The Changing Face of Christianity

Abstract

Abstract Featuring cases from contemporary Africa and the Caribbean and from the history of Christianity in Asia, this book examines the new forms of Christianity emerging from the global south and east. These essays highlight the spiritual universe, communal relationships, cultural and religious creativity, and perspectives on wealth, power, and public affairs that animate contemporary world Christianity. The first six chapters investigate (1) gospel musicians and revival movements in the eastern Caribbean, (2) views of witchcraft among Christians in Nigeria, (3) the problem of sustaining missionary-founded institutions in postcolonial Zimbabwe, (4) the emergence of a Pentecostal prosperity gospel in Ghana, (5) the role of churches in the peace process in Mozambique, and (6) an emerging public theology in democratizing Ghana. Three case studies follow on the impact of Asian Christianity on Western Christian thought. They examine (7) the challenge to Western mission theory caused by the fact that Christianity in Burma grew faster in a tribal context than within the dominant civilization; (8) the ongoing debate in the theology of religion and world religions generated by the Dutch theologian and former missionary to Indonesia, Hendrik Kraemer; and (9) the creation of a postcolonial contextual theology movement by the Chinese scholar, Skoki Coe. An introduction by editor Sanneh frames these studies within the dramatic rise of Christian movements in the global south and east, their tempering through years of hardship and persecution, and their increasing clashes with liberal and worldly northern counterparts. In the book’s conclusion Sanneh argues that the centuries-old Enlightenment assumptions about how states, religions, and societies relate to each other are crumbling, and that world Christianity seems better equipped than northern Christianity to serve the age to come.