How to Study Global Christianity: A Short Guide for Students 3031128109, 9783031128103

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How to Study Global Christianity A Short Guide for Students

Jason Bruner

How to Study Global Christianity

Jason Bruner

How to Study Global Christianity A Short Guide for Students

Jason Bruner Arizona State University Tempe, AZ, USA

ISBN 978-3-031-12810-3    ISBN 978-3-031-12811-0 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-12811-0 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG. The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland

To my teachers, and especially Eddie Stepp; Meg Guider, O.F.M.; Dana L. Robert; and Richard Fox Young.

Contents

1 Introduction  1 Part I Methods   9 2 History 11 3 Ethnography 21 4 Theology 31 5 Demography 43 Part II Themes  55 6 Agency 57 7 Mission 65 8 Conversion 77 9 Gender and Sexuality 87 10 Translation 99 11 Migration107

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Contents

12 Decolonization115 13 Neglected Topics in the Study of Global Christianity123 14 The Futures of Christianity133 Glossary139 Index143

About the Author

Jason Bruner  is an Associate Professor of Global Christianity in the School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies at Arizona State University. He is the author of Living Salvation in the East African Revival in Uganda (2017) and Imagining Persecution: Why American Christians Believe There is a Global War against Their Faith (2021). He co-edited, with David C.  Kirkpatrick, Global Visions of Violence: Agency and Persecution in World Christianity (2022). He lives in Tempe, Arizona with his wife and three children.

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List of Figures

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Fig. 1.2

Fig. 2.1

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Fig. 3.2

Fig. 4.1

Photograph of a Spanish-speaking church that is located in a commercial strip mall. Look around the area where you live to identify churches that meet in locations that were not originally designed to be churches. (Photo by author) 2 Watoto Church, Kampala, Uganda. Global Christianity can study how Christian practices, beliefs, and styles of worship move from one cultural context to another. This is from a megachurch in the center of Kampala, the capital of Uganda. Its style of worship is similar to what one might find in evangelical megachurches in Asia, North America, or Western Europe. (Photo by author) 4 A cover of a file from the Colonial Archives housed at the British National Archives at Kew Gardens. Note the earlier sticker indicating that the file was not available for 50 years after the secret report inside was drafted. Such reports can contain valuable information about religious movements that colonial officials deemed subversive or politically dangerous. (Photo by author) 14 Photographs from nineteenth-century Christian missionaries. Missionaries were often adept at using photographs to show both the severity of the task before them or to show evidence of the effectiveness of their efforts. Imagine encountering these images in a missionary magazine. What messages would you see in them? Internet Archive Book Images, No restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons23 A cross and statue of Mary, South Phoenix, Arizona, USA. Located in an otherwise vacant lot in an urban context. From this photo, what can you tell about how people interact with this space? (Photo by author) 29 Cloverleaf world map by Heinrich Bunting, 1581. In what ways do you see the historical theology articulated by Andrew Walls represented in this map? Try drawing your own world map that represents Global Christianity. Like Bunting, it doesn’t need to be literal. http://maps.bpl.org, CC BY 2.0, https://creativecommons. org/licenses/by/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons 33 xi

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List of Figures

Fig. 4.2

Fig. 5.1 Fig. 6.1

Fig. 7.1

Fig. 7.2 Fig. 7.3

Fig. 7.4 Fig. 8.1

Fig. 8.2

Fig. 9.1 Fig. 9.2

Fig. 9.3

Mural outside the Divina Providencia, the hospital compound in San Salvador, El Salvador, where Archbishop Oscar Romero was assassinated while saying mass. Romero is pictured in the center, with Salvadorans to his right. They all bear not only the same bullet wound in their heart as Romero has, but also the wounds of Christ in their hands and feet, indicative of the idea that they were a “crucified people,” in whose suffering is Christ’s suffering. (Photo by author) 39 Percentage of US adults who identify as Christian or no religion in particular (Smith 2021) 47 African Christians follow leaders of an African Initiated Church to a baptismal ceremony in a river. Such churches were formed in the colonial era due to constraints placed upon African Christians within European-dominated mission churches. Mennonite Church USA Archives, No restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons 62 Photograph of James Hudson Taylor, 1905. Note the combination of styles of dress among the Westerners in this photo. The original uploader was Ibekolu at Chinese Wikipedia., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons 68 Photograph of Pandita Ramabai and her daughter. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons 71 A motorized boat that a Peruvian evangelist uses to travel along the Amazon River and its tributaries near Iquitos, Peru. He also uses it to carry supplies and groups of North and South American assistants. (Photo by author) 72 Photograph of short-term missionaries from the United States building a church in northern Mexico. (Photo by author) 73 Photograph of Vatican II in session. This council would issue in a number of significant changes in Roman Catholic churches worldwide. Paul John XXIII likened it to opening the church’s proverbial windows to let in fresh air. (Catholic Press Photo, Unknown photographer, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons) 81 A photograph of a Pentecostal church that meets in a colonial-era administrative building in Kampala, Uganda. What elements of this are “old,” and which would you call “new”? Do you think the people who worship here see themselves as being in continuity with a past, or as moving toward a new future, or both? (Photo by the author)83 Photograph of Lottie Moon, a Southern Baptist missionary to China. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons 90 Logo of Heathen Woman’s Friend, a missionary journal directed toward Western Christian women. Note the combination of terms, biblical phrases, and other symbols. Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons 91 Photograph of a Bible woman named Premlata, and Gladys Becker, a Mennonite missionary to India. In the records of Western missionaries, Bible women were often treated as a particular category of helper. They could serve as translators, counselors, and

  List of Figures 

Fig. 11.1 Fig. 11.2

Fig. 13.1 Fig. 13.2

cultural guides and they could be given responsibilities for teaching and religious instruction. Mennonite Church USA Archives, No restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons St. George Coptic Orthodox Church, Queens, New York. Jim. henderson, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons Pilgrims kneel at Lourdes. The southwestern French town has become known as a place of healing since Mary, Our Lady of Lourdes, appeared there in 1858. CC BY 4.0 https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons Photograph of Assyrian Christian church in Mosul, Iraq. Mar Sharb, CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons Photograph of chapel where four American churchwomen— Maura Clarke, Ita Ford, Dorothy Kazel, and Jean Donovan—were tortured and murdered in El Salvador in 1980. (Photo by author)

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111 125 126

List of Tables

Table 5.1 Table 5.2

Tracking the change in the global Christian population from 1900 to 2020 Population and global population percentage of Christianity and Islam, 1900–2050 (Johnson and Grim 2022)

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CHAPTER 1

Introduction

Many of us are accustomed to thinking globally. It’s common to hear about the global economy, global health, or global climate change, for example. The use of “global” before any of those terms can imply that the information that follows might be abstract, trans-regional, or almost without reference to particular places. That’s not necessarily the case, and especially not with a religious tradition like Christianity. All those concepts (global health, global climate change, etc.) describe things that impact localities, and often in strikingly different ways, as they connect what happens locally with broader forces and networks. So, I will begin this book on Global Christianity with a description of some of the expressions of Christianity that are close to my house in the central metro-Phoenix area. Within a 20-minute drive on any given Sunday morning is an astonishing variety of churches. In addition to the denominations one might expect (Methodist, Baptist, Catholic, Presbyterian, Mormon, and so on), there are churches that might not be as apparent. For example, I could visit a Pentecostal church funded by a Nigerian denomination with hopes of redeeming the United States, an Indian (South Asian) church that worships in up to five languages during a single service, a megachurch whose services are entirely in Ukrainian, or a Maronite parish whose large shrine to St. Charbel has become such a place of pilgrimage for Mexicans and Mexican-Americans that they have added a Spanish-language mass. There is also an evangelical church that is part of an Australian charismatic network, and a parish of the Assyrian Church of the East, which continues to worship according to an ancient liturgy in the Assyrian Neo-Aramaic language. In addition, there are churches that meet in locations like movie theaters, school gymnasiums, other churches’ buildings, and strip malls (Fig. 1.1), which can make them less visible. I do not give these examples to demonstrate the uniqueness of the metro-Phoenix area over other regions or cities, and this is not about the diversity of urban places over against

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 J. Bruner, How to Study Global Christianity, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-12811-0_1

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Fig. 1.1  Photograph of a Spanish-speaking church that is located in a commercial strip mall. Look around the area where you live to identify churches that meet in locations that were not originally designed to be churches. (Photo by author)

suburban or rural ones. The fact is that even small cities often contain a remarkable level of religious diversity, even if one is only looking at Christians. The challenge for scholars, students, and ordinary Christians is not just the fact of this diversity, but also the different ways that each of these churches understands itself locally, nationally, and globally, as well as the different beliefs and practices that sustain those self-understandings. This analytical challenge lies at the intersections of local expressions of Christian faith and the way that faith connects people across regions and continents.

What Is Global Christianity? “Global Christianity” can refer to both a field of academic study as well as that field’s object of study. As an object of study, it describes an interrelated set of developments within Christianity that are sometimes referred to as the “Global Christian paradigm.” This paradigm holds that the demographic center of Christianity has been shifting over the past century, especially since the later decades of the twentieth century; it is moving away from Europe and North America (which are typically presented as sites of decline) and toward Latin America, Africa, Asia, and the Pacific Islands (or, the “Global South”), which are conversely seen as regions with burgeoning and youthful churches. “Global Christianity,” then, is

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a way of referring to these changes within Christian faith, churches, and their related institutions (such as schools, hospitals, and mission agencies). Global Christianity describes the confessional pluralism, institutional dynamism, and trans-regional networks that have come to impact what Christianity is becoming in the early twenty-first century and how these changes occurred within and through history (Wuthnow 2009; Irvin 2009). Global Christianity, however, can also refer to a field of study, one that has been defined largely by its focus upon Christians outside of the West (or, “Global North”). This field of study, as Part I (“Methods”) makes clear, is defined more by what it is studying (i.e., Christians and Christianity) rather than by a single method of inquiry or style of scholarship. The field is highly interdisciplinary, drawing from subjects including sociology, anthropology, history, area studies (such as African or Asian Studies), and theology. One might even argue that the idea of Global Christianity described in the previous paragraph is a product of this line of scholarship. This book uses the term Global Christianity in both ways, but it is primarily focused upon how the academic field of Global Christianity has understood and analyzed Christianity globally over the past several decades. Finally, for the sake of clarity and consistency, I use “Global Christianity” throughout this book because it seems to be more commonly used. Some scholars take Global Christianity to refer primarily to those features of Christianity that are products of globalization. This could mean paying attention to trans-national flows of media, information, worship styles, and ideas, or the creation of seemingly similar Christian worship or tradition through global networks (Fig. 1.2). As a result, World Christianity has referred primarily to unique, localized expressions of Christianity, or the distinct forms of Christian practice and belief that are the result of cultural and linguistic translation, often produced through developing distinct expressions of the faith apart from Western Christian missionaries. My use of the term “Global Christianity” in this book, however, is meant to include both concepts and literatures, and I don’t treat “World Christianity” as a separate academic field from Global Christianity.

Is There One Christianity? Consider the examples of the churches in metro-Phoenix I listed above. While it can be easier to notice the vast range of beliefs and practices among contemporary Christians, the same challenge of Christian diversity extends throughout history as well. The theologian and historian Andrew Walls explored these dynamics in a creative essay a couple of decades ago. He asked his readers to imagine themselves as time-traveling aliens who are able to visit four very different points in Christian history. Like the churches I described above, would you, after visiting a third-century house church in the Roman Empire, a medieval mass in a majestic European cathedral, and a Pentecostal megachurch in Lagos, Nigeria, necessarily conclude that they were all part of the same thing— a religious tradition called “Christianity”? Alternatively, do you think their

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Fig 1.2  Watoto Church, Kampala, Uganda. Global Christianity can study how Christian practices, beliefs, and styles of worship move from one cultural context to another. This is from a megachurch in the center of Kampala, the capital of Uganda. Its style of worship is similar to what one might find in evangelical megachurches in Asia, North America, or Western Europe. (Photo by author)

styles would be too different, their theological or political beliefs too divergent, to be meaningfully grouped together (Walls 1982)? Others might ask the questions differently, but these issues have been part of Christians’ concerns since the earliest days of the faith. While the Apostle Paul saw in Christ the potential to make a new kind of community, one in which there was “neither Jew nor Greek, man nor woman, slave nor free,” and Jesus prayed that his followers “may be one,” Christians have seemingly rarely been able to live out those ideals this side of heaven. The author of the New Testament book of 1 John, for example, warned against “those who went out from us but were not of us.” These observations raise the question, What should unify Christians? A third-century Christian named Methetes observed the reality of cultural diversity among Christians, writing: “Christians are not distinguished from the rest of mankind either in locality or in speech or in customs. … [They] dwell in cities of Greeks and barbarians …, and follow the native customs in dress and food” (Diognetus n.d.). When it comes to Christian unity, there is a recurring tension among a desire for doctrinal purity, the reality of cultural difference, and the communion made possible by confessional simplicity. Methetes might

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say that Christian unity lies in a common sense that faith in Christ created a new kind of spiritual community. Others might wish to be more particular about the contents of that faith because, of course, not all Christians recognize one another’s faith, even at the highest levels. For example, Pope Benedict XVI caused controversy in 2007 when he stated that Protestants could not have churches, per se, but merely “ecclesial communities,” which he seemed to use as a dismissive term (Hooper and Bates 2007). As of 2019, the Center for the Study of Global Christianity estimated that there are approximately 45,000 Christian denominations across the globe, though there are also regional and global attempts to work cooperatively and to seek common ground through organizations like the World Council of Churches (WCC) (Frequently Asked Questions n.d.). The WCC emerged in the mid-twentieth century as a result of the ecumenical movement. The ecumenical movement refers to efforts, beginning in the nineteenth century, among Christians who sought to unify divided Christian churches. Some of these efforts were aimed at practical cooperation (e.g., in foreign missions), while others focused on reconciling different theological positions or in establishing unified ecclesiastical institutions (such as mutually recognizing the ordination of clergy across denominations). The ecumenical movement’s efforts to articulate a common, shared faith across denominational traditions influenced the tone of scholarship that would shape Global Christianity as a field. The field took from the ecumenical movement a generosity toward Christian diversity. In this sense, Global Christianity tends to assume that there are multiple (perhaps nearly infinite) legitimate expressions of the Christian faith across history and in the contemporary world (Chow and Wild-Wood 2020). But this diversity raises important questions such as, what happens when those who claim to be Christian seem to diverge wildly with respect to foundational questions about the nature of God, the person of Jesus Christ, what a “self” is, the nature of salvation, what “faith” means, what constitutes ethically right actions, what the relationship between “church” and “state” should be, and so on? The diversity of these views among Christians has led some scholars to speak of the plural: Christianities. The use of “Christianities” can be a helpful reminder to be careful about how much we assume might be shared in common across different churches, Christians, or traditions. It also begs the question about why they are still regarded as an expression of Christianity at all. In this sense, the plural, Christianities, can simply delay the related question: On what basis can we call them “Christian” or call it “Christianity”? Generally speaking, scholars of Global Christianity tend to accept the ways that people self-identify, meaning that if someone regards themselves as a Christian, then the scholar respects that, even if they personally disagree with how that person might articulate or practice their faith. In this book, I use the singular— “Christianity” or “Global Christianity”—mostly for the sake of clarity. I do so assuming that Christianity is constituted by its pluralism of contextual expressions of the faith (Anidjar 2015; Robbins 2003).

