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The Emmanuel Research Review is a publication of the Emmanuel Gospel Center, and features articles, papers, resources, and information that we believe are helpful and relevant to urban pastors, leaders, and community members in their efforts to serve their communities effectively.
Introduced by Steve Daman, Communications Director, Emmanuel Gospel Center
In Christ there is no East or West,
In Him no South or North;
But one great fellowship of love
Throughout the whole wide earth.William A. Dunkerley wrote these words in 1908 for a pageant produced for the London Missionary Society, bringing attention to the worldwide Body of Christ and the spread of the Gospel in China at that time. Now, one century later, Western Christians are waking up to the growth of Christianity in the “global South” over the past 100 years, and wondering how or whether the new, vital Southern arm of the Body of Christ and the historic Northern arm will grasp hands in fellowship.
What is meant by the “global South?” According to a United Nations publication, “the use of the term ‘South’ to refer to developing countries collectively has been part of the shorthand of international relations since the 1970s. It rests on the fact that all of the world’s industrially developed countries (with the exception of Australia and New Zealand) lie to the north of its developing countries.” The term further implies “that although developing countries range across the spectrum in every economic, social and political attribute, they all share a set of vulnerabilities and challenges.”*
How will we in the Western church join hands with our Southern kin? Will we see “one great fellowship of love” this side of Heaven as Dunkerley suggests in his hymn? His concluding verse proclaims the spiritual unity in Christ of the global church:
In Christ now meet both East and West,
In Him meet North and South;
All Christly souls are one in Him
Throughout the whole wide earth.Surely that is the heart of Jesus’ prayer in John 17. Is it possible that what we are seeing in the world today is part of the answer to that prayer?
In this edition of the Emmanuel Research Review, our managing editor, Brian Corcoran, discusses a trilogy of books by author Philip Jenkins, Distinguished Professor of Religious Studies and History at Penn State, who writes about these two centers of Christianity and considers how they may influence each other now and in the future.
At the end of his article, Brian offers lists of resources for further learning on this topic. We do not intend for this issue of the Review to be the end of a discussion, but rather the beginning. Let us know what you think! Your feedback is more than welcome! To get in touch with us, follow the contact links at the bottom of this issue.
*[Quotes from Forging a Global South, published by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) http://tcdc1.undp.org/PDF/Forging%20a%20Global%20South.pdf click to open .pdf format report in new window.]
Taken together, The Next Christendom, The New Faces of Christianity, and God’s Continent, three books by Phillip Jenkins, Distinguished Professor of Religious Studies and History at Penn State, provide an informative, practical, and challenging trilogy on the future of Christianity from a global perspective that can help explain local trends in church demographics and help guide the daily decisions we face in urban ministry.
The Next Christendom and The
New Faces of Christianity have both contributed to changing the way many in
the Western world see and think about the future of Christianity. In both books,
Jenkins asserts that if you want to know the future of Christianity in the
world, you have to look and see what is happening in the global South,
especially Africa, Asia, and Latin America. You may be in for a surprise.
In an October, 2002, article for the Atlantic Monthly, entitled “The Next Christianity,” Jenkins appeals to popular Western consciousness to recognize that a monumental shift in global Christianity is underway.
“In looking back over the enormous changes wrought by the twentieth century, Western observers may have missed the most dramatic revolution of all. While secular movements like communism, feminism, and environmentalism have gotten the lion’s share of our attention, the explosive southward expansion of Christianity in Africa, Asia, and Latin America has barely registered on Western consciousness. Nor has the globalization of Christianity—and the enormous religious, political, and social consequences it portends—been properly understood.”
According to Jenkins, during the West’s great adventure in missing the point, we haven’t just missed a critical event or two, but an entire religious revolution that has been occurring under the equator. There is a powerful, emerging expression of Christianity in the global South that more closely resembles the New Testament era than the faith of its nearsighted Northern counterpart.
“If we look beyond the liberal West, we see that another Christian revolution, quite different from the one being called for in affluent American suburbs and upscale urban parishes, is already in progress. Worldwide, Christianity is actually moving toward supernaturalism and neo-orthodoxy, and in many ways toward the ancient worldview expressed in the New Testament: a vision of Jesus as the embodiment of divine power, who overcomes the evil forces that inflict calamity and sickness upon the human race.”
