Christian World Research Articles

Editorial: Latin America and World Christianity

Editorial: Latin America and World Christianity

Approaches of the Greek Catholic Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky to the National and Confessional Issues at the Beginning of the 20th Century

The article examines the approaches of the Greek Catholic Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky to the national and confessional issues at the beginning of the 20th century. Sheptytsky’s views are placed in the context of the views of his contemporaries, both collaborators and figures who had a different national and/or confessional option. Identified through the analysis of the texts of Metropolitan Andrey set of his views on the Christian world and its constituent confessions (Catholics of various rites, Orthodox, especially Russian Orthodox and Old Believers, Protestants) is presented. Certain features of Christian universalism in Sheptytsky’s interpretation are revealed, including the concept of «Christian people» as one of the occurrences of the Christian world at the national level. A conclusion about the most important priority in the activities of Metropolitan Andrey is drawn. It is concluded that the most important priority in the activities of Metropolitan Andrey was the desire to unite all Christians. He had an idea of how this process might develop. The main role was assigned to the Russian Orthodox Church, which, in his opinion, should have realized its unity with the Catholic Church.

<i>Peregrinatio:</i> Migrants and Migration in Christian History

A book review essay of Migration and the Making of Global Christianity by Jehu J. Hanciles (Eerdmans, 2021).

Shaping Identity

This essay examines the formation of national identity in Azerbaijan during the early twentieth century through an analysis of works by Azerbaijani authors. This period was a crucial time for the country as it faced significant historical changes that challenged its sense of identity. Azerbaijan was situated between the Islamic and Christian worlds and had been under the control of the Russian Empire for many decades, making the search for national identity difficult. The essay analyzes the writings of two prominent Azerbaijani thinkers, Kurban Said and Ahmed bey Aghaoghlu, to reveal the main tendencies in Azerbaijani society during this period. The authors’ suggestions for building a better society serve as insights into the tendencies and atmosphere at that important time. The essay argues that these works may chronicle the formation of the national identity during a historically obscured time when the Soviet regime erased all traces of identity issues. The study draws on Benedict Anderson’s concept of imagined communities, which emphasizes the role of discourse and media in forming and transforming national identities. The essay discusses the importance of understanding national identity in crucial historical periods and how it aids in the process of its formation. Finally, the essay provides historical context on Azerbaijan’s situation at the beginning of the twentieth century, including its short-lived independence, the influence of diverse cultural, ethnic, and religious values, and the challenges of Russian domination, cultural restrictions, and falsification of historical facts.

From Text to Relics: The Emergence of the Scribe-Martyr in Late Antique Christianity (Fourth Century–Seventh Century)

Abstract: This paper delves into the conflation of two prominent figures of authority in the early Christian world: the scribe-scholar and the martyr. While previous scholarship has largely examined these figures separately, this study focuses on their association and argues that they were meaningfully combined to establish a new form of textual authority. The motif of the scribe-martyr is explored in a series of Christian texts, from Pseudo-Pionius to John Moschus and late ancient hagiographic texts, tracing its origins to the fourth century. This development emerged from the growing association between the authority of written texts as physical objects and the rise of the cult of saints and their relics. In parallel with Foucault’s concept of the author-function, a distinct Christian “scribe-function” emerged within this context, i.e., discourses of authority, fictitious or historical, involving the individuals who reproduced or corrected texts. The paper posits that the motif of the scribe-martyr was then strategically employed in legal, scholarly, and institutional contexts to express faithfulness, resistance, authorization, and legitimation. As a result, this conflation contributed significantly to the attribution of holiness and authority to texts, sacred places, and religious institutions. Thus, the scribe-martyr, connected to the revered relic-texts, assumed a particularly potent role as a figure of theological authority within late ancient Christianity.

Relocating World Christianity

Relocating World Christianity

Revelation and Communion: A Contextual Theological Approach to Diversity and Dialogue in World Christianity

Abstract Theology in world Christianity not only features theological discourse that scrutinizes the colonial legacy of Christianity, pointing out the ways in which Christian doctrines are cast in colonial power, but also presents theology from the indigenous concerns to appropriate the Christian faith. Nonetheless, the present challenge to doing theology in world Christianity extends to not only making Christianity a dialogic-livable faith but also sustaining the relationship between universality and indigeneity. This article grapples with the task of decolonizing revelation, salvation, and dialogue in world Christianity using the insights from Ecclesiam Suam (1964) and Elochukwu Uzukwu’s wholeness-oriented approach to revelation and diversity. Particularly, it reexamines the meaning of salvation in the context of a narrative and proposes that the indigenous approaches could overcome the hurdles—not reinscribe highly problematic relations between the so-called center and margins through inculturation and contextual theology—taking note that theological discourse on revelation and salvation stands in need of scrutiny.