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Still, there are some limitations within the field of Global Christianity that bear noting up front. It tends to privilege Protestant Christianity in general, and evangelical and Pentecostal expressions of it in particular. Studies of Orthodox and Catholic Christianity are not excluded, but they can’t be said to form the analytical core of the field. Similarly, there are very few mentions in Global Christianity literature of Mormons, Christian Scientists, or Jehovah’s Witnesses, though these traditions can’t be said to be categorically different from many of the indigenous or independent churches which are found in Africa or Asia and have been included in the literature. This doesn’t mean that they can’t or shouldn’t be studied in relation to Global Christianity, but that the field hasn’t made much of an effort to do so to this point.

Where, Exactly, Is Global Christianity? The study of Global Christianity has often meant the study of Christians geographically defined as being outside “the West” (meaning, North America and Europe). In this sense, Global Christianity was a critique of the Euro-American-­ centered approaches to “Church History.” However, even outside of the West, some areas received far greater attention than others did. For example, Sub-­ Saharan Africa and parts of South and East Asia feature prominently within the Global Christianity scholarship of the late twentieth century, while Latin America, Eastern Europe, the Pacific Islands, the Middle East, and North Africa have been peripheral to the questions and methods that drove the field. Many scholars who researched Global Christianity did so by going to locations in which these “younger churches” were being formed in the wake of decolonization and they engaged themselves in archival and oral historical work, as well as ethnographic and demographic analyses of the religious changes occurring in the so-called Third World (regions which are now referred to as being part of the “Global South”) (Cabrita et al. 2017). This scholarship on Global Christianity did important work to document histories and highlight fundamental changes that were occurring globally with respect to Christianity, but it also came at some expense of the enduring power that wealthy countries exercised within religious, political, economic, and cultural networks. In addition, even my cursory description of Christian churches in the metro-Phoenix area suggests that there are good reasons for not excluding developments in North America and Europe when it comes to studying Global Christianity. Migration is one reason a strict geographical exclusiveness doesn’t make sense, particularly if one is thinking about more recent decades of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Migration creates trans-­ regional networks, diasporas, and new flows (or ruptures) of information, culture, ideas, and practices. Additionally, churches in the so-called Global North remain deeply involved in theological education, missionary sending/funding, and often share in the general cultural, political, and military power of the United States and other Global North countries. In what is sometimes referred to as a “reverse mission,” these same nations have themselves become targets

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of missionary efforts by Christians from places like South Korea, Brazil, and Nigeria (Kim 2014). While a lot of ethnographic and historical scholarship focuses on a particular time and place, the study of Global Christianity must balance the local with the regional and global influences that are shaping it. At the very least, it no longer seems justified to state that the study of Global Christianity only refers to Westerners studying Christians “over there” in the Global South.

Structure of This Book This book is a short introduction to Global Christianity as a field of study. It is intended to be most useful for undergraduate and early graduate students who are new to the study of Christianity globally, and it is meant to complement other books which are geographical or historical in nature (Stanley 2018; Cooper 2016). For that reason, this book focuses on methods and themes rather than introductions to people, institutions, and regions, along with the histories of those places and the issues Christians there have faced. The first section of the book is divided into four chapters, each of which introduces a disciplinary approach to the study of Global Christianity. The second section does the same for themes which run through most of the literature on Global Christianity. The chapters are by no means intended to be exhaustive, but rather offer an orientation to the concepts and methods that have shaped how scholars have sought to understand Christianity globally over roughly the past four decades. It is my goal that those who read this book will have a thorough, working knowledge of the field from which they will be able to analyze existing literature, understand something of the field’s analytical priorities, and identify new questions to pursue. Discussion Questions 1. In your own words, write a definition for ‘Christianity’ in 1–2 sentences. Imagine giving your definition to Christians from different traditions and different regions. What might their reactions be? How might they ask you to revise your definition? 2. Think about the ways Christian faith can connect people to places locally, nationally, and internationally. How can different technologies (e.g., printed literature, video, news media, internet, etc.) facilitate (or undermine) these connections? How do Christian practices and beliefs support these connections through things like prayer walks, mission trips, child sponsorship, and so on?

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Further Reading Giordan, Giuseppe, and Siniša Zrinščak, eds. 2020. Global Eastern Orthodoxy: Politics, religion, and human rights. Cham: Springer. Fredericks, Martha, and Dorottya Nagy, eds. 2020. World Christianity: Methodological considerations. Leiden: Brill. Linden, Ian, ed. 2013. Global Catholicism: Towards a networked church. London: Hurst & Co. Robert, Dana L. 2000. Shifting southward: Global Christianity since 1945. International Bulletin of Missionary Research. 24: 50–58. Walls, Andrew. 1996. The missionary movement in Christian history: Studies in the transmission of faith. Maryknoll: Orbis Books.

Works Cited Anidjar, Gil. 2015. Christianity, Christianities, and Christian. Journal of Religious and Political Practice 1: 39–46. Cabrita, Joel, David Maxwell, and Emma Wild-Wood, eds. 2017. Relocating World Christianity: Interdisciplinary studies in universal and local expressions of the Christian faith. Leiden: Brill. Chow, Alexander, and Emma Wild-Wood, eds. 2020. Ecumenism and independency in World Christianity: Historical studies in honour of Brian Stanley. Leiden: Brill. Cooper, Derek. 2016. Introduction to World Christian history. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press. Diognetus. n.d. Early Christian Writings, trans. J.B.  Lightfoot. Accessed August 7, 2020. http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/diognetus-­lightfoot.htm. Frequently Asked Questions. n.d. Center for the Study of Global Christianity. Accessed July 20, 2021. https://www.gordonconwell.edu/center-­for-­global-­christianity/ research/quick-­facts/. Hooper, John, and Stephen Bates. 2007. Dismay and anger as Pope declares Protestants cannot have churches. The Guardian, July 11. https://www.theguardian.com/ world/2007/jul/11/catholicism.religion. Irvin, Dale T. 2009. World Christianity: An introduction. Journal of World Christianity 1: 1–26. Kim, Rebecca Y. 2014. The spirit moves west: Korean missionaries in America. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Robbins, Joel. 2003. What is a Christian? Notes toward an anthropology of Christianity. Religion 33: 191–199. Stanley, Brian. 2018. Christianity in the twentieth century: A world history. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Walls, Andrew. 1982. The Gospel as prisoner and liberator of culture. Faith and Thought 108: 39–52. Wuthnow, Robert. 2009. Boundless faith: The global outreach of American churches. Berkeley: University of California Press.

PART I

Methods

CHAPTER 2

History

Working historically is essential for thinking about the ways that Christian faith and practice have changed, dissolved, and reformed across time and place. There is no singular historical method; rather, historical methods use sources from the past (art, architecture, songs, letters, diaries, laws, books, pamphlets, and oral histories, among other possible sources) to know how people lived and thought in the past. While many students likely don’t think of the careful review of an archival box filled with correspondence from another century as being exciting, this can also be an exercise that has its own surprises: one never knows what one will find. Perhaps a problem or concern from 150 years ago will sound strikingly contemporary; or a letter might reveal a long-forgotten event or shed new light on something familiar. This chapter explores the following foundational questions: How can thinking historically help us understand Global Christianity? What are the sources that scholars use to write histories of Global Christianity from the nineteenth century to the present? How do varying historical sources present different possibilities and limitations for researching Global Christianity? The field of Global Christianity emerged from colonial historical sources and methodologies, but it also diverged from some scholarship on colonialism in key ways. Nineteenth and early-twentieth century histories of modern Christian expansion outside of Europe and North America usually centered Western missionaries as the faith’s heroic protagonists. By the latter half of the twentieth century, historians of Global Christianity began expanding their scope of historical inquiry and scholars in the field wrote against a general trend in social scientific scholarship at the time by emphasizing the importance of the “religious” as a distinct category of life that could not be reduced to other explanatory factors (such as economics or politics). While this move made an important contribution to understanding Christianity, colonialism, and religious change, it also had an effect of isolating the field of Global Christianity from the study of politics, economics, and geography. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 J. Bruner, How to Study Global Christianity, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-12811-0_2

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The expansion of modern Global Christian history away from Western missionary heroes and toward indigenous Christian converts came not only in terms of the range of historical sources that historians included in their inquiry, but also in the questions they asked of those sources. Most consequentially, many historians of Global Christianity now read missionary sources “against the grain” in order to use them to not only reconstruct what missionaries did, but also to determine how they were perceived by those they were hoping to convert, the ways that indigenous converts and Christians worked with or even colluded against missionaries, and how converts debated ethics, family life, medicine, and education, among other topics. The shifts occasioned by historians of Global Christianity included not only more nuanced uses of missionary records, but also the incorporation of European colonial archives, national archives, vernacular Christian publications and “gray” literature, and oral histories in the study of Christianity in colonial contexts. Historical scholarship on Global Christianity still often relies upon a combination of these kinds of historical sources. These methods are indicative of the constraints historians of Global Christianity confront regarding the availability of resources and archives, particularly in contexts in which records have been destroyed through war, neglect, natural disaster, and/or persecution.

Archives Archives are documents that a person or institution has kept and preserved in order to help establish a record about the past. These documents can include correspondence, minutes from meetings, records of purchases, budgets, legal documents, and contracts, as well as photographs, books, diaries, newspapers, pamphlets, and audio and visual recordings. Most institutional archives are reasonably public, in keeping with national and international standards about accessibility, but there are discrepancies in the policies and practices across different institutions. Some collections are digitized or microfilmed and are, therefore, more widely accessible; for more recent records, institutions might have statutes that govern periods of time for records impacting those who are still living, or instances in which there might be ethical or defamatory concerns. Students encountering an archive for the first time will notice that most collections are not evenly dispersed chronologically. For example, there might be a lot of material around an important or catastrophic event (such as the opening of a hospital or an earthquake) while there might be relatively little direct information about what “everyday life” was like at a particular mission station or city. There are reasonable explanations for these disparities, such as the necessity to communicate more in times of crisis or controversy. Sometimes missionaries were simply too busy or did not have sufficient resources to write very often—a circumstance that was especially true in the nineteenth century and before. Missionary archives tend to contain a high volume of correspondence between missionaries and their home constituents—the missionary boards,

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churches, individual supporters, and government officials with whom they needed to garner spiritual, financial, and political support to maintain their missions. The letters exchanged could be about all sorts of issues, including (financial, spiritual, or political) problems faced in the mission, resources requested, missions planned, decisions made, institutions built (or planned— such as hospitals or schools), and furloughs arranged, among many other things. While there are exceptions, it’s generally the case that missionary archives are mostly comprised of documents produced by and for Western missionaries. This means that a number of important archival sources privilege the voices of Westerners over converts (and especially non-converts), though there are also documents from other people included in these archives. Depending on the time period and region you might be researching, national archives and local church archives could be useful sources that include a higher degree of documentation from non-Western people. Even with a good finding aid to help you know where to look, working in archives can be painstaking and time-consuming. Archival practices can vary between institutions because processes of collection and categorization are often slightly (and sometimes, radically) different. If one wanted to find everything written by a single person in a given archive, for example, those documents might be located in file headings under “reports,” “correspondence,” “meeting minutes,” “school administration,” and so on. Still, archival research can be thrilling in its own ways. The fact that one has the full range of documents at hand (and usually the originals, or autographs), allowing one to have a fuller sense of how ideas, institutions, and problems developed, is fascinating. Alongside this dynamic is the reality that you never know what might be found once you start looking. In addition to the archives that might appear to be directly relevant to the history of Christianity, such as the records from missionary societies, Bible societies, and denominational records, there are other, less obvious archival collections that can provide important information on the history of Christianity in a given place. Archives of colonial-era governments often included correspondence with missionaries and church leaders, particularly when it came to regulating schools and hospitals in the twentieth century. Colonial or local government officials also had occasional concerns about religious movements or charismatic figures and would in such cases commission reports on them, such as in the photo below from the British National Archives (Fig. 2.1). These reports can be illuminating historical sources. Additionally, as disciplines like anthropology developed in the early twentieth century, there were scholars who sought to understand the societies in which missionaries were working as well as processes of cultural change. The notes from these anthropologists, some of which are housed in university libraries, can be rich sources of information about life in colonial contexts. All of these sources, though collected for reasons not primarily having to do with telling the history of Christianity, can be valuable sources of information regarding legal issues, social structures, political movements, and cultural

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Fig. 2.1  A cover of a file from the Colonial Archives housed at the British National Archives at Kew Gardens. Note the earlier sticker indicating that the file was not available for 50 years after the secret report inside was drafted. Such reports can contain valuable information about religious movements that colonial officials deemed subversive or politically dangerous. (Photo by author)

change—all of which can be related to the broader contexts in which Christianity is embedded.

Local Literature and Oral Histories Another kind of historical source that can be immensely valuable to a historian of Global Christianity and might not be found in the archives is the literature that was produced locally, and especially by non-missionaries. This literature can come in the form of newspapers, radio and television broadcasts, pamphlets, locally published books, devotional literature, and university theses and dissertations. These sources are sometimes generically referred to as “gray literature” because they are neither personal correspondence nor large-scale publications. However, these sources can be valuable to historians for several reasons. First, they are things written by local Christians, and through these kinds of sources, one can see indigenous Christians telling their own stories, asking their own questions, and attempting to resolve ethical, political, and theological issues—in some cases quite independently of Western missionaries.

