The Making and Shaping of World Christianity: Commemorating the Legacies of Andrew F. Walls and Ogbu U. Kalu

Abstract

World Christianity has been described as ‘the great Christian fact of our time and the great Christian resource of our time’. Andrew Finlay Walls and Ogbu Uke Kalu emerged as pioneering figures responsible for the making and shaping of this field of study and research. Together, they brought about a renewed consciousness of the multicentric, multilingual and multicultural nature of Christianity. Their research altered the course of the study of Christian history, missions, ecumenics, the nature of conversion, and world religions. It redefined the conventional understanding of the interaction between Christianity and culture and, more broadly, between God and humanity. In memory and celebration of these two giants of World Christianity, this article points to some of the significant contributions of Ogbu Kalu and Andrew Walls to the field and draws on discussion in the two special panels held in their honour at the third World Christianity Conference at Princeton Theological Seminary, 3–6 March 2021.