For those in the global North who are wondering how and why this theological trend may be occurring, Jenkins first reminds us of the hard realities of much of the global South. “Disease, exploitation, pollution, drink, drugs, and violence, taken together, can account for why people might easily accept that they are under siege from demonic forces, and that only divine intervention can save them.” In The New Faces of Christianity, Jenkins explains in greater detail how the contemporary circumstances of the global South resemble numerous ancient biblical passages. And because of this fact, “Southern Christians are reading the New Testament and taking it very seriously; in it they see the power of Jesus fundamentally expressed through his confrontations with demonic powers, particularly those causing sickness and insanity.” The North and South are reading the same Bible through different lenses and arriving at differing theological interpretations and life applications.
In addition to this ancient-new theological development, there are impressive demographics that support the fact that this is no small thing. As we compare the numbers by continents, we observe “In the global South (the areas that we often think of primarily as the Third World) huge and growing Christian populations—currently 480 million in Latin America, 360 million in Africa, and 313 million in Asia, compared with 260 million in North America.” If we consider the future outlook on a national basis, Jenkins projects, “By about 2050 the United States will still have the largest single contingent of Christians, but all the other leading nations will be Southern: Mexico, Brazil, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, and the Philippines.” Even these basic demographics verify that this trend is significant and highly relevant to understanding the future of Christianity.
When we consider how these numbers alter global counts within various denominations, we see a new landscape of church politics with fault lines and potential seismic shifts, especially for older denominational regimes. The impact on Catholicism provides one of the more dramatic examples. “Africa had about 16 million Catholics in the early 1950s; it has 120 million today, and is expected to have 228 million by 2025. The World Christian Encyclopedia suggests that by 2025 almost three quarters of all Catholics will be found in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.” So even Catholicism is growing; the question is, into what?
As you could imagine, this creates obvious tension between the European and Euro-American Catholics, advocating for a more progressive future for their parishes, and the more conservative Catholicism of the South. “The changes that Catholic and other reformers today are trying to inspire in North America and Europe… run utterly contrary to the dominant cultural movements in the rest of the Christian world, which look very much like the Counter-Reformation.” Generally, the North and South agree on the need for change. However, “a Southern-dominated Catholic Church is likely to react traditionally to the issues that most concern American and European reformers: matters of theology and devotion, sexual ethics and gender roles, and, most fundamentally, issues of authority within the Church.” And to further complicate matters, if “Church officials in North America or Europe proclaimed a moral stance more in keeping with progressive secular values, they would be divided from the growing Catholic churches of the South by a de facto schism, if not a formal breach.” The North-South fault lines are coming into clear focus within the Catholic Church.
Given the hierarchical structure of the Catholic Church, its leadership selection will continue to play a major role in determining its future trajectory. With this consideration in mind, Jenkins points out that already, “Nigeria’s Francis Cardinal Arinze… is sometimes touted as a future Pope.” Yet, he is considered by the Northern Catholic brethren as “rigidly conservative, and even repressive on matters such as academic freedom and the need for strict orthodoxy.” This is especially discouraging to the Northern brethren, who have been anticipating “a Third Vatican Council, to complete the revolution launched by Pope John XXIII.” But will Arinze or another Southern cardinal soon have the opportunity to speak “Ex Cathedra” to the entire Catholic community? Once again, the numbers in favor of the South are impressive, “The next time a papal election takes place, fifty-seven of the 135 cardinals eligible to vote, or more than 40 percent, will be from Southern nations.” A simple tally may well set the course, but not likely settle the matter.
Similar to the Catholic Church, a global intra-denominational conflict is developing among the world’s Anglicans and Episcopalians as they also attempt to move forward. “Nigeria already has more practicing Anglicans than any other country, far more than Britain itself, and Uganda is not far behind.” Therefore, it is understandable why the Lambeth World Conference in 1998 was able to issue such a conservative statement, “proclaiming the impossibility of reconciling homosexual conduct with Christian ministry.” Now acting as a vocal minority, “Anglicans in the North tend to be very liberal on homosexuality… however, liberal clerics have been appalled to find themselves outnumbered and regularly outvoted.”