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As a result, these sources often include unique, insightful, and surprising material that can illumine the ways Christian texts, ideas, and practices were perceived, appropriated, critiqued, and/or changed in response to local circumstances. These materials, like any historical source, are not perfect, and one shouldn’t neglect to critically examine their claims and contents as one would do with any historical source. The historian would need to consider how the perspectives contained in a newspaper article or local historical book are still produced by someone who is literate, has access to a publishing network or resources, and has their own motivations, values, and biases. Oral histories can be extremely valuable sources but, similarly, they are not neutral or immune from biases. Some efforts have produced formal oral histories that accord with Western practices for recording them. Some of these oral histories were transcribed and published (Isichei and Yearwood 1981; China Missionaries Project n.d.; Wiest 2005). In other cases, one might find a handful of interviews conducted by a graduate student, government researcher, or scholar. What oral histories can provide is a range of voices that might be excluded from other forms of historical sources. For example, one can find non-elite voices in many oral histories, including those who are not able to write. These voices can expand the range of issues, questions, and stories a historian might be able to draw upon in understanding the impact of Christianity in a given time and place. It is important to keep in mind that the context of oral histories (or other interviews) has a shaping influence upon the content one might get from them. For example, where the interview takes place, who the interviewer is, what sequence and phrasing of questions they include, the political circumstances under which the interview occurred, and the respective genders of the interviewer and interviewee can all impact what a person might or might not be willing to share.

Analyzing Missionary Sources The range of historical sources described above is not intended to suggest that every historian does or should utilize all of those sources in every project on Global Christianity. The questions the historian seeks to answer play a central role in determining which method of historical inquiry and what range of sources are ultimately most appropriate for a project. Some historians work with particular kinds of textual sources, or they are looking primarily at the influence of ideas, while others might wish to understand how missionaries and government officials interacted with one another in a certain region. Still others might want to know how women converts impacted church structures, or how missionaries interacted with a humanitarian crisis. Each of these potential projects would require a slightly different set of methods as well as a different collection of sources. However, employing sources beyond those produced by Western missionaries has had a broadening effect on how Global Christian history can be written.

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Most consequentially, it has created ways to recover non-missionary perspectives. In this combination of historical sources is also the possibility for expanding the historical concerns of those writing the histories of Global Christianity. For example, how Christians were impacted by colonial labor policies, economics, language, notions of race and ethnicity, and intersecting global networks. If historians of missions and Global Christianity have illuminated the richness of missionary documents for thinking about religious and cultural encounters, scholars who work in adjacent fields have likewise shown how these materials might be utilized to expand other disciplinary literatures. And historians of colonialism, medicine, technology, and political movements have put missionary archives to creative and insightful uses. Catherine Hall made extensive use of the Baptist Missionary Society archives in her monumental Civilising Subjects, which examines the imagination of race and power between England and the Caribbean (Hall 2009). Webb Keane’s Christian Moderns, which studies the long-term impact of Western concepts and categories on Pacific Islanders, is another (Keane 2011). T.O. Beidelman’s analysis of the impact of Christian missions in southern Africa is yet another instance of a seminal study that moves in the direction of a rapprochement between anthropologists and questions of religious and cultural change (Beidelman 1982). Despite these important developments, however, enduring challenges remain in writing Global Christian histories.

Challenges to Writing Global Christian History Developing and maintaining libraries and archives is a cultural practice that is neither neutral nor inexpensive. If European and American archives are generally more accessible, that is also because they typically have greater access to resources in order to make them so. While many archives around the world are well maintained, it is also the case that these institutions (both national archives as well as church-related archives) often struggle for resources. If the records of large Western churches and denominations are more easily accessible, and more likely to have been digitized, that means that they are also more likely to be used by historians, creating a bias in how history is told and re-told. Relatedly, historians wishing to research Christianity in a former colony could likely have relevant records to track down on two or three continents. For scholars or institutions with scarcer resources and smaller budgets, such logistics can be cost-prohibitive. One effect of this is that often scholars in the Global South are not able to access the latest scholarship or a full range of relevant archival and other historical sources compared with their counterparts in wealthier institutions. This imbalance then makes it more difficult for these scholars to conduct research that is duly recognized by scholars in wealthier contexts. The unevenness of resources and funding for collecting, preserving, and maintaining records of Christian institutions around the world has a direct

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impact on the kinds of work historians can conduct. In places in which Christians already exist as a minority population, such resource scarcity can serve to make them and their histories even less visible. Additionally, this is not simply about maintaining collections, but also in attending to who is able to access those collections. Many smaller churches in resource-poor contexts have struggled to find sufficient material support to document, archive, and preserve their records. These histories, therefore, can be difficult for historians to document, though there are also important local efforts to document regional histories. As a result, they are often told through oral histories or further marginalized in favor of places that have more thorough documentation (Poon and Rostkowski 2013). Relatedly, if you are interested in conducting oral history interviews, there are organizations such as the Oral History Association that have principles and helpful guidelines for conducting them (Oral History Association 2018). Which sources are available and accessible, and for whom shows how the production of knowledge about Global Christianity is deeply related to how that knowledge circulates. For scholars in the Global North, we might ask ourselves for whom are the histories of Global Christianity written? In what ways does this historical work primarily serve our interests culturally, spiritually, and even politically?

Advice for Visiting Archives Finally, here are some basics for those who might be interested in visiting an archive. Where possible, check the library’s or archive’s website for information related to a collection you are interested in viewing. It is a good idea to contact the archive before your visit in order to make sure the materials will be available when you visit or to see if there are any limitations on access (depending on the institution’s policies, you might need prior approval of your research project by an accredited review panel or government office). Some archives have very limited staff and hours, or might only be available by prior appointment. When you arrive, confirm the institution’s policies for things like taking notes and using items like digital cameras or scanners, and be sure to abide by these and other policies—otherwise, you could find yourself losing future access to the collection. Last but certainly not least, even if you have a good finding aid for a collection, always be sure to talk to the archivists and librarians where you are doing your research—they know their collections better than anyone does and can help you find things you might not have been able to locate on your own. Discussion Questions 1. How do the sources historians use in their research impact the arguments they make and the stories they tell?

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2. Christian traditions (such as Catholicism, Orthodoxy, or evangelicalism) can vary widely in how they cultivate different dispositions toward history. Think about one or more Christian traditions or churches with which you are most familiar. What can you surmise about how they regard the past and how it is relevant (or irrelevant) for the present and future? 3. Do you think there is a tension between the ways that religious faith is often regarded as transcending history and historical methods of research which prioritize context and particularity? Are these reconcilable? If so, how? If not, then why?

Further Reading Erdel, Timothy Paul. 2000. From the colonial Christ and Babylonian captivity to Dread Jesus: Documenting World Christianity on a shoestring budget. ATLA Summary of Proceedings 54: 83–95. Frederiks, Martha, and Dorottya Nagy, eds. 2020. World Christianity: Methodological considerations. Theology and Mission in World Christianity. Vol. 19. Leiden: Brill. Koschorke, Klaus, Frider Ludwig, and Mariano Delgado, eds. 2007. A history of Christianity in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, 1450–1990: A documentary sourcebook. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Publishers. Mundus Research Database. A quick way to search missionary archival holdings in the UK. https://web.archive.org/web/20141028163014/http://www.mundus.ac. uk/index.html Schjørring, Jens Holger, Norman A.  Hjelm, and Kevin Ward, eds. 2018. History of Global Christianity, Vol. III, 2018. Leiden: Brill. Stanley, Brian. 2018. Christianity in the twentieth century: A world history. Princeton: Princeton University Press. World Council of Churches Archives and Library. Some of the WCC’s archival resources are available online. https://www.oikoumene.org/what-­we-­do/ wcc-­archives-­and-­library Yale Divinity School and University Libraries. Yale Divinity School has an extensive collection related to the history of Christian missions and Global Christianity. Some of that collection has been digitized and is available through Yale University’s library. https://web.archive.org/web/20141028163014/http://www.mundus.ac.uk/ index.html

Works Cited Beidelman, T.O. 1982. Colonial evangelism: A socio-historical study of an East African mission at the grassroots. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. China Missionaries Project. n.d. Oral History Program Archive, Claremont Graduate University. Accessed July 19, 2021. https://research.cgu.edu/oral-­history-­ program-­archive/subjects/china-­missionaries-­project/. Hall, Catherine. 2009. Civilising subjects: Metropole and colony in the English imagination, 1838–1867. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

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Isichei, Elizabeth, and Peter J. Yearwood, eds. 1981. Jos oral history and literature texts, vol. 1. Jos: University of Jos. Keane, Webb. 2011. Christian moderns: Freedom and fetish in the mission encounter. Berkeley: University of California Press. Oral History Association. 2018. OHA Principles and Best Practices, October. Accessed April 18, 2022. https://www.oralhistory.org/ principles-­and-­best-­practices-­revised-­2018/. Poon, Michael Nai-Chiu, and Marek A. Rostkowski, eds. 2013. Mission, memory and communion: Documenting World Christianity in the twenty-first century. Singapore: Trinity Theological College. Wiest, John Paul. 2005. Doing oral history: Helping Christians tell their own stories. Workshop at Trinity Theological College, Singapore. March 14–18. https://web. library.yale.edu/sites/default/files/files/divinity/Special%20Collections/archival%20training%20resources/doing_oral_history.pdf.

CHAPTER 3

Ethnography

Ethnography relies on first-person research experiences and encounters with individuals, communities, and/or institutions. As a result, it is a challenging, immersive, and exciting way to develop knowledge about Christians and Christianity. How have Christian missionaries engaged in forms of ethnographic writing over the past two centuries? In what ways has ethnographic research changed the ways scholars think about Christianity globally? How might one begin to work ethnographically?

Ethnography, Missions, and Christianity Western missionaries have been voluminous producers of knowledge of the world, and the ways they have mediated knowledge between Western and non-­ Western peoples has been an important part of their cultural, religious, and historical legacy. Even when they were not employed in such capacities professionally, Western missionaries often acted as de facto ethnographers of peoples living in the non-Western world. At its most basic, ethnography is writing about people, or a people “as such”—that is, a group of people who are defined or understand themselves to be a community, group, family, or society. Those determinations might be a result of the perception of the ethnographer, in which case one might say this is an “etic” (outsider) approach, or that determination might arise within the group itself, or be an “emic” (insider) approach. For example, a church congregation will likely have some sense of who they are, where they meet, and what constitutes them as a community. However, there are also examples of scholars going someplace, defining a group (such as a “tribe”), and then making claims about that group, even if those people don’t see themselves as a “tribe” per se. One can also do an ethnography around institutions, such as a hospital, in which the fact of people’s being there is the occasion to write about them, however else they might understand themselves as individuals. In any © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 J. Bruner, How to Study Global Christianity, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-12811-0_3

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case, the goal of ethnography should be a vivid and richly detailed account of people in a particular time and place. While ethnographers often attend to events, people, and processes of the past, the heart of ethnographic research tends to be the present, describing how people understand themselves now, how they behave, believe, and interact with the world around them. As a result, an ethnographer can be attentive to details that are usually hard to locate when dealing with historical sources, such as, how people felt in a specific moment, what foods taste like, what a church service sounds like, and how a place smells, in addition to the researcher’s ability to place themselves in relation to the stories and lives they are researching. European and American missionaries’ writing about the foreign societies they lived in and the cultural and religious diversity they encountered have been part of the missionary enterprise from its beginning. Sending missionaries overseas in the eighteenth and early-mid nineteenth centuries was often a risky and expensive undertaking, and the missionary societies that helped raise funds were interested in learning of the progress their missionaries were making. Most missionaries corresponded with “home” through their mission society and its network of support, including regular newsletters and public events when they came back on furlough (Thorne 1999). While the primary purpose of this correspondence was to maintain spiritual and financial support for mission work, it usually contained a wealth of information about other cultures, beliefs, practices, politics, economics, and major events. Given the extensive reach of some of the largest missionary societies, their newsletters should be regarded as an important and even fundamental way through which people in Western Europe and North America learned about the world more broadly. All of these things, while generated for the purpose of evangelization, can also be viewed as containing the elements of ethnography. These sources were generally not produced for what one might call disinterested knowledge, or knowledge for its own sake. Missionaries tended to have ideas about the superiority of Christianity over other religions, and, in many cases, of the superiority of Western culture and civilization. One can often find disparaging remarks about what missionaries encountered, written, as they were, in attempts to justify their need for conversion to Christianity, as well as to communicate the enormity of the cultural and spiritual task missionaries sought help with. From the late nineteenth century, photographs like the one seen in Fig. 3.1 were taken in order to highlight the perceived cultural, moral, and religious transformations missionaries sought to enact. For these reasons, one must use caution and judgment when reading these sources today. Still, missionaries could become astute observers of the societies in which they lived, sometimes sympathetically so, with some becoming expert linguists or cultural experts (Girardot 2002). The missionary task of translating catechisms, liturgies, and scriptures meant that they could be called on to help translate for diplomatic missions, negotiate treaties, and broker political deals. While nearly any missionary had to engage with culture, language, and other

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Fig. 3.1  Photographs from nineteenth-century Christian missionaries. Missionaries were often adept at using photographs to show both the severity of the task before them or to show evidence of the effectiveness of their efforts. Imagine encountering these images in a missionary magazine. What messages would you see in them? Internet Archive Book Images, No restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons

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traditions by the mere fact of living in another place, some went further. A handful eventually even left missionary work so they could concentrate on their research full time (Roscoe 1922). These missionary sources were almost immediately put to scholarly uses, as mid- and late-nineteenth century theorists of comparative religion, like Edmund Tylor and James Frazer, used such sources to develop their own ideas about religion’s role in human societies (Chidester 2014).

