Christianity as a Global Religion

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From Historian Ahead of His Time in Christianity Today:

Most Americans and Europeans think of Christianity as a Western religion. Prominent leaders of the last 50 years, like Billy Graham, Oral Roberts, and Pope John Paul II, are known primarily for their influence in the West, though in fact each of them has played a significant role in wider, global Christianity. But the most important development for the church in the 20th and 21st centuries has not been in the West at all, but in the astonishing shift of Christianity's center of gravity from the Western industrialized nations to Asia, Africa, and Latin America. In a short time, Christianity has been transformed from a European religion to a global one.

This is an extremely important thing to note. Christ called on us to evangelize all people, and it appears that while some in the west (most prominently Western Europe) errantly seem to think that they have grown beyond Christianity, the faith in Jesus Christ continues to thrive in other corners of the world. That's great news.

Comments

Layman said…
Philip Jenkins, Professor of History at Penn State, wrote about this in depth in his The Next Christendom, The Coming of Global Christianity. It is a great book and an easy read.

He continues his studies in this area in his new book, The New Faces of Christianity: Believing the Bible in the Global South. Haven't read it yet, but I plan to.
2/08/2007 10:16:00 AM
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