However, at this point there is a unique development within the global Anglican community as compared to the Catholic controversy. In response to their internal conflict, Anglicans have started a process of re-wiring their own governmental system. As the Southern church majority made its position clear, other conservative churches in the Northern hemisphere “realized that they had powerful friends overseas, and transferred their religious allegiance to more conservative authorities in the global South.” In this process of internal re-affiliation, “conservative American Episcopalians have traveled to Moses Tay’s cathedral in Singapore, where they were consecrated as bishops by Asian and African Anglican prelates,” thereby becoming, “missionary bishops, charged with ministering to conservative congregations in the United States.” This re-wiring may well change the lines of authority and communication but the fault lines still remain.
The theological, demographic, and denominational aspects previously mentioned illustrate Jenkins’ major theme of a global North-South tension within which will determine the future of Christianity. Because of divergent intentions, “The cultural gap between Christians of the North and the South will increase rather than diminish in the coming decades.” Based on past performance, “Northern communities will move to ever more decentralized and privatized forms of faith as Southerners maintain older ideals of community and traditional authority.” And, more specifically, Jenkins states that as “Americans imagine a Church freed from hierarchy, superstition, and dogma, Southerners look back to one filled with spiritual power and able to exorcise the demonic forces that cause sickness and poverty.”
To further illustrate the larger North-South tensions that stretch across the gap in global church culture, Jenkins tells the story of Moses Tay, the Anglican Archbishop of Southeast Asia.
“In the early 1990s Tay traveled to Vancouver, where he encountered the totem poles that are a local tourist attraction. To him, they were idols possessed by evil spirits, and he concluded that they required handling by prayer and exorcism. This horrified the local Anglican Church, which was committed to building good relationships with local Native American communities, and which regarded exorcism as absurd superstition.”
Jenkins expects this type of confrontation to be repeated, playing out in numerous ways, given the ever increasing tension between the global north and south.
Throughout The Next Christendom and The New Faces of Christianity, Jenkins writes largely to the Western-thinking, global North to raise awareness and understanding regarding the vitality, magnitude, and character of Christianity in the global South. In the global theatre of activity, Western thought has largely failed to identify what is “center stage” because of its geographic bias, let alone see and comprehend the real story and full cast of characters. Regardless, the drama is one that continues to play out, impacting both the global North and South, and thereby shaping the future of Christianity.
As The Next Christendom and The New Faces of Christianity both help us understand Christianity in the global South, God’s Continent helps us understand Christianity in the global North, particularly Europe. Just as rapidly as Christianity is growing in the global South, the forces of globalization, secularization, and Islam are also having their impact upon Europe in a different way. The future trajectory of Christianity in the global South may be clearer than in Europe. Numerous theories, agendas, misunderstandings and confrontations are emerging in the place considered “God’s Continent.” “Across the religious spectrum, we see forces pushing toward progress and reaction, assimilation and separatism, secularism and fundamentalism, tolerance and violence.” This Euro-centric activity will also shape the global future of Christianity.
According to Jenkins, “European nations are presently undergoing historic transformations that mark a real crisis for the continent’s traditional religious alignments.” And if so, what is the religious future of Europe? Will secularization soon create a Godless Europe? Will declining Christianity die? Will Europe become Eurabia? Jenkins addresses these and other popular theories to assess a more likely and hopeful outcome in which he predicts Europe, Christianity, and Islam will all likely adapt. The big question is, in what ways?
Jenkins’ historically-based and heavily nuanced exploration of Europe’s religious future provides us with much for discussion, particularly around the following three larger themes.
You don’t have to look hard to see how the pubic expression or acknowledgment of faith in current European politics is being discouraged and systematically rooted out. Tony Blair was urged by his advisors to remove, “God Bless You,” at the conclusion of a proposed speech in 2003. “In Germany, the former Chancellor Gerhard Schroder and several of his cabinet members refused to add the anodyne formula ‘so help me God’ when swearing their oath of office.” However, of even greater political significance, while describing the roots of European values in writing the European Constitution, Jenkins cites that, “The 70,000 words of this prolix document thus fail to include a single specific reference to Christianity.” The reason for this gutting of the history of Europe is expressed by a former French president, “Europeans live in a secular political system, where religion does not play an important role.” Jenkins further cites how political candidates with traditional or orthodox beliefs have been labeled as “politically deviant, and perhaps as too extreme for public office.”