Christianity and Anthropology As the discipline of anthropology formed from the late nineteenth century to the early twentieth century, the practice of ethnography developed with it. Many of these early anthropologists conducted research in which they spent extended periods of time “in the field,” living among or with the people they studied. While many anthropologists were deeply interested in religion and some like E.E.  Evans-Pritchard came to have personal faith, their object of study per se was not Christians or Christianity. Although Christian missionaries might facilitate their research (e.g., by letting them stay at a mission station) anthropologists seemed to largely view Christianity and missionaries as inhibitors of their research, which sought to understand societies, cultures, and traditions that were not Christian or Christianized (Larsen 2016). This perceived antagonism is because missionaries’ stated aims of converting people to Christianity, and thereby changing their society and culture, were perceived to be at odds with many anthropologists’ goals of examining what earlier generations of anthropologists referred to as “primitive” societies. Christian missionaries were, in these cases, thought to be working toward opposite goals of the anthropologists, thereby hampering the work of anthropology (Pels 2013). Missionaries and Western anthropologists weren’t the only ones engaged in writing these histories and ethnographies. By the early twentieth century, there were people in colonial contexts who had been educated in colonial (often, mission) schools and, in a few cases, had undergone university training in Europe or the United States. This early generation of non-Western intellectuals used the conceptual tools and methods gained from Western education to write their own histories of their people and regions. While these histories could take on a similar tone as that found in missionary literature, these efforts also paved the way for important cultural developments in the late colonial era, particularly around the development of nationalism. Through the mid-twentieth century, the discipline of anthropology was broadly antagonistic toward personal religious faith among anthropologists. Christianity was a cultural “other” to anthropology in general, but not “other” so much as to constitute an appropriate object of study, in itself. While there were important anthropological studies of Christianity in the late twentieth century (perhaps most notably Jean and John Comaroff’s study of Christian missions in South Africa), it was not until the early twenty-first century that a

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distinct sub-discipline of the anthropology of Christianity emerged (Comaroff and Comaroff 1991, 1997). This sub-discipline has made important contributions to understanding Global Christianity, but much of the literature also exists somewhat in isolation from the larger body of scholarship generally referred to as the field of “Global Christianity.” For example, the anthropology of Christianity as a sub-field has not really engaged with the kind of missiological or theological questions that undergird Global Christianity scholarship. The anthropology of Christianity, however, has not only introduced a wealth of new information about Christians worldwide, it has also focused on new sets of questions, often oriented around what might be regarded as the field’s orienting proposition: What difference does Christianity make? As a result of these scholarly shifts, Christians became ethnographic objects and not merely the ethnographers (Cannell 2006). Our understanding of Christianity and Christians changes once they become the subject of anthropological analysis and ethnographic attention. Any form of ethnography will be attuned to the particularities of a people in a given time and place. Ethnography is a form of rich, detailed, and nuanced description, and in the context of researching Christians, it often has focused upon practices and the myriad of ways that Christians have sought to live out their faith. Anthropological research on Western and non-Western Christians has contributed immensely to our understandings of contemporary Christians and churches, and how they live in relation to their beliefs, assumptions, practices, and communities. Scholars of Global Christianity have long been attuned to the particularities of belief, practice, and context, through both their heavy reliance on missionary archives, as well as the fact that many scholars have themselves coupled their historical methods with experience visiting Christians in the regions they are researching, if not doing full ethnographic projects on them as well. In fact, it is quite common to read Global Christianity scholarship and see how many scholars blend ethnographic methods with historical (and demographic and theological) research, with a goal of describing the particularities of Christian faith and practice and its developments in a given place.

Getting Started in Ethnographic Research Doing ethnographic research means working directly with human subjects, even if the work is being done remotely or online. As a result, you should be attentive to some basics of human subjects research best practices before you begin, regardless of your institutional or geographical context. Depending on the exact method you are employing, your work may require the approval of one or more (especially if you’re working internationally) Institutional Review Boards, often abbreviated as “IRB.” (Note: IRB approval is usually not required if you are working within the context of coursework at an accredited institution, though you should always check with your instructor before beginning in order to ensure your work doesn’t need to be submitted

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to an IRB.) An IRB is typically affiliated with an accredited college, university, hospital, or research center and is comprised of experts who evaluate research proposals from anyone who is conducting research involving humans, from medical trials and psychological clinical experiments, to sociological surveys and anthropological fieldwork. Ethnographic research typically falls into a low-risk category, meaning that it is relatively low risk to both the researcher as well as the research participants. Attending a church service as a researcher, for example, would typically fall into a low-risk category. However, if you want to research Christians who live in contexts of persecution or repression (such as an unregistered house church in China), such research would be considerably riskier both to the researcher as well as to research subjects. Closer scrutiny could be required in those cases, as well as when research involves persons who are in hospitals or are imprisoned or otherwise detained, in order to ensure that the research is being done ethically and prudently, minimizing the potential risks. Furthermore, research involving Indigenous people, those under 18 years of age, or anyone who has limited capacity to consent, such as people with certain kinds of disabilities, can likewise mean that your research will need to follow a more stringent set of protocols. In these cases, you should work closely with a research advisor or mentor, and with the IRB, so that you have both the relevant training and preparation, as well as a sufficient research protocol that ensures all participants are safe, they can properly consent, and they are treated with respect. Research universities have standard disciplinary courses in sociology and anthropology that can help you get started, and some offer specific human subjects research training through their own resources or third-party organizations. These trainings can help you learn the basics of explaining to potential subjects what your research is about, how you will use your research, confidentiality, who they can speak with about the research should they have questions, and how they can give informed consent to participate. When researching with human subjects, it is best to err on the side of caution. For example, identify yourself truthfully and state what you are researching and what your interest is in the person, church, or organization. If you are working with a church or congregation, it is best to contact the leadership at the church before you begin your research. Depending upon the denomination, that leadership could be a priest, pastor, and/or a group of laypeople. In some churches (and depending on the nature of your project), you might need to get additional approval from a bishop or other ecclesiastical office or official before you begin. For those who are doing research internationally, it is imperative to examine each country’s policies, requirements, and expectations for the conduct of ethical research in their country. This could mean that you will need to submit your research protocol or other materials to another review board, and it could mean registering with a government agency and/or accredited university in the country. All of these steps can add significant time to your research, so account for them as best you can ahead of time. If you know someone in the country

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(especially if they are a professor or researcher), contact them and have them help you with setting up your research. This can save you weeks, if not months. The need for confidentiality can vary according to each project, its methods, and purpose. Ethnographers will often grant confidentiality to their research subjects. Confidentiality typically means that the researcher will not disclose identifying information about individuals, or, in some cases, their particular church(es), institutions, or specific location. Doing so can help to protect them, their families, and their associates. It can allow subjects to be less guarded for fear of reprisal or unintended consequences of the research (especially after publication). In some instances, confidentiality isn’t possible, such as for prominent church leaders, famous or well-known individuals, or highly specific organizations. There are also gray areas. For example, if you were doing an ethnography of a mega-church, it could be that the head pastor (or, pastors) wouldn’t be anonymous, but that all parishioners would be anonymized by giving them pseudonyms. In all cases, be prepared to clearly describe and explain your expectations, any potential risks the research might pose to individuals participating, and how you will work to ensure the well-being of all involved. To that end, always be clear about what you are recording, videoing, or photographing. When I would interview people one-on-one, I would begin by telling them again who I was, what I was there to do, and how it would be used, even though most of the interviews had been set up ahead of time by me or a mutual acquaintance. For my dissertation research in Uganda, this went something like the following: “My name is Jason Bruner, and I am a graduate student at Princeton Theological Seminary in the United States. I am writing my dissertation on the history of the East African Revival, and I am interested in talking with people who know about the history of the revival or experienced it directly. I may include parts of the conversation in my dissertation or other publications. Is it okay if I record our conversation?” I would then place the recording device (I used an app on my phone) in plain view on a table between us and press record. If they asked me to stop the recording, they could clearly see that I had stopped it. Given all of the precautions I’ve described here, you might wonder why it’s worth the trouble to do this kind of research. There are many good answers, but for a lot of people, I think it comes down to the fact that ethnographic research can be thrilling! It’s a way to engage your entire self and senses in the research process. You can be startled by what your interlocutors might share with you, or deeply moved by it. You might find yourself eating new foods with a family in their yard, or in the midst of a mass of pilgrims or people seeking miraculous healing. For those same reasons, it can come with a number of challenges. One is that it can take a long time. For long-term projects (those lasting months or years), you’ll likely find yourself “hanging out” or waiting around quite a bit. The most expansive ethnographies often cover years of time spent in research locations (“in the field”). Patience, humility, and respect for one’s interlocutors

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are essential, as is an eye (and ear, and nose) for details, and a willingness to observe carefully, for hours, if not days and weeks, at a time. Gender, political differences (real or perceived), theological disagreements, or your perceived role as an “insider” or “outsider” with respect to the group or individual can all impact what you may or may not have access to. What you might want to know and what people are willing to tell you can be at odds. Additionally, ethnography is deeply dependent upon relationships and maintaining them over time requires effort, care, and sensitivity. In short, ethnography is a way to be curious about the world and the way others live within it. When this sensibility is directed toward people’s religious faith and practice, one is able to see new relationships that would likely not find their way into other sources. For example, I remember how formative it was when I visited an elderly woman’s home in rural eastern Uganda and she told me shortly after I arrived that I could tell that she was a revivalist because of the orderly arrangement of her water jugs in her kitchen. Through that off-hand comment and others like it, she taught me to look for things I had missed in my previous research on the history of the East African Revival. I eventually shaped my book around her insight, which I might never have realized had I not spent several days traveling out to her remote home.

Suggestions for Starting to Work Ethnographically If you’re interested in working ethnographically, it’s probably best to start with a small project that’s close to you and is relatively low stakes. Here are some ideas to try: 1. Visit a nearby church. To prepare, you could use Nancy Ammerman’s helpful guide (Ammerman n.d.). However, you can also think of your own questions or issues to consider ahead of time. In addition to things like denomination, what the pastor or priests says, the theological ideas or prayers that you hear, and so on, also consider more mundane questions: What do you see, hear, smell, and taste? Which language(s) do you hear? Do people walk, drive, or take a bus or subway to get there? Where is the building located, and what surrounds it? How are people dressed? What forms of interaction do you see them engaging in? How are you engaged during your visit? How did it make you feel to be there? 2. Interview someone you might be familiar with, but not know very well, and see if they would be open to having a conversation about their faith, religious identity, and/or religious practices. Let them know that you would like to practice interviewing people about their faith. Prepare some questions ahead of time—probably no more than 10. Try to develop questions that are more open (rather than those that can simply be answered with a “yes” or “no”), and be willing to ask follow-up questions or clarifying questions to things they say. You might consider asking them if you could join them in a specific activity, like sitting in on a

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c­ atechism class or small group Bible study (where you might meet more people who would be willing to talk with you). 3. Spend some time walking or driving down a street or through a neighborhood and carefully observe your surroundings. You might look for obviously religious spaces, like a church or faith-based organization, paying attention to how it fits (or doesn’t seem to fit) into the neighborhood. What else is nearby? How is the church designed and used throughout a week? Beyond buildings or organizations in a particular area, you also might notice things like tracts left on bus benches, yard signs, or bumper stickers. See the photo (Fig. 3.2) for an example of a road-side shrine at which you can see people have left various objects and lit candles. As I took the picture, I saw a woman walking to a nearby store who stopped, turned toward the statue of Mary, and made the sign of the cross, before continuing down the sidewalk. What can you learn about Christianity and Christians in this place through these different sources of information?

Fig. 3.2  A cross and statue of Mary, South Phoenix, Arizona, USA. Located in an otherwise vacant lot in an urban context. From this photo, what can you tell about how people interact with this space? (Photo by author)

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4. Attend an online service, or interactive website. Pay attention to how technology impacts what is said or done during the service, the ways that you are engaged (or not) through it, and how you feel affected by it. What forms of worship, prayer, healing, or other interaction are facilitated through the technology? What might be omitted or not possible due to the technology?

Further Reading Bielo, James S. 2015. Anthropology of religion: The basics. New York: Routledge. Carroll, Timothy. 2018. Orthodox Christian material culture: Of people and things in the making of heaven. London: Routledge. Coleman, Simon, and Rosalind I.J.  Hackett, eds. 2015. The anthropology of Global Pentecostalism and Evangelicalism. New York: New York University Press. Harding, Susan. 2000. The book of Jerry Falwell: Fundamentalist language and politics. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Haynes, Naomi. 2017. Moving by the Spirit: Pentecostal social life on the Zambian copperbelt. Berkeley: University of California Press. Robbins, Joel. 2006. Anthropology and theology: An awkward relationship? Anthropological Quarterly 79: 285–294.

Works Cited Ammerman, Nancy T. n.d. Observing congregations: A guide for first visits (and beyond). The Association of Religion Data Archives. Accessed April 18, 2022. https://www. thearda.com/learningcenter/OBSERVINGCONGREGATIONS.pdf. Cannell, Fanella, ed. 2006. The anthropology of Christianity. Durham: University of North Carolina Press. Chidester, David. 2014. Empire of religion: Imperialism and comparative religion. Chicago: Chicago University Press. Comaroff, Jean, and John Comaroff. 1991. Of Revelation and Revolution, 2 vols. Chicago: Chicago University Press. ———. 1997. Of Revelation and Revolution, 2 vols. Chicago: Chicago University Press. Girardot, Norman J. 2002. The Victorian translation of China: James Legge’s Oriental pilgrimage. Berkeley: University of California Press. Larsen, Timothy. 2016. The slain God: Anthropologists and the Christian faith. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Pels, Peter. 2013. A politics of presence: Contacts between missionaries and Waluguru in late colonial Tanganyika. London: Routledge. Roscoe, John. 1922. The soul of Central Africa: A general account of the Mackie ethnological expedition. London: Cassell and Company. Thorne, Susan. 1999. Congregational missions and the making of an imperial culture in nineteenth-century England. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

CHAPTER 4

Theology

For some people, theology means making claims about the eternal nature of God, perhaps through the study of difficult and arcane texts, with the idea of developing a systematic theology whose various components cohere logically. For others, theology might be the antithesis of a proper critical study of religion, in which theology introduces claims that are only held on the basis of faith rather than discerned through other scholarly methodologies (such as those covered in other chapters). Regardless of whether you personally adhere to the Christian faith and believe that working or thinking theologically is the highest form of human thought, or whether you think that even the slightest claim of God’s existence is fanciful (or if you are somewhere in between), there are good reasons for considering some basic issues around theology with respect to Global Christianity. The first three sections of this chapter introduce theological areas that have impacted the field of Global Christianity: Historical Theology, Ecumenism, and Belief. It also addresses how students might engage with them constructively whether you personally have faith or none at all. The fourth discusses how you might begin to think theologically in a global Christian context. What does it mean to think about theology in the context of the study of Global Christianity? How have theological claims impacted the development of Global Christianity as a field? How ought we to understand the geographic expansion (and contraction) and cultural diversity of Christianity through history? How might one study theology in a global context?

