This was originally written for my Missional Formation class at Asbury Theological Seminary.
In The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity (Oxford University Press, New York: 2007), Philip Jenkins persuasively and dramatically argues that in the next 50-100 years the center of global Christianity will shift from the traditional strongholds of Europe and North America to the booming regions of Africa, South America, and Asia. Using history, theology, anthropology, and sociology, especially population predictions, Jenkins shatters the typical secular Euro-American predictions of Christianity’s inevitable decline. Instead, all indications point to a growing and thriving Christianity for generations to come, albeit one that is increasing global, poor, brown or black, and Pentecostal (a problematic term that includes many denominations and “Spirit focused” movements).
Jenkins begins his examination of global Christianity with a look at church history, demonstrating how Christianity spread far into Africa, the Middle East, and Asia before it ever arrived in Europe. Furthermore, Jenkins challenges the modernist colonial critique of missionary movements, arguing that while there were abuses and mistakes, there were a plethora of genuine missionaries bringing genuine converts. The result has been the growth of an indigenously lead global Christianity is finding it’s Christian roots just as Europe and North America loses theirs. Adding to mass movements of evangelization and revival, many of these regions have booming populations while the West continues to numerically decline. Jenkins plays out some of the possible socio-political ramifications of these changes, such as: increased Christian-Muslim conflict, shifting alliances and geopolitics, a renewed emphasis on Christian morality in the functions of the state, and missionary movements from the Global South back to the West. Overall, Jenkins makes a compelling argument, based on credible research and predictions, that Christianity will not disappear in the next 100 years but will grow substantially, although it will look very different than today.
I found this book very interesting and exciting because, as a future priest in the Anglican Church in North America, I am excited about our roots in the African churches of the global Anglican communion. It was uncanny to read about the controversies in the Anglican communion and the resistance of conservative African bishops to the theological liberalism and sexual immorality of bishops in America and Europe because that is the lived history of the ACNA. As Jenkins writes, “For many conservative American bishops, orthodoxy travels from the South to the North (Jenkins, 242).” This is especially true for my current diocese as my Bishop was mentored by an African Bishop, priestly visits are frequent in both directions, and many of our current vision and strategies come directly out of the African Anglican revival movements.
Many commentators and pastors seem to be increasingly aware of the secular and post-Christian moment that American and Europe have entered. However, few seem to be aware of the ramifications of the rise in global Christianity that Jenkins lays out. Their rise will change the nature of our decline. Many Christians, for example, were shocked at the vote against same-sex marriage that occurred in the United Methodist Church, a vote made possible by conservative African voters. Orthodox Christians of all stripes should not see this as a mere justification of conservative beliefs but as the work of God in the world that they must get behind. It means welcoming Christians from around the world to give us fresh eyes to evangelize our own neighborhoods, discipling the nations that have come to our front door, and coming into greater communion with the church historic and global. I am excited to be a part of a growing movement that has this global communion as a part of its spiritual foundation.
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