However convinced and eager these political leaders are to forge a secular society, Jenkins points out several weaknesses that are already unraveling this trend. Secularization theory’s assumption, that as a society progresses, especially economically, it becomes less dependent on religion, might have some bearing for a short time on European soil. However, when applied more broadly, that theory “performs abominably bad when tested in the United States.” Secularization theory falls short of providing an adequate explanation and guide for the future. Even the recent sharp decline of organized religion alongside economic advances in Europe is an unreliable indicator that secularization will continue. “This does not mark the end of religion as such, since a notion of higher powers appears to be hard-wired into our consciousness.” Saying religion doesn’t play an important role doesn’t make it just go away. G.K. Chesterton reminds us of this reality and the true nature of secularism when he comments that “secularism, whatever its adherents think, is itself a religion and a rigidly intolerant one, which leads naturally to new forms of authoritarianism.” In addition to replacing religion with the un-religion religion, “Secular liberalism, it seems, is a self-limiting project; unlimited libertarianism brings its own destruction.” Jenkins asserts that the secular thinking guiding European politics is inadequate, shortsighted, and likely short-lived as it is already in need of constant revision.
Theories about the future of Islam in Europe abound. Even before recent highly publicized incidents of terrorism, Jenkins recalls Hilaire Belloc’s comments from 1938, “The future always comes as a surprise, but political wisdom consists in attempting at least some partial judgment of what that surprise may be. And for my part I cannot but believe that a main unexpected thing of the future is the return of Islam.” French demographer Jean Claude Chesnais predicted in 1996, “the emergence of a predominantly African population” accompanied by “rapid Islamization.” Bernard Lewis, a Middle East scholar believes “current trends show Europe will have a Moslem majority by the end of the twenty-first century at the latest.” Bassam Tibi, a moderate Muslim scholar adds “either Islam gets Europeanized, or Europe gets Islamized.”
Despite the emotional drama and media hype of these projections, the numbers tell a different story. Europe’s immigrant population is increasing, but not all immigrants are Muslim and not all Muslims are Islamists. “In most west European nations, Muslims constitute around 4 percent of the population, which is scarcely a human deluge.” A 2001 census in England counted 71.7 percent Christian and 3.1 percent Muslim. “Counting Catholics and Protestants together, the numbers are impressive, especially when we compare them with the Muslim population that has received so much media attention in recent years: roughly, Europe’s evangelicals, charismatics, and Pentecostals outnumber Muslims by almost two to one, and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.”
Even though the possibility of something like “Eurabia” is unquantifiable, Jenkins sees a redemptive aspect to the whole “Islam-phobic” episode. “However counterintuitive this may seem, the advent of Islam might also be good news for European Christianity.” Jenkins explains that “as European states redefine their attitudes to one religion, they have no choice but to take account of the far more numerous presence of Christianity.”
Is the death of Christianity a premature statement? Claire Berlinski claims that, “Europe has in the past several centuries seen a complete—really complete—loss of belief in any form of religious belief, personal immorality or salvation.” However, contrary to Berlinksi’s near-death outlook, “As of 2005, the World Christian Database recorded a European Christian population of 531 million.” Jenkins cites other indicators: “60 to 70 million west European Christians assert that religion plays a major part in their lives and many of those attend church regularly”; and “among Italians 88 percent claim to be Catholics.” In England, “72 percent describe themselves to census-takers as Christian.” Although these statistics may not be exactly what Berlinski would count, they are both latent and obvious signs of life.
Further correcting gloomy predictions about the death of Christianity in Europe, Jenkins points out that popular “accounts of the collapse of Christianity neglect the growth of immigrant churches among Africans, East Asians, and Latin Americans.” Speaking of London, a news correspondent observed, “As the city continues to be Africanized, so it is being evangelized.” Jenkins adds that this is “chiefly by charismatic and Pentecostal churches” that “represent an exciting new planting,” and “a new kind of re-evangelism.” As we have seen here in Greater Boston, the flow of immigration to Europe is also carrying with it seeds of new life from the global South.
Jenkins agrees that, “European Christianity is in deep crisis, but matters are considerably more diverse, and in some areas more successful, than we might glean.” There is still “faith among the ruins” in Europe. “Contrary to expectation, then, Christianity is surviving amid European secularism and often achieving more than mere survival.”
However for those who insist that Christianity is dead in Europe, Jenkins reminds them that, “perhaps the best indicator that Christianity is about to expand or revive is the widespread conviction that the religion is doomed or in its closing days.”
Jenkins, Philip. The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002.
Jenkins, Philip. The New Faces of Christianity: Believing the Bible in the Global South. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006.