Historical Theology There are many ways of studying and doing theology, such as systematic theology, which seeks to develop constructive, coherent, and rational arguments regarding the nature of God’s nature, being, and actions in the world (Ford 1999). Other theological sub-fields include biblical theology, political © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 J. Bruner, How to Study Global Christianity, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-12811-0_4

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theology, and liturgical theology (Grindheim 2013; Cavanaugh and Scott 2019; Migliore 2004). This section focuses upon historical theology due to its influence upon the field of Global Christianity. That isn’t to say that scholars working in other areas of theology haven’t made contributions to Global Christianity or global Christian theologies. For those interested in contextual theology, I discuss some places to get started in the final section of this chapter. Historical theology can refer to different kinds of intellectual pursuits. It can mean examining the way that historical contexts shape (and are shaped by) theological developments and ideas. In this sense, it’s similar to intellectual history. In another sense, historical theology can mean researching the development of ideas or theological traditions across spans of time. And in yet another sense, it might refer to the use of historical developments as a means of reflecting theologically on how one might know God or God’s actions in the world. When it comes to the field of Global Christianity, the second and third approaches are more common, though one should be careful to avoid strict distinctions among them. Studying Global Christianity can be a way of thinking theologically about Christianity across time and place. This line of thinking could be summed up in a question like, “What can we say is true about Christianity in general as a result of the history of global expansion and cultural diversity of Christian expression, practice, and belief?” For many scholars working in the field, ‘true’ here is not simply a descriptive category (such as what they share in common), but rather a fundamental truth about Christianity (or God) itself. As Andrew Walls, who probably did more than any other individual to establish the field of Global Christianity, succinctly put it: “world Christianity is normative Christianity.” What Walls meant by that statement can be seen in how he (and many scholars writing after him) identified continuities between new Christian churches in Africa, Asia, and Latin America and the early Church in late antiquity. In fact, Walls’ defining insight might be that what was happening in the churches of late antiquity (i.e., roughly the first through the fifth centuries CE) was echoed in the developments and struggles of churches in the Global South in the nineteenth to twenty-first centuries. This comparison was especially made with respect to pre-Nicene Christianity (“pre-Nicene” meaning before the Council of Nicaea in 325CE). This kind of analysis brought attention to the ways in which Christianity has crossed cultural, political, and linguistic boundaries throughout its history. This movement has never been exclusively westward, which is what many of us in western Europe or North America have come to imagine. Rather, Christians quickly moved southward to Nuba and Ethiopia, where Christian centers were established by the fourth century, as well as eastward to India (perhaps in the first century, but certainly by only a couple centuries thereafter) and even China by the end of the seventh century. Christianity, in fact, reached China around the same time that it reached the northern British Isles. Heinrich Bunting’s sixteenth-century cloverleaf-style map can visually represent this way of

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Fig. 4.1  Cloverleaf world map by Heinrich Bunting, 1581. In what ways do you see the historical theology articulated by Andrew Walls represented in this map? Try drawing your own world map that represents Global Christianity. Like Bunting, it doesn’t need to be literal. http://maps.bpl.org, CC BY 2.0, https://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

thinking about Christian history, as it gives equal space to multiple Christian geographies by orienting them symbolically around Jerusalem (Fig. 4.1). Keeping these historical developments in view might suggest that even with respect to Christianity that the work of God in the church ought never be conflated with a single geographical center or direction, which can then de-center the Western world from the larger story of Christianity. For those of us located in the West, this means that the West’s theological divisions and denominational differences ought not be the assumptions about what Christianity inherently is or has been, though they are important parts of the story. In this sense, the study of contemporary Global Christianity has provided an impetus to re-­ examine the history of Christianity in general, and vice versa. When it comes to recent historical developments within Global Christianity and theology, there are two elements that deserve additional attention. One is the global expansion of Pentecostal, charismatic, and evangelical Christianity since the early twentieth century. Some scholars, in assessing the dramatic demographic shifts and distinctive style of these churches, have termed it

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another “reformation”—on par with the sixteenth-century reform movements in central and western Europe. The implication here is that it is through these kinds of churches that God is especially at work in the world today, and that Christians ought to take note. Another, relatedly, is that Christians in many of the places where Christianity is growing at present often hold traditional or conservative views of many Christian doctrines. Rifts within the global Anglican Communion and Methodist churches over questions of gender identity and sexuality (addressed in Chap. 9) are related to these kinds of questions and the way Christians today are grappling with changing global demographics, historical colonial legacies, and adherence to Christian teachings in an attempt to discern how God is moving in the world today.

Ecumenism “Ecumenical” refers to something universal, or worldwide. Within the context of Christianity, it often has had two meanings. It can refer to the early Church Councils, especially those of the fourth and fifth centuries, in which “ecumenical” meant bishops from across the Christian world (then, largely centered around the Mediterranean). Ecumenical can also refer to a specific movement within Christianity whose roots go back to the nineteenth century. This movement sought to overcome denominational differences between Christian traditions by addressing past theological disagreements on points of doctrine and polity. This latter meaning is the more relevant one for the study of Global Christianity today. The notion of Global Christianity is deeply ecumenical in its assumptions, growing out of early inter-denominational efforts in missions in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and following upon attempts at institutional and doctrinal Christian unity in the early twentieth century. While the field remains Protestant-leaning in its sensibilities, the scope of research within it extends to Catholic, Orthodox, evangelical, and Pentecostal traditions, among others. In this sense, speaking of World Christianity is a way to make normative claims about the diverse character of the faith, with an assumption that this diversity constitutes a pluriform whole. What “Global Christianity” means has shifted across the past hundred or more years. In its simplest form, the term might refer to a vast community of shared faith that transcends geographical boundaries. In one usage that emerged in the 1930s, “World Christianity” was used to refer to a more specific idea: the formation of a single, unified world Church—an institution that would be an amalgamation of all existing denominations (Leiper 1937). The term here meant the institutional unification of all Christians, which was a goal pursued by some who were part of the ecumenical movement in the early twentieth century. Such an approach would theoretically erase or drastically minimize difference in both theological confessions as well as church structure and practice. It would be unity through uniformity. This approach was compelling in an era in which nationalistic ideas were perceived as tearing apart

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Christian unity, even within the same tradition or denomination, as happened in Italy, Germany, and Spain (among others) in early-mid-twentieth century Europe. This idea eventually contributed to the processes of engaging in ecumenical bilateral dialogue among denominations, a process which has helped to heal historic theological condemnations or disagreements. Another model of Christian unity which has formed assumptions about what constitutes Global Christianity is more of an “out of many, one” understanding of the faith. That is, that different (sometimes radically different) expressions of Christian faith can both be equally valid, authentic, and true. On this point, there is convergence with what was presented in the historical theology section above. This is to say that Global Christianity scholarship has tended to insist upon the creative and diverse ways that Christian faith has been expressed and manifested in the world, both shaping and being shaped by culture, politics, and language. The implication of this, in a broad theological sense, is that Christian unity is not the same thing as Christian uniformity, and that the Christian faith ought to be understood as contextually diverse and “incarnational”—being brought to life through people living in particular bodies in particular times and places. Ecumenical theology is, therefore, a way of indicating a search for common ground, mutuality, and generosity (Bevans and Schroeder 2010). One important clarification needs to be made here with respect to ecumenism. Stating that the field of Global Christianity has ecumenical impulses is not to say that all Christians today or in any particular part of the world necessarily think that all other Christians follow true, theologically correct, or even authentic expressions of the Christian faith. Some Christians have critiqued ecumenism because it suggests compromise, or a diluting of the theological doctrines or confessions upon which their traditions were founded. This can be found in more formal ecumenical efforts such as those of the National Council of Churches or World Council of Churches. Distinctions among churches and traditions remain deeply important for many Christians, and even where one might find cooperation among a variety of Protestant churches, they still might share a suspicion of or hostility toward Catholics, for example. In addition, a number of denominations with longer historical legacies are suspicious of newer, charismatic churches. When it comes to scholarship on Global Christianity, the tone around these matters tends to be generous and appreciative, rather than condemnatory or apologetic.

Belief While scholars in adjacent fields like the anthropology of religion have largely come to eschew belief, within the study of Global Christianity, theology can be a way of attending to matters such as belief, religious texts, and doctrine. Additionally, belief is a way to denote the relevance of God, spirits, and/or demons in the lives of Christian converts. The field of Global Christianity often assumes that the theological content of diverse expressions of Christianity is

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itself important and an essential way of explaining their appeal to local Christians. To those who are coming from the perspective of being Christian or of studying theology, these sentences might sound so obvious as to be strange. On these points, Global Christianity has been isolated from trends in the discipline of Religious Studies, especially those that focus upon practice or that seek to question the primacy of reified religious identities or traditions. Why wouldn’t someone who wants to understand Christians center what they believe? This is an important question to address. The sense that one can or should define a person based upon what that person believes is quite deeply engrained in Christianity. On a large scale, one might argue that Christians invented this way of defining their community, even before the ecumenical councils of the fourth and fifth centuries. In this process, those who confessed certain theological truths and participated in Christian sacraments or rituals (such as baptism and the Eucharist) were defined as categorically different from others, especially “pagans” and “Jews” (O’Donnell 2016). Christians imagined themselves as being bound together through their faith even if they spoke different languages or they were separated by vast distances. Belief and identity became deeply intertwined. One could argue that these inclinations helped the Christian faith spread across cultures throughout its history. Defining people according to belief also came to the fore in the era of the Reformation, when confessional divisions tore across Europe and, then, North America. Communities and individuals became defined by these identities (Catholic, Lutheran, Reformed, Anabaptist, etc.). European colonialism, which began in the early modern era and continued well into the twentieth century, globalized this sensibility, identifying people as Buddhist, Hindu, pagan, animist, Muslim, and so on. The vast majority of scholarship on Global Christianity maintains this conceptual framework, privileging religious identity and doctrinal belief over most other forms of identity (Robert 2011). This approach to understanding the world and “world religions” has been critiqued for a number of reasons (Masuzawa 2007). It represents a Westernized way of imagining the world and of the presumed role that religion or religious traditions play in the lives of individuals and societies, giving the impression that religious belief is perhaps fundamental in its capacity to shape human behavior and culture. However, the ways in which theological beliefs or doctrines shape our lives are not always direct or obvious. With respect to things like political ideology, economic priorities, language, culture, and daily habits, I might have much more in common with a Buddhist who lives next door than I do with an Oriental Orthodox Christian who lives in eastern Syria. What is it that our common “Christianity” can explain, or account for? This is another way of asking how different forms of identity, such as national, ethnic, religious, and/or political, impact things like religious belief, a sense of shared faith or identity. Yet, an analysis of religions that is divorced from what people who adhere to them believe seems limiting. Prioritizing theological belief is a way of focusing

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upon what adherents think to be true about themselves or about the world and of God’s actions within it (as well as spirits, demons, saints, and/or angels). It is a way to not only describe practices or rituals, but also to consider how beliefs shape those rituals and vice versa. In these ways, attending to matters of belief can be essential for thinking about the contextual differences within Christian churches and communities.

Studying Theology in a Global Context There is a variety of possible starting points when it comes to doing theology, and Christians’ foundational assumptions can obviously vary drastically across time and place. This can be a challenge in reading theological works from other historical eras (such as Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologica). You will also find tremendous diversity on these questions by going around the world, or even by simply walking (proverbially or literally) down the street. You can easily get a sense of what the range of concerns and experiences might be to questions such as, How is the universe structured? What causes maladies or disasters? In what ways does God act in the world today or through history? Are angels, demons, or other spiritual beings real (and in what sense) or are they metaphorical? Something similar can be said even about the task of theology itself. Does theology primarily refer to an elite form of intellectual activity with a canon of texts, or can it also reflect the ways that ordinary people think about, reflect upon, and interact with their everyday world? These approaches, of course, are not antithetical to one another. For example, Pope Frances’ encyclical Laudato Si is a recent, remarkable example of how these approaches can be combined with respect to caring for “our common home” in light of climate change and environmental destruction (Francis 2015). It does this through thorough engagement with the Catholic theological tradition, as well as astute and thoughtful questions about contemporary life. However, the relation between daily life and European intellectual traditions can be a place where many, especially Christians outside of the West, might feel a great deal of tension or disconnection. In a poignant essay, the East African theologian and philosopher John Mbiti described a dilemma that many Christian theologians in the Global South have felt. Mbiti, who grew up in Uganda but received his graduate training in theology in Britain, tells a story of a man like himself, who was educated theologically abroad and then returned to his home village, only to discover immediately that someone was experiencing a malady believed to be caused by malevolent spirits. Mbiti’s protagonist quipped that the villagers had nothing to worry about, as he had just learned via the German theologian Rudolph Bultmann that demons are “demythologized” and, therefore, are not real. You can probably guess that in Mbiti’s telling this was not a particularly helpful observation (Mbiti 1976). Mbiti’s critique raises the challenge of the relation of theology to the lived experiences of Christians across cultural contexts, including especially the role of daily life and vernacular forms of theologizing. In other words, theological

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thought needs to make sense to people, and it can be a detriment to Christians who might think that their vernacular language is not capable of communicating Christian truth. It continues to be the case that theology and theological education are globally dominated by European languages (especially English and French). While this can help make conversations broader, comparative, and accessible, it can also mean that thought in other languages can struggle to find publication and, as a result, theological work is carried out in second, third, or fourth languages, while other thought is less privileged (Thiong’o 2011). Vernacular theology can take many forms. At the heart of that notion, however, is a conviction that theology is related to context and cannot be disconnected from the world as people encounter it. One important way this has been manifest is through base communities in Latin America. Base communities are small groups of Christians, generally of common people or peasants, who gathered for prayer and Bible study in light of the ongoing injustices they faced, especially from the late 1960s to the 1980s, though these practices continue to the present. Ernesto Cardenal, a Nicaraguan Jesuit, provided a striking record of these gatherings in a series of books titled The Gospel in Solentiname (Cardenal 2010). In the transcripts, one can see how common Nicaraguans saw their world in the biblical texts, and vice versa, using them both dialectically to make sense of what they believed God was asking of them amidst dire political and economic circumstances. These ideas have likewise taken hold in other countries, such as El Salvador, where Archbishop Oscar Romero, who was assassinated for condemning the government’s violence against its people, has come to be a powerful symbol of liberation theology’s truth that God is to be most easily found among the poor and oppressed (Fig. 4.2). Theologians writing from the Global South have questioned the context in which both Western and their own work has been done, which is often one of relative economic prosperity for those in the West, and precarity for many others. They have asked if they might not drink from their own cultural wells instead of relying upon those of the West to supply the ideas, assumptions, and parameters within which their theological work might be done. If the example of Latin American base communities is striking, it is not entirely unique on that front. Work by scholars such as Kwok Pui-Lan and Alex Chow have illuminated the ways in which doing theology in Asian contexts has likewise grown out of vernacular forms of Christian expression, reflection, and intellectual and spiritual engagement with cultural formations and political circumstances across that region (Chow 2018; Pui-lan 2021). Given the global scope of Christian experience and contexts, the sources for studying theology globally are pluriform. Depending upon the context, visual sources such as icons, art, and murals can be important theological mediators; and songs and hymns are also essential to theological reflection in diverse cultural contexts (Isasi-Diaz 2004; Müller 2021; Harkness 2014; Ott 2007). And the activities of daily life (or, as mujerista theologian Maria Isasi-Diaz terms it, la qotidiana) remains an essential and enduring element of theological activity

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Fig. 4.2  Mural outside the Divina Providencia, the hospital compound in San Salvador, El Salvador, where Archbishop Oscar Romero was assassinated while saying mass. Romero is pictured in the center, with Salvadorans to his right. They all bear not only the same bullet wound in their heart as Romero has, but also the wounds of Christ in their hands and feet, indicative of the idea that they were a “crucified people,” in whose suffering is Christ’s suffering. (Photo by author)

for both academic theologians and common Christians worldwide, and scholars would do well to make note of the ways that it exerts a shaping influence on Christian perceptions, identities, practices, and beliefs. Discussion Questions 1. What, if anything, connects Christians across time and place? Write it as clearly, and be as thorough as possible. 2. Andrew Walls wrote that Global Christianity is “normative Christianity.” In your own words, what do you think this statement means? Do you mostly agree or disagree with him? Why? 3. What is the relationship between theology (or more simply, ideas about God) and culture? How does culture shape understandings of God? How do understandings of God shape culture? 4. Reflect upon your answer to question 1. Does it focus upon beliefs, practices/rituals, transcendent community, or something else? Does it emphasize uniformity and continuity? Or diversity and dynamism?