Beyond the One: Toward a Multireligious Framework for the Study of World Christianity

Abstract In recent decades, numerous analytical and conceptual discourses have arisen in support of a shift toward comparative and multireligious frameworks for the study of religion. These include critiques of conventional mono-religious approaches to the anthropology of religion, vibrant discussions around comparative theology and multiple religious belonging, and the emergence of interreligious studies as a field. This article explores these and similar scholarly shifts in relation to the field of world Christianity. The aims are to bring these discussions to bear on the work of world Christianity scholars and to argue that world Christianity would do well to engage them as a way of solidifying its grounding in religions beyond Christianity.

The Holy Spirit as “the Gift” in Charles Nyamiti's Trinitarian Theology: A Pentecostal-Lutheran Dialogical Perspective

This article starts from the theology of the Tanzanian-born Charles Nyamiti (1931–2020), as one of the most creative in his generation of African theologians. Nyamiti proposed that ancestral veneration is a foundational human relationship which reflects divine realities. Thus, he proposed an understanding of the Trinity where the Father is the Ancestor, the Son is the Descendant, and the Holy Spirit is the mutual Oblation connecting the two. Because an ancestor does not exist as an ancestor without sacred ritual communication, the Holy Spirit becomes thus absolutely necessary for the Godhead. We maintain that Nyamiti's ancestral approach describes an African logic of gift-giving. Translating his theological contribution into gift-language preserves the theological insights while solving some of the logical problems with the ancestral imaginary, such as how the Father who never died is supposed to be the Ancestor. Through gift-language, Nyamiti's theological insights, which are based on African relational ontologies, become more readily applicable in World Christianity and have potential to transform ecumenism into a vibrant and inclusive embodied pneumatic action for abundant life. In other words, Nyamiti's theological heritage invites theologians to envision Christian faith beyond the confines of Hellenistic-based philosophy.

Civilizational Identity and the Identity Politics Agenda: Russian Priorities in a Transforming World Order

The author offers a brief overview of the field of identity studies in political research with a focus on the significance of civilizational identity as a key concept relevant for evaluating the dynamics of political identity and the priorities of political agenda setting in a radically transforming world. The paper outlines a conceptual framework for understanding civilizational identity and assesses its role in forming the discursive power of the state and in promoting a development policy agenda. This agenda is activated by identity politics promoted by the state and other political actors to construct and uphold an array of politically significant identities which are important for social cohesion and for implementing national development goals. Correlating tradition and innovation in the social sphere is an important priority for consistent development policies. Russia has longstanding traditions of promoting a civilizational discourse reflecting her place in the Christian world and in the dialogue of cultures and civilizations, with a focus on the pivotal role of the state in social development. The research methodology is based on approaches developed in the field of identity studies. These include both the assessment of identity transformations as changing notions of the self in relation to politics in a fluid social and political environment and the implications these perceptions of societal realities have for current social policies and for promoting political change.

Age of the Spirit: Charismatic Renewal, the Anglo-World, and Global Christianity, 1945–1980, written by John Maiden

Age of the Spirit: Charismatic Renewal, the Anglo-World, and Global Christianity, 1945–1980, written by John Maiden

Religiosity, Economic Growth and Development Dynamics: An International Perspective

This study examines the relationship between religiosity and economic growth as an indicator of modernization. It also examines the relationship between religiosity and various dimensions of development such as educational attainment, mortality rate, and urbanization. To this end, average country-level data from 6 different survey waves of the World Values Survey, spanning the period 1989-2022, and various data sources, including the World Christian Encyclopedia, Religion and State Project, Penn World Table, World Development Indicators are utilized. The analyses include a maximum of 108 countries. The ongoing secularization paradigm is experienced differently in each society, depending on the predominance of religious belief and societal characteristics, including the degree of cultural and social diversity. The Seemingly Unrelated Regression method is employed to address the potential problem of correlation between the error terms of the regressions utilizing different religiosity indicators. Estimates indicate that religiosity is negatively associated with economic growth, the presence of a state religion and religious pluralism, while it is positively associated with state regulation of the religious market. Education, which is one of the most fundamental indicators of development, is positively correlated with religiosity. Nevertheless, the most characteristic indicator of modernization and development, urbanization, is negatively related to religiosity.

