edition=Rev. and expanded |location=Oxford |page=xiii |oclc=71004136}}

Notable figures

File:Andrew F. Walls.jpg, a key pioneer in the field of World Christianity]]

Some notable figures in the academic study of world Christianity include Andrew Walls,{{cite book|title=Understanding World Christianity: The Vision and Work of Andrew F. Walls|date=2011|publisher=Orbis Books|location=Maryknoll, NY|editor-last2=Gornik|editor-first2=Mark R.|editor-last3=McLean|editor-first3=Janice A.|editor-last1=Burrows|editor-first1=William R.}} Lamin Sanneh,{{cite book|title=A New Day: Essays on World Christianity in Honor of Lamin Sanneh|date=2010|publisher=Peter Lang|location=New York|editor-last1=Akinade|editor-first1=Akintunde E.}} and Brian Stanley,{{cite web|url=http://www.ed.ac.uk/profile/brian-stanley|title=Professor Brian Stanley|website=School of Divinity, University of Edinburgh|access-date=29 October 2016}} all three of whom are associated with the "Yale-Edinburgh Group on the History of the Missionary Movement and World Christianity".{{Cite web|url=http://divinity-adhoc.library.yale.edu/Yale-Edinburgh/|title=Yale-Edinburgh Group|website=Yale Divinity Library|access-date=27 July 2016}} Dana L. Robert has pointed out that the Yale-Edinburgh conference is responsible for creating the current academic discourse in World Christianity.{{cite journal |last1=Robert |first1=Dana L. |title=Naming “World Christianity”: Historical and Personal Perspectives on the Yale-Edinburgh Conference in World Christianity and Mission History |journal=International Bulletin of Mission Research |date=April 2020 |volume=44 |issue=2 |pages=111–128 |doi=10.1177/2396939319893611}}

Other historians have offered their own takes on World Christianity. For instance, Klaus Koschorke has emphasized the comparitive study of Christianity, highlight the polycentric structure of the religion and the South-South connections that underscore the developments of Christianity outside the West.{{Cite journal|last1 = Hermann|first1 = Adrian|last2 = Burlacioiu|first2 = Ciprian|date = 2016|title = Introduction: Klaus Koschorke and the "Munich School" Perspective on the History of World Christianity|jstor = 10.5325/jworlchri.6.1.0004|journal = Journal of World Christianity|volume = 6|issue = 1|pages = 4–27|doi = 10.5325/jworlchri.6.1.0004}}

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.{{cite book|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L8_wCAAAQBAJ&pg=PA121|title=The Dialogical Spirit: Christian Reason and Theological Method in the Third Millennium|last=Yong|first=Amos|publisher=James Clark and Co.|year=2015|location=Cambridge|pages=121–148|chapter=Whither Evangelical Theology? The Work of Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen as a Case Study of Contemporary Trajectories|isbn=9780227904350|author-link=Amos Yong}}{{Cite journal|last=Phan|first=Peter C.|date=2008|title=Doing Theology in World Christianity: Different Resources and New Methods|jstor=10.5325/jworlchri.1.1.0027|journal=Journal of World Christianity|volume=1|issue=1|doi=10.5325/jworlchri.1.1.0027|pages=27–53}}{{Cite book|last=Hill|first=Graham Joseph|url=https://www.ivpress.com/globalchurch|title=Global Church: Reshaping Our Conversations, Renewing Our Mission, Revitalizing Our Churches|publisher=IVP Academic|year=2015|isbn=978-0-8308-4085-4|location=Downers Grove, IL|language=en-US}}{{Cite book|last=Hill|first=Graham Joseph|title=Salt, Light, and a City, Second Edition: Conformation—Ecclesiology for the Global Missional Community: Volume 2, Majority World Voices|url=https://wipfandstock.com/9781532603259/salt-light-and-a-city-second-edition/|publisher=Cascade Books|date=2020|language=en-US|isbn=9781532603259}}

World Christianity

History of the term

Notable figures

See also

References

Further reading