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Further Reading Bediako, Kwame. 2011. The emergence of World Christianity and the remaking of theology. In Understanding World Christianity: The vision and work of Andrew F. Walls, ed. William R. Burrows, Mark R. Gornik, and Janice A. McLean, 243–256. Maryknoll: Orbis Books. Bevans, Stephen B., and Robert Schroeder. 2014. Constants in context: A theology of mission for today. Maryknoll: Orbis Books. Bongmba, Elias Kifon, ed. 2020. The Routledge handbook of African Christian theology. London: Routledge. Pui-lan, Kwok. 2010. Hope abundant: Third world and indigenous women’s theology. Maryknoll: Orbis Books. Tanner, Kathryn. 1997. Theories of culture: A new agenda for theology. Minneapolis: Fortress Press.

Works Cited Bevans, Stephen B., and Robert Schroeder. 2010. Constants in context: A theology of mission for today. Maryknoll: Orbis Books. Cardenal, Ernesto. 2010. The gospel in Solentiname. Maryknoll: Orbis Books. Cavanaugh, William T., and Peter Manley Scott, eds. 2019. Wiley Blackwell companion to political theology. 2nd ed. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell. Chow, Alexander. 2018. Chinese public theology: Generational shifts and Confucian imagination in Chinese Christianity. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Ford, David. 1999. Theology: A very short introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Francis, Pope. 2015. Laudato Si, May 24. https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-­f rancesco_20150524_enciclica-­ laudato-­si.html. Grindheim, Sigurd. 2013. Introducing biblical theology. London: T&T Clark. Harkness, Nicholas. 2014. Songs of Seoul: An ethnography of voice and voicing in Christian South Korea. Berkeley: University of California Press. Isasi-Diaz, Ada Maria. 2004. En la lucha/In the struggle: A Hispanic women’s liberation theology. New York: Orbis Books. Leiper, Henry Smith. 1937. World chaos or World Christianity? A popular interpretation of Oxford and Edinburgh conferences. New York: Willett, Clark, and Co. Masuzawa, Tomoko. 2007. The invention of world religions. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Mbiti, John S. 1976. Theological impotence and the universality of the Church. In Mission trends, No. 3: Third world theologies, ed. Gerald H. Anderson and Thomas F. Stransky, 6–18. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Publishing. Migliore, Daniel L. 2004. Faith seeking understanding: An introduction to Christian theology. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Publishing.

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Müller, Retief. 2021. African pilgrimage: Ritual travel in South Africa’s Christianity of Zion. London: Routledge. O’Donnell, James. 2016. Pagans: The end of traditional religion and the rise of Christianity. New York: Ecco. Ott, Martin. 2007. African theology in images. Zomba: Kachere Series. Pui-lan, Kwok. 2021. Asian and Asian American women in religion and theology: Embodying knowledge. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Robert, Dana L. 2011. Christian mission: How Christianity became a world religion. Oxford: Wiley Blackwell. Thiong’o, Ngũgı ̃ wa. 2011. Decolonizing the mind: The politics of language in African literature. London: James Currey.

CHAPTER 5

Demography

As the field of sociology of religion developed through the mid-twentieth century, scholars of Global Christianity employed its methods. Among the most successful of these early studies was David Barrett’s study of African Christian independency, titled Schism and Renewal (Barrett 1970). Barrett, in fact, went on from this study to develop a theologically inflected social science of religion—efforts that would eventually result in the establishment of the Center for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and the publication of the influential World Christian Encyclopedia, which remains an important data source for thinking about global Christian demographics. This dimension of Global Christianity scholarship is important because it has been used to shore up the field’s general reliance upon Christianity’s presumed global dominance in the present and into the future, while also challenging larger projections of secularization.

Christians and the History of Quantification For many of us, living in the modern world means that we are accustomed to thinking about ourselves and our world quantitatively. Consider the various ways that numbers shape not only our perceptions of things, but also the routines of our daily life, and how we interact with it. In other words, take a moment to think about how we think quantitatively. You have probably encountered some kind of public opinion poll about a political issue or figure, such as “83% of Germans agree that” or “The president’s approval rating is 41%.” There are also statistics that inform us about behaviors, such as how frequently those living in a particular area vote in elections, attend a religious service, or visit a doctor’s office. All these can shape, however subtly, our understandings of the world and our relationship to it. Are we part of a majority or minority? How do my habits, beliefs, and behaviors compare to others’? © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 J. Bruner, How to Study Global Christianity, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-12811-0_5

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But consider some other examples of quantification such as the number of people who died of preventable disease in the United States, the number of people who died as a result of the US invasion of Iraq, the number of refugees from a given region or country in a certain year, or the percentage of the world’s population that does not have the Bible translated into their vernacular language (Centers for Diseases Control 2014; Physicians for Social Responsibility 2015; Global Frontier Missions n.d.). These kinds of numbers are rarely provided merely for the benefit of knowing them—they are designed to motivate calls to action, to convey the enormity of the need or the gravity of a situation. That is, numbers often come with demands, and this is true with respect to those pertaining to religion. Efforts to quantify the world and its populations have been an integral part of the modern Christian missionary movement from the late eighteenth century to the present. Christians generated these numbers as a theological justification for missions and to establish a moral obligation for parishioners to assist in the efforts. The most noteworthy examples of this exercise came through William Carey’s 1792 tract, An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians. Carey, in fact, devoted an entire section of the tract to a basic table listing the regions of the world, their geographic size, estimated total population, and brief notes about whether their inhabitants were Christian (and of which tradition), “Mahometan” (i.e., Muslim), pagan, or Jewish (Kaell 2018). In addition, while noting the evident challenges of such an endeavor, he presents his attempt as giving “the state of the world.” Having presented the data, Carey gets straight to the point: The inhabitants of the world according to this calculation, amount to about seven hundred and thirty-one millions; four hundred and twenty millions of whom are still in pagan darkness; an hundred and thirty millions the followers of Mahomet; an hundred millions catholics; forty-four millions protestants; thirty millions of the greek and armenian churches, and perhaps seven millions of jews (sic). It must undoubtedly strike every considerate mind, what a vast proportion of the sons of Adam there are, who yet remain in the most deplorable state of heathen darkness, without any means of knowing the true God. (Carey 1792, 62)

In this calculation, which was based entirely on assigning geographical areas monolithic religious identities and then quantifying their size based upon an average population density, Christianity comes to just under one-quarter of the world’s population (if one includes all Christian traditions). Also, Carey generally has a very negative view of non-Protestant Christians. Of Greek and Armenian Christians, he writes, “they are, if possible, more ignorant and vicious than the [Muslims] themselves.” Roman Catholics were assessed similarly (Carey 1792, 65). These calculations had a purpose, and Carey’s chapter concludes with a direct call to action: “All these things are loud calls to Christians, and especially to ministers, to exert themselves to the utmost in

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their several spheres of action, and to try to enlarge them as much as possible” (Carey 1792, 66). It would be imprudent to attribute the success of Carey’s Enquiry to his attempt to quantify religious identity globally, though Christian missionary efforts did expand substantially in the decades that followed its publication. His tract engages extensively with biblical, theological, and historical developments of Christian mission. Carey’s quantitative appeal, however, is one that nearly all missionaries would follow to some extent over the next two centuries. They would use numbers to show need, progress, success, efficiency, accountability, and opportunity for further investment. Missionaries began quantifying successes early on, in tracking converts and establishing schools, building churches, and baptizing new converts. This became ever more elaborate from the nineteenth century to the present. Now, for example, you can actively track rates of conversions, and review the financial efficiency of faith-based non-profit organizations. However, missionaries in the early twentieth century needed to be accountable not simply to their supporters overseas, but also to colonial governments. Bookkeeping practices, numbers of students taught, vaccinations given, diseases treated, how monies were used, and so on was intertwined with the practices of missionization. Like the origins of our field of study, statistics—and the larger ideal of imposing universal quantification and standards upon the world—was born amidst colonial expansion. As Vincanne Adams noted, “Universal metrics offered, in short, new ways of stabilizing the randomness and chaos produced by the violence of colonialism” (Adams 2016, 20). Through quantification in health and economics, she continues, “the world’s postcolonial poor have over and over again been taught to imagine themselves as needy subjects, as targets of intervention, as hygienic, nutrition-conscious, clinic-seeking, safe-­ motherhood-­striving, and data-producing, entrepreneurial global citizens.” Figures that demonstrate the expansive and quick spread of Christianity worldwide have become woven into the basic assumptions of the field of Global Christianity, as well as its reason for being. In some sense, one might say that historical and ethnographical scholarship often seems to play the role of accounting for the reasons of the demographic shifts, which can be seen in Table  5.1. What role does our quantification of the religious identities of Christians in the Global South assign to them? In addition to the kinds of self-­ understanding Adams noted above, and with respect to Global Christianity, we might add Bible-reading and church-attending, or preserving tradition amidst a secularizing world. However, what effects can the quantification of Christians have upon how we understand Christianity? Demographics can call attention to imbalances of power, of gender representation, and of accessibility to resources. In the context of Global Christianity, this could mean recognizing the disproportionate attention given to Western-­ centric histories of Christianity, or of noting the lack of theological resources available in non-European languages. Scholars have used demographic shifts within Global Christianity to argue against regarding Western Christianity as

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Table 5.1  Tracking the change in the global Christian population from 1900 to 2020 1900 Africa Asia Europe Latin Am. North Am. Oceania

9,640,000 21,966,000 380,647,000 62,002,000 79,254,000 4,837,000

1970

2020

140,023,000 95,758,000 492,068,000 271,568,000 211,642,000 18,250,000

667,169,000 378,735,000 565,416,000 611,964,000 267,944,000 27,606,000

What changes catch your attention? What are factors that might help to explain or account for them? (Johnson and Zurlo n.d.)

the normative, paradigmatic expression of the faith, but the exact implications for individual Christians or congregations can be more difficult to ascertain. Christian leaders in the Global South have at times leveraged their perceived larger numbers in order to make claims upon Christians elsewhere. For example, the turmoil within the Anglican Communion was premised in part on a sense of claiming a majoritarian status among African and Asian Anglicans in particular (Hassett 2009). There can be a social and political history to numbers, especially ones that are related to crises. Once they spread, they can have massive effects. For example, missionary testimonies to the scale of pogroms and the eventual genocide against Assyrian and Armenian Christians helped them leverage aid from the United States and other Western governments in the early twentieth century (Curtis 2018). Within the United States more recently, attention was given to the rise of the so-called nones, or people who didn’t claim any religious identity on surveys (i.e., by checking “none of the above” when given a range of options on religious identity). The growth of that category caused some to lament the spread of “secularization” (and others to celebrate that fact), but importantly, it also caused church leaders to re-think the structure of their churches and programming. This statistic (Fig. 5.1), therefore, impacted outcomes and was not merely a detached measurement of identity (Burge 2021). An example of how demographics can have important social histories is with respect to efforts to quantify Christian persecution and martyrdom. While the field of Global Christianity itself hasn’t prioritized issues like persecution or religious freedom, scholars at the Center for the Study of Global Christianity have for decades been quantifying Christian martyrdom, even as they are better known within the field of Global Christianity for their work in quantifying global religious populations. Regular reports from groups like Aid to the Church in Need and Open Doors likewise document violent incidents against various religious groups and attempt to quantify Christian persecution and martyrdom. Open Doors even ranks countries globally according to the level of threat posed to Christians who live there. The United States’ Council on International Religious Freedom, whose origins are owed directly to

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Percentage of US adults who identify with 100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0

Christianity

No religion 2007

2021

Fig. 5.1  Percentage of US adults who identify as Christian or no religion in particular (Smith 2021)

anti-Christian persecution activism, issues an annual report that has the power to shape US foreign policy and diplomatic relations with countries who violate religious freedom. These efforts have had direct implications not only on how different communities of Christians might think about their place within Global Christianity, but also in how they use their power. For example, the United Kingdom formed a commission on the global persecution of Christians in 2017 (Johnson and Zurlo 2014; Open Doors USA n.d.; US Council on International Religious Freedom n.d.). Quantification can have quite a lot to do with tracking trends over time, especially to compare across different items in a given period of time or how they have fared over longer courses of time. Historically, Christians have used numbers to show competition, both from other religions—especially “paganism,” Hinduism, and Islam, but also amongst Christian denominations. Quantifying the progress of Christian missions could be difficult, as the work of Christian evangelization was typically very slow, and full of frustrations and set-backs, and Christian missionaries rarely had many conversions. The field of Global Christianity is premised upon success and growth of Christianity, but this narrative has long been intertwined with a sense of competition with Islam. Take, for example, how a 13-page entry for “Mohammedanism” begins in the 1891 Encyclopedia of Christian Missions: “Islam is the greatest organized opponent of Christianity. Geographically it has an unbroken field from the Philippine Islands in the Pacific to Sierra Leone on the Atlantic, and from the snows of Crimea to the Equator. […] It has steadily grown in war and peace for over a thousand years, and today controls the religious life of two hundred million

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human beings” (Mohammedanism 1891, 112). Such sentiments continue to shape perceptions. As Andrew Walls wrote in his often-cited book, The Missionary Movement in Christian History, there is “a single Islamic civilization recognizable, despite all local variations, from Indonesia to Morocco” (Walls 1996, 47). Tracking the quantification of religious identities can be viewed as a means of keeping tabs on a kind of global demographic competition, such as can be seen in this series of figures from the World Christian Database (Table 5.2).