The role of the Church during the First War of Scottish Independence

The work examines the actions taken by the Scottish Church during the First War of Scottish Independence (1296– 1328), as well as the preliminary period starting from 1286. The main objectives are to determine the direct role of the Scottish clergy in diplomatic and political activities, to assess the impact on the national liberation movement, as well as to study the position of the Scottish Church in the Christian world at the end of the First War of Independence. Great attention is given to the propaganda activities of the bishops, as well as the relationship of the secular and spiritual authorities with the Roman Church before and after 1302. The transformation of the position and structure of the Scottish Church in relation to the Roman See and the entire Christian world, both legally and spiritually, is analyzed.

Reading the Prioress’s Tale as Recovery Romance, or The Tale of a Prioress, a Sniper, and the Cross-Temporal Weaponization of Empathy

ABSTRACT This article argues that the Prioress’s Tale harnesses several narrative elements endemic to a genre of late medieval crusades fantasy—“recovery romance”—in order to weaponize the empathy of its intra- and extratextual audiences. Complementing arguments that have linked the Prioress’s Tale to blood libels abundant in late medieval England, the author contends that the tale borrows from these stories, and specifically from recovery romances, because of their commitment to fantasies of global Christian supremacy achieved through war and genocide. Discerning the link between recovery romance and Chaucer’s tale allows us to reckon fully with the implications of the tale’s Asiatic location and antisemitism. The film American Sniper (2014) provides a contemporary point of comparison.

From Nairobi to the world. David B. Barrett and the re-imagining of World Christianity. By Gina A. Zurlo. (Theology and Mission in World Christianity, 26.) Pp. xii + 155 incl. 20 colour and black-and-white ills. Leiden–Boston: Brill, 2023. €54 (paper). 978 90 04 54103 0; 2452 2953

From Nairobi to the world. David B. Barrett and the re-imagining of World Christianity. By Gina A. Zurlo. (Theology and Mission in World Christianity, 26.) Pp. xii + 155 incl. 20 colour and black-and-white ills. Leiden–Boston: Brill, 2023. €54 (paper). 978 90 04 54103 0; 2452 2953

The Eusebius Essay Prize and The World Christianities Essay Prize

The Eusebius Essay Prize and The World Christianities Essay Prize

The Intellectual World of Late Antique Christianity: Reshaping Classical Traditions. Edited by Lewis Ayres, Michael W. Champion, and Matthew R. Crawford

<i>The Intellectual World of Late Antique Christianity: Reshaping Classical Traditions</i>. Edited by Lewis Ayres, Michael W. Champion, and Matthew R. Crawford

Wilno mityczne we współczesnej prozie litewskiej

The myth of the founding of the city of Vilnius became particularly important in Lithuanian art in the decade of the restoration of independence. After a long period of occupation, the capital of Lithuania became not only a catalyst for new formulations of national and civic identity, but also a symbol of freedom. The landscape and architecture of the Old Town of Vilnius embody the archaic Baltic imagination, which is not upstaged but, on the contrary, complemented by the Christian world of Vilnius. The restoration of independence activated the archaic Baltic imagination in Lithuanian art and literature as this kind of imagination had nurtured Lithuanians’ national self-awareness over centuries. This article focuses on two modern Lithuanian prose writers, Antanas Ramonas (1947–1993) and Ričardas Gavelis (1950–2002), whose works evoke the two most striking and different images of the same mythical Vilnius – divine and demonic, hopeful and hopeless. These two opposing images of mythical Vilnius reveal two different viewpoints on the world, on history and on the human being in modern Lithuanian literature.

Book Review: Portraits of Global Christianity: Research and Reflections in Honor of Todd M. Johnson

Book Review: Portraits of Global Christianity: Research and Reflections in Honor of Todd M. Johnson

Ambiguous Borders: Curanderismo and World Christianity

precis: Curanderxs are healers who utilize a variety of means such as prayers, herbs, Christian icons, Spiritist rituals, images from religions, and such commonplace objects as eggs and dirt. Christian leaders often reject curanderismo as overly syncretistic or even as witchcraft. Nevertheless, many curanderxs are devout Catholics and even understand their gifting and practices through the lens of Christianity. This essay draws on the work of Kwame Bediako to demonstrate how these peripheral Christian curanderxs have translated diverse knowledge into Christian idiom and vice versa. Through examining examples of curanderxs , this essay shows how "Christian" much of the history, discourse, and living tradition of curanderismo is. It is an area of ambiguity that challenges Christianity's borders.