Jenkins, Philip. God’s Continent: Christianity, Islam and Europe’s Religious Crisis. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007.
Jenkins, Philip. “The Next Christianity.” The Atlantic Monthly October 2002 Vol. 290, No. 3.
Articles:
“Is Europe the New ‘Dark Continent’?” by Dale Hurd, CBN News, Sr. Reporter.
http://www.cbn.com/CBNNews/News/040301a.aspx“Europe’s Stark Options,” by Daniel Pipes, National Interest, March-April 2007.
http://www.danielpipes.org/article/4323“Spirit of Capitalism: Religion and Economic Development,” by Robert J. Barro, from Religion, Vol. 25 (4) – Winter 2004.
http://hir.harvard.edu/articles/1193/“The Secularization Hypothesis is Doubly Mistaken,” by James W. Skillen, Public Justice Report, First Quarter 2000.
http://www.cpjustice.org/stories/storyReader$560“Religious Faith and Economic Growth: What Matters Most–Belief or Belonging?” by Robert Barro, Ph.D., and Joshua Mitchell, Ph. D. Heritage Lectures published by the Heritage Foundation, No. 841, June 17, 2004.
http://www.heritage.org/Research/Religion/hl841.cfmGlobal Christian Studies:
European Values Study
http://www.europeanvalues.nl/index2.htmWorld Values Study
http://www.worldvaluessurvey.org/Gallup Millennium Study
http://www.gallup-international.com/Pew Global Attitudes Project
http://pewglobal.org/Barrett’s World Christian Encyclopedia
http://www.gordonconwell.edu/ockenga/globalchristianity/wce2.htmInterviews with Philip Jenkins:
“The Young, the Fertile, and the Ambitious,” Interview by Jeremy Lott, The Catholic World Report.
http://www.ignatius.com/Magazines/CWR/TheYoung.htm“God’s Continent,” Interview by Air Talk.
http://www.scpr.org/programs/airtalk/listings/2007/07/airtalk_20070702.shtml“A Few Questions for Philip Jenkins,” Interview by Oxford University Press, May 15, 2007.
http://blog.oup.com/2007/05/religion/Critics:
“Continent in Crisis,” by Claire Berlinski, New York Sun, May 2007.
http://www.nysun.com/article/53611“Be Afraid, Be Somewhat Afraid,” by Jeremy Lott The American Spectator Special Report, May 15, 2007.
http://www.spectator.org/dsp_article.asp?art_id=11448“The Coming ‘Eurabia’?” by John Coughlan, July 16, 2007. America: The National Catholic Weekly.
http://www.americamagazine.org/content/article.cfm?article_id=10078“The Much Exaggerated Death of Europe,” by Richard John Neuhaus, First Things, May 2007.
http://www.firstthings.com/article.php3?id_article=5488Blogs:
“Report’s of Europe’s Demise,” by Stan Guthrie June 18, 2007, Christianity Today Liveblog.
http://blog.christianitytoday.com/ctliveblog/archives/2007/06/reports_of_euro.html“God’s Continent: Christianity, Islam, and Europe’s Religious Crisis,” May 18, 2007 on Gene Expression.
http://www.gnxp.com/blog/2007/05/gods-contintent-christianity-islam-and.php“The Future of Religion in Europe,” by Father John Flynn, L.C. July 16, 2007, Catholic Online.
http://www.catholic.org/featured/headline.php?ID=4627“Europe: Where God is (Not) Dead,” Submitted by Paul Grabill, July 19, 2007.
http://community.centredaily.com/?q=node/2215Book Reviews:
Booklist (subscription required)
http://www.booklistonline.com/default.aspx?page=show_product&pid=1993524Catholic Online (review by Brent Kallmer May 2007)
http://www.catholic.org/ae/books/review.php?id=24214?id=24214Oxford University Press (use Search to find "Jenkins", click on book title, scroll down for reviews)
http://www.oup.com/us/?view=usaReligion BookLine of Publisher’s Weekly (subscription required)
https://www.publishersweekly.com/subscribe.asp?screen=pi8®opt=logoutWhere to order Philip Jenkin’s books:
You may find Jenkin’s books at your local Christian bookstore. If your store does not have them, ask if they could order them for you. You can also order these online yourself. Here are three of many online retailers who offer Jenkin’s books:
Amazon.com / Oxford University Press (OUP.com) / ChristianBook.com
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