Methods and Sources for Demography Unlike the other three methodological areas covered in this first section of the book, calculating demographics using quantitative sociology has what one might call a higher bar of entry. While elements of historical research such as visiting archives might be cost prohibitive for some, and theological texts might come across as arcane or confounding to others, they are, nevertheless, still reasonably accessible. Quantitative sociology, however, has methods, skills, and processes that are not readily acquired outside of specific kinds of mathematical and statistical training. For this reason, one might say that this method is more difficult for many students to practice themselves. There are ways that those who don’t have statistical training can still meaningfully use demographic studies, data, and resources to think about Christianity worldwide. One place to start is by thinking about some of the different methods that are used with respect to quantifying religious demographics and practice. Surveys can be as simple as the ones taken of a very small group of people (say, e.g., a course evaluation that a university might collect at the end of a term), or they can be huge, including data from an entire nation or multiple nations, involving millions of respondents in the case of national censuses. There are public opinion surveys (such as a president’s or government’s approval rating). When it comes to religion, there is a history of quantifying belief, identity, and practice. Many of these methods were developed in the United States in the early twentieth century (Wuthnow 2015) and many of them reflect the priorities and culture of that time. So, actions like church attendance or church membership were commonly used to ascertain the relationship of an individual to a religious institution. While most survey data you are likely to encounter as a non-statistician will be already analyzed to a large extent, it can still be helpful to think about how those numbers are interpreted, and questions you might ask of them. A host of factors can influence how people might respond to any survey question, and religion is no exception. When it comes to censuses, some people might feel them to be politically motivated, or their results to be politically affected; and many countries have trouble conducting reliable censuses regularly (Chouin et al. 2014; Verpoorten 2014). Those kinds of figures can impact later statistics that are generated from them, such as death rates from the Rwanda Genocide

Christianity Islam

558,345,962 200,301,122

Pop. 1900

34.47% 12.37%

Pop % 1900 870,338,149 337,763,010

Pop. 1950 34.31% 13.32%

Pop. % 1950 1,981,177,264 1,288,687,438

Pop. 2000 32.25% 20.98%

Pop % 2000

3,334,019,071 2,842,752,836

Pop. 2050

Table 5.2  Population and global population percentage of Christianity and Islam, 1900–2050 (Johnson and Grim 2022)

34.25% 29.20%

Pop. % 2050

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or counting victims of Boko Haram in Nigeria, both of which have been derived (in some cases, controversially) from decades-old census data. With respect to religion, some people might feel an advantage or disadvantage of appearing (even in an anonymous survey) to be more or less religious than the society around them. For example, Americans might overestimate how often they report actually attending a religious service, perhaps out of a sense of the social capital associated with being part of an established religious institution. An interesting example of a different kind comes from Anna Sun, a religious studies scholar who researches Daoism in China. Even though she would sometimes watch families spend hours performing rituals at a temple, many respondents to her questions would still often decline or hesitate to identify as “Daoist” out of a sense that in doing so, they might be putting their own practice on par with that of monks. The idea that China was home to a large percentage of religiously unaffiliated people, in her view, might be based upon a sense that many people were reluctant to presume to represent a religious tradition (Noack 2015). Statistics can refer to both a particular numerical fact (such as a birthrate) or to a set of scientific tools that helps to interpret data such as that derived from surveys. Statistical methods can be used to extrapolate trends, patterns, relationships, and effects. These relationships can be difficult to notice otherwise, but statistical methods can help make them visible. Think about questions you might have answered on a survey. Even if the survey focused on religion, you may have been asked about your age, gender, nationality, ethnicity or race, marital status, income level, and a host of other issues. Why? This kind of research allows scholars to see correlations between different facets of life. For example, the fact that younger Americans tend to be less affiliated with religious institutions, or the ways in which Americans with conservative political views are more likely to give to charity. On a global scale, it can help illuminate larger trends, such as the ratio between males and females in Christian churches, or to see whether churches in a region tend to draw from a certain ethnicity or socio-economic strata. This brings me to the last point on the use of demographics, which is that it is incumbent upon scholars to think about ways to use quantitative data to ask qualitative questions. This means paying attention to the context in which numbers are brought to our attention—not simply the scholarly context of the questions and statistics, but also in how they are interpreted and then how they become used. What are the numbers asking you to do? And why? How are statistics and quantification related to ethics, or how we are asked to live in the world? In short, what is the narrative that is produced around the numbers? Gaston Espinosa’s research offers one fascinating example of what might come when one uses these kinds of tools to understand multiple religious phenomena simultaneously. The growth of the religious “nones” (i.e., those who checked “none of the above” with respect to religious identity on surveys) over the last two decades has received a lot of attention from scholars, clergy, and commentators on American public life in general. In a survey of Latino/a

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religiosity, Espinosa cross examined that category with other markers or beliefs within the same data set, such as frequency of prayer, belief in God, or affirmations in response to statements about religion’s importance in their lives. What he noticed was that the category of the “nones”—at least among Latino/a Christians, far from indicating a secularizing trend, what the category was capturing was actually tremendous growth in Pentecostal, charismatic, and nondenominational Christianity among respondents (Espinosa n.d.).

Databases World Christian Database. This constitutes the most sophisticated and respected database on Christian demographics in the world. It is a result of the pioneering efforts of David Barrett, an early sociologist of Christianity in Africa. The Center for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary has hosted the database, as well as the publication of the World Christian Encyclopedia every decade. You will likely find it cited in almost any survey of global religion. While their database allows for tracking globally, regionally, and nationally among a wide variety of denominations, traditions, and factors, its main downside is its cost to users who are not affiliated with a subscribing institution. ARDA. The Association of Religion Data Archives is an expansive source for quantitative data on religion. While it has data from across the world, its data is most comprehensive with respect to the United States. Still, it has a wide variety of helpful resources for both novices and experts alike. For example, it has glossaries, and commonly asked questions on surveys, as well as complete datasets for past surveys. Its materials are openly accessible online. Pew Research Center. The Pew Research Center is a subsidiary of The Pew Charitable Trusts, and it has a long history of conducting data-driven research on matters of public life. Though much of this research is oriented toward the United States, for decades they have also conducted global surveys and research outside of the United States. Their reports, including thorough discussions of their methodology for larger surveys, are all publicly available free of charge online. World Council of Churches. The World Council of Churches is not primarily focused upon demographic research, but many of their publications contain relevant and useful quantitative data; since many of their publications are archived online, they are openly accessible (World Council of Churches n.d.-a, n.d.-b). World Health Organization and other global agencies. While the UN and WHO don’t have a particular focus on religion or researching demographics like religious identity, per se, they can, nevertheless, be a source that supplements such studies. For example, the WHO publishes an annual World Health Statistics report (World Health Organization n.d.). In addition, efforts are on to work more closely between faith-based medical groups and the WHO, which could result in additional information being collected about their roles

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in global healthcare (World Health Organization 2021). Reports by the United Nations tend to be qualitative, though these (like the reports issued by the US Council on International Religious Freedom) can be ways to identify particular incidents or issues within a country or region. Discussion Questions 1. Try to recall any demographic claims about Christianity that you may have heard, whether or not you think they are true. They can be as simple as “There aren’t as many Christians in the West as there used to be,” and “Christianity is really growing in Africa.” They may be specific, like “82% of white evangelicals voted for Donald Trump in 2016,” or vague, such as “Christians are the most persecuted group in the world.” Reflect upon how these claims might have affected your perception of Christians or Christianity. 2. Identify a contemporary statistic that seems interesting to you, perhaps using one that you thought of from Question 1. Investigate where that statistic came from. Who generated it, and how? As you find articles or other sources that relate to the claim, pay attention to the different ways the number may have been used, or inserted into narratives or arguments (such as Christianity’s supposed growth or decline, the need for revival or reform, and so on). 3. Think about the nation, state/province, or city where you currently live. Write out estimates of what you think the religious composition of this area is. Then, search the Pew Forum, World Christian Database, or the ARDA, looking for data on religion, religious identity, and/or religious practice in your nation, state/province, or city. How accurate were your perceptions? What surprised you about what you found? If there were discrepancies between what you thought and what you found, what do you think accounts for them?

Further Reading Berger, Peter. 1963. Invitation to sociology: A humanistic perspective. New  York: Anchor Books. Grim, Brian, Todd M. Johnson, Vegard Skirbekk, and Gina Zurlo, eds. 2018. Yearbook of international religious demography, vol. 5. Leiden: Brill. Kaufmann, Eric, Anne Goujon, and Vegard Skirbekk. 2012. The end of secularization in Europe? A socio-demographic perspective. Sociology of religion 73: 69–91. Stark, Rodney, and Roger Finke. 2000. Acts of faith: Explaining the human side of religion. Berkeley: University of California Press. Yang, Fenggang. 2005. Lost in the market, saved at McDonald’s: Conversion to Christianity in urban China. Journal for the scientific study of religion 44: 423–441. Zurlo, Gina. 2018. More than numbers: David B. Barrett and the twentieth-century historiography of World Christianity. Journal of world Christianity 8: 89–108.

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Works Cited Adams, Vincanne. 2016. Metrics of a global sovereign. Metrics: What counts in global health. Durham: Duke University Press. Barrett, David B. 1970. Schism and renewal: An analysis of 6000 contemporary religious movements. Nairobi: Oxford University Press. Burge, Ryan P. 2021. The nones: Where they came from, who they are, and where they are going. Minneapolis: Fortress Press. Carey, William. 1792. An enquiry into the obligation of Christians to use means for the conversion of the heathen. Leicester. Accessed April 3, 2022. https://www.wmcarey. edu/carey/enquiry/anenquiry.pdf. Centers for Diseases Control. 2014. Up to 40 percent of annual deaths from each of five leading US causes are preventable, May 1. https://www.cdc.gov/media/ releases/2014/p0501-­preventable-­deaths.html. Chouin, Gérard, Manuel Reinert, and Élodie Apard. 2014. Body count and religion in the Boko Haram crisis: Evidence from the Nigeria watch database. In Boko Haram: Islamism, politics, security and the state in Nigeria, ed. Marc-Antoine Pérouse de Montclos, 213–236. Leiden, Ibadan: IFRA-Nigeria. Curtis, Heather D. 2018. Holy humanitarians: American evangelicals and global aid. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Espinosa, Gaston. n.d., forthcoming. Nones, no religious preference, no religion and the misclassification of Latino religious identity. Religion. Global Frontier Missions. n.d. What is a UPG.  Accessed April 18, 2022. h t t p s : / / g l o b a l f r o n t i e r m i s s i o n s . o r g / g f m -­1 0 1 -­m i s s i o n s -­c o u r s e / the-­unreached-­peoples-­and-­their-­role-­in-­the-­great-­commission/. Hassett, Miranda K. 2009. Anglican Communion in crisis: How Episcopal dissidents and their African allies are reshaping Anglicanism. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Johnson, Todd M., and Brian J. Grim, eds. 2022. World religion database. Leiden: Brill. Johnson, Todd M., and Gina Zurlo. 2014. Christian martyrdom as a pervasive phenomenon. Society 51. Johnson, Todd M., and Gina A.  Zurlo, eds. n.d. World Christian Encyclopedia Online. Accessed May 4, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1163/2666-­6855_ WCEO_COM_01OCE. Kaell, Hillary. 2018. On the power of aggregates. Immanent frame, February 6. https://tif.ssrc.org/2018/02/06/on-­the-­power-­of-­aggregates/. Mohammedanism. 1891. Encyclopedia of Christian missions, vol. 2. Edited by Edwin Munsell Bliss. New York: Funk & Wagnalls. Noack, Rick. 2015. Map: These are the world’s least religious countries. Washington Post, April 14. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/ wp/2015/04/14/map-­these-­are-­the-­worlds-­least-­religious-­countries/. Open Doors USA. n.d. 2020 Annual report: Who can be against us? Accessed April 18, 2022. https://www.opendoorsusa.org/annual-­report/. Physicians for Social Responsibility. 2015. Body count. https://www.psr.org/wp-­ content/uploads/2018/05/body-­count.pdf. Smith, Gregory A. 2021. About three-in-ten U.S. adults are now religiously unaffiliated. Pew Research Center, December 14, https://www.pewresearch.org/ religion/2021/12/14/about-­t hree-­i n-­t en-­u -­s -­a dults-­a re-­n ow-­r eligiously-­ unaffiliated/.

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US Council on International Religious Freedom. n.d. 2020 annual report. Accessed April 18, 2022. https://www.uscirf.gov/publications/2020-­annual-­report. Verpoorten, Marijke. 2014. Rwanda: Why claim that 200,000 Tutsi died in the genocide is wrong. African Arguments, October 27, 2014, https://africanarguments. org/2014/10/rwanda-­why-­davenport-­and-­stams-­calculation-­that-­200000-­tutsi-­ died-­in-­the-­genocide-­is-­wrong-­by-­marijke-­verpoorten/. Walls, Andrew. 1996. The missionary movement in Christian history: Studies in the transmission of faith. Maryknoll: Orbis Books. World Council of Churches. n.d.-a Internet archive. Accessed April 18, 2022. https:// archive.org/details/worldcouncilofchurches. ———. n.d.-b WCC archives and library. Accessed April 18, 2022. https://www.oikoumene.org/what-­we-­do/wcc-­archives-­and-­library#online-­resources. World Health Organization. 2021. WHO, faith partners and national governments—Supporting national responses to COVID.  November 10. https://www. who.int/news/item/10-­11-­2021-­who-­faith-­partners-­and-­national-­governments-­ supporting-­national-­responses-­to-­covid-­19. ———. n.d. The global health observatory. Accessed April 18, 2022. https://www. who.int/data/gho/publications/world-­health-­statistics. Wuthnow, Robert. 2015. Inventing American religion: Polls, surveys, and the tenuous quest for a nation’s faith. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

PART II

Themes

CHAPTER 6

Agency

Defining “Agency” The sociologist William H. Sewell defined the concept of agency as follows: “To be an agent means to be capable of exerting some degree of control over the social relations in which one is enmeshed, which in turn implies the ability to transform those social relations to some degree” (Sewell 1992, 20). This definition is useful, but needs some explanation. Sewell is here defining the term abstractly, giving a theoretical grounding to social scientific scholarship. In terms of how I’m using the concept of agent/agency in this chapter, it refers to both the power of an individual to act in a particular context as well as the scholar’s recognition that certain actions matter in a given time and place. What this looks like in scholarly practice can be quite complex because it can reveal the scholar’s assumptions or preferences perhaps just as much as it might reveal the actions of those in the past or present. Before moving into what this means for the study of Global Christianity, I want to offer a simple explanation of agency as it relates to historical and social scientific scholarship (like sociology and anthropology). Writing in the mid-1970s, a sociologist named Anthony Giddens theorized that agency depended upon structure (Giddens 1976). By “structure” he was referring to concepts like “social relations” or “culture”—concepts that refer to systems that are beyond the scope of the individual but which are typically understood to inform how an individual moves through the world, makes meaning of it, and works to reproduce and/ or change it. Giddens argued that agency and structure worked together, since any idea of what can or should be done in the world is conditioned by an intelligible understanding of that world and the options it does (or doesn’t) provide for an individual to act upon. Social structures and social relations, in Giddens’ view, both constrain and enable agency. In elaborating upon Giddens’ theory, Sewell observed, “part of what it means to conceive of human beings as agents is to conceive of them as empowered by access to resources of one kind or © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 J. Bruner, How to Study Global Christianity, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-12811-0_6

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another” (Sewell 1992, 10). By “resources” here, Sewell is referring to material resources (such as farming equipment, money, or land) and virtual resources (such as ideas, beliefs, or concepts). This premise has undergirded a great deal of scholarship over the past four decades in the social sciences. How has the field of Global Christianity portrayed Christians as agents, or as having agency? In the field of Global Christianity, agency is a way of describing whose actions matter in a religious context. By and large, the field has prioritized the agency of two groups of historical actors: Western missionaries and Christian converts. As this book’s chapter on gender and sexuality states, the actions that tended to matter to chroniclers of Christian missions in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were those of heroic Western men. Although there were notable and important exceptions, those who were considered to have the authority, power, and capacity to make decisions and carry them out were men. Men dominated church leadership positions and most denominations limited ordination to men. While there are still a number of studies of Christian missions that focus on Western missionaries, the field from the beginning has also equally emphasized the agency of non-Western converts to Christianity. What I mean by this is that scholarship on Global Christianity has generally adhered to the assumption that non-Westerners chose to convert and, in doing so, they also had power to accept or reject Christianity. If they became Christian, then the assumption that followed was that they had the power to bring the Christian faith in accordance with their cultural and political context. The degree to which any scholar might give greater sense of agency to one of these actors over another can vary, sometimes dramatically. On the one hand, books like Nimi Wariboko’s Nigerian Pentecostalism (2014) make almost no mention of Western missionaries or influence, while texts that have been formative to the field, like Andrew Walls’ The Missionary Movement in Christian History (1996), give quite a lot of space to thinking about missionaries, their actions, and their theologies.

Agency and Colonialism Scholars’ perception of agency can be a matter of historiography, or the way they research and write about history. Attending to agency, therefore, is a way of conveying a sense of what the options were in a given time and place, and how people negotiated those options and made a decision. Since missionaries and colonial officials mentioned the lives of those who were non-elite or non-­ converts much less frequently than they did people who they deemed to be more significant or powerful, one could easily get the impression that men in power acted and it was their decisions and actions that mattered; everyone else simply responded to it. In such a view, agency was accorded to powerful men, and considerably less agency was accorded to women, non-elites, and especially non-Europeans. This is all the more due to the colonial dynamics, which did

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create real imbalances of various kinds of power: political, economic, cultural, and religious. Still, that isn’t to say that actions by non-elites didn’t matter. There are numerous instances, both mundane and dramatic, that indicate otherwise. Part of the strength of scholarship on Global Christianity is to give a voice for these kinds of actions, which historians of empire didn’t often consider, especially before the final decades of the twentieth century. Up through the middle of the twentieth century, the history of colonialism in Africa, for example, had been largely be told as if Africans didn’t play much of any role other than dealing with what was done to their land. Work like E.A. Ayandele’s The Missionary Impact on Modern Nigeria, however, provided a new model for writing about Africa. The assumption of that book, and the larger Ibadan series of which it was part, was to counter the pervasive idea that “Africans were not active participants in the great events that shape their continent” (Dike 1966, xiii). In many instances in Africa and elsewhere, it can be difficult to locate non-Europeans’ agency historically because of the unevenness of the archives, as well as the biases that inform the documents that have been preserved. Other scholars, writing of Christianity’s encounter with colonialism, have seriously questioned the possibility of agency by colonized non-Europeans at all. In their two-volume history of missionaries in South Africa, Jean and John Comaroff describe a colonial system that was so insidious and pervasive they argued it led to the “colonization of consciousness” of Africans (Comaroff and Comaroff 1991). Most scholars of Global Christianity have critiqued the Comaroffs because their argument cuts against the possibility that converts had the capacity to discern options for themselves and deploy their resources or new ideas within the new colonial social context (Peel 1992). But what the Comaroffs unquestionably introduced in the scholarship, and what many scholars of Global Christianity have largely ignored, is the question of the power difference that was constitutive of non-Europeans’ encounters with Christianity in the colonial (and postcolonial) context.

Power and Agency To speak of agency isn’t to say that all choices or options are equally available to everyone. Rather, it’s a way of focusing upon what actions are determined by the scholar to be analytically or historically significant to understanding, in this case, why Christianity or Christian churches developed in the ways that they did. The field of Global Christianity, by contrast, has tended not to take up questions of the power imbalance that were such a constitutive part of colonial contexts and conditioned converts’ options. Similarly, Global Christianity scholarship has had a difficult time conceptualizing international flows of power that impinge upon local churches and expressions of the faith in the present. When it comes to conceptualizing power within the history of Christianity globally, scholars in the field of Global Christianity might need to give more

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focused attention to the ways in which unequal distributions of power impact what Christianity becomes in a given time and place. Global Christianity scholarship has often not spent much consideration of the unequal distributions of power within the colonial or postcolonial contexts. One could say that Global Christianity has been informed by an implicit assumption that religion is a democratizing plane of agentive action that is distinguishable from socio-economic dynamics. By and large, scholars of Global Christianity have not incorporated the cultural or physical violence of the colonial or postcolonial eras into their analyses of the factors that have helped to “indigenize” Christian faith, though there are several important exceptions to such a broad statement. However, if one reads a text like Kwame Bediako’s Christianity in Africa (1996) or Lamin Sanneh’s Disciples of All Nations (2008), one would find scarce content on these topics compared to studies like Edward Said’s Culture and Imperialism (1993), or Franz Fanon’s Wretched of the Earth (2004). This criticism shouldn’t be the last word here, however. Because scholars of Global Christianity have identified a host of instances, both individual and collective, that indicate the power of people to make choices, to leverage new resources, beliefs, and ideas, and to shape their social structures in personally and socially significant ways. In short, scholarship on Global Christianity can demonstrate the duality of the relationship between the structures of social relations and agency, showing how Christianity was an important part of how people in colonial and postcolonial contexts thought about their world and looked for ways to resist, re-make, and re-imagine it.

Implications How is one to think about agency with respect to the study of Global Christianity? Scholars of Global Christianity have tended to assume that religion is a definite area of life, and in that area of life one can locate the possibilities of responding, creating, and rejecting the beliefs, ideas, and practices associated with Christianity. That is, religion is taken to be something that isn’t reducible to politics, economics, or social relations, and that within it, one can observe a distinct form of action. Religion, so defined, is in some sense a field of agency that colonialism helped to create and globalize. What I mean by this is that in creating the category of the religious, and in segmenting it or distinguishing it from other dimensions of life (or, at least attempting to do so), missionaries and colonists created a realm of existence that was shared with their non-­ Western subjects of evangelization. One important assumption of Global Christianity scholarship is that missionaries brought choices and created new options. Of course, not all of these options were believed to be good by non-­ Westerners, and they rejected or critiqued many of them. The fact that those options (such as joining a new religious community, learning to read, or receiving aid from mission hospitals) came to exist in the way that they do is an

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important historical result of missionary activity. In this sense, scholars of Global Christianity often focus upon the possibility of religious conversion that was created through the expansion of missionary efforts in the era of colonization. For this reason, one cannot remove power from considerations of how people act, and why they act in the ways they do. Even as colonial forces created a modern sensibility around what constitutes religion, they also policed its boundaries. For example, they wanted to ensure that movements remained “religious” and, therefore, not “political.” It was not entirely up to colonized people to determine what these boundaries were (Bruner 2019). Yet, the scholarship on Global Christianity has tended not to dwell upon the inequality of the colonial encounter, or the violence inherent within it. As a result, the field runs the danger of celebrating something like unqualified creation on the part of non-Western converts. On the other hand, an analysis which suggests too much power to the missionaries plays into colonial stereotypes, in which missionaries and Westerners were the ones whose actions mattered most. This need not be a false dichotomy. Rather, remember the definition with which this chapter began, considering that social relations (and constraints) and agency help to constitute each other. Here, it might be helpful to think through different dimensions of social life with respect to the kinds of issues and categories Global Christianity scholars have used in order to quickly observe how agency can apply to them. Mental: How one thinks, or what one believes. In relation to religious ideas, scholars might point to evidence that Christian converts showed an ability to think for themselves, and to engage with theological questions, to challenge missionaries and their superiors. In short, one can look to the ways that converts show they are not passive with respect to what they are taught. Here, one might see agency most obviously in challenging and questioning, but also in deciding to convert (or not) in the first place (Young 2013). Spiritual: This might refer to the use of religious ideas, or refer to the imminent power or presence of spiritual entities (such as ancestors, saints, God, Jesus, Holy Spirit). One could here look for instances in which individuals or communities sought to use that power in their own lives to heal, lead, contest, or find new forms of community. One can also find historical moments in which spiritual agents were believed to impact or affect historical processes or events (Orsi 2016). Institutional: This can refer to how people leveraged power within institutions or bureaucracies. This could be manifested by the establishment of new churches, or of an individual’s entering the priesthood. Many scholars of Global Christianity have given special attention to the formation of independent churches by non-Western converts, such as the one from southern Africa pictured below (Fig. 6.1) (Daneel 1987). Physical: This dimension of agency might refer to the control one has over one’s personal choices, especially one’s body, clothing, and personal ethics and morality. For example, the degree to which one has a capacity for choosing a

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Fig. 6.1  African Christians follow leaders of an African Initiated Church to a baptismal ceremony in a river. Such churches were formed in the colonial era due to constraints placed upon African Christians within European-dominated mission churches. Mennonite Church USA Archives, No restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons

marital partner, or what one eats (or refuses to eat), or the language(s) one speaks (Bruner 2017). Political: This form of agency might be manifest as rebellion, resistance, or rejection; it is about the contestation of power. In this sense, scholars have tended to present rebellion as being more agentive than quiescence, or rejection is at least more clearly evidence of independence and individuality than acceptance. Some important studies have contested this idea, such as Saba Mahmood’s The Politics of Piety (2012). These categories show that what one should pay attention to is a two-fold movement, of both what scholars say is “agentive” in any given time and place, but also how to think about others’ actions within their own contexts, constraints, and possibilities for action. One must not only consider historically oriented questions—like What does it mean to have agency within various constraints? Is agency observed only in the overcoming of constraints? Or, Does one have to make a conscious choice in order to have agency?—without also directing questions at ourselves: Which choices do we, as scholars, believe matter? What are our assumptions about why people make the choices they do?

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Discussion Questions 1. Where do you think you can most easily see Christianity being “enculturated” or remade? Is it in the establishment of independent churches? Or, perhaps in the ordination of non-western clergy? Does it have to do with developing contextual theologies or liturgies in worship? Something else? 2. Think about a past or contemporary event. How do you think about whose actions matter most for understanding what happened? Are they elites, or common folk? Are there social or political circumstances that seem to take on a life of their own, almost independent of human action? Now, consider that same event from the perspective of people who didn’t seem central to your understanding of what happened. What does it look like from their perspective? 3. Consider the definition of agency that is included in Section I of this chapter. Do you think this is applicable to the study of Christianity and Christian history? Why or why not? What would you change about it?

Further Reading Burrows, William R., Mark R. Gornik, and Janice A. McLean, eds. 2011. Understanding World Christianity: The vision and work of Andrew F. Walls. Maryknoll: Orbis Books. Keane, Webb. 1997. From fetishism to sincerity: On agency, the speaking subject, and their historicity in the context of religious conversion. Comparative Studies in Society and History 39: 674–693. Sewell, William H. 1992. A theory of structure: Duality, agency, and transformation. American Journal of Sociology 98: 1–29. Stewart, Anna, Helen Mo, and Saliha Chatoo. 2016. Gender and agency in Spirit-filled Christianity. PentecoStudies 15: 116–128. Young, Richard Fox, and Jonathan A. Seitz. 2013. Introduction. In Asia in the making of Christianity: Conversion, agency, and indigeneity, 1600s to the present, ed. Richard Fox Young and Jonathan A. Seitz, 1–28. Leiden: Brill.

Works Cited Bediako, Kwame. 1996. Christianity in Africa: The renewal of a non-western religion. Maryknoll: Orbis Books. Bruner, Jason. 2017. Living salvation in the East African Revival in Uganda. Rochester: Rochester University Press. ———. 2019. Religion and politics in the East African Revival. International Bulletin of Mission Research 43: 311–319. Comaroff, Jean, and John Comaroff. 1991. Of revelation and revolution: Christianity, colonialism and consciousness in South Africa, Volume 1. Chicago: Chicago University Press. Daneel, Marthinus. 1987. Quest for belonging: Introduction to a study of African independent churches. Gweru: Mambo Press.

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Dike, K. Onwuka. 1966. Introduction to the Ibadan history series. In The missionary impact on modern Nigeria, 1842–1914: A political and social analysis, ed. E.A. Ayandele. London: Longmans. Fanon, Frantz. 2004. The wretched of the earth. New York: Grove Press. Giddens, Anthony. 1976. New rules of sociological method: A positive critique of interpretive sociologies. London: Hutchinson. Mahmood, Saba. 2012. Politics of piety: The Islamic revival and the feminist subject. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Orsi, Robert. 2016. History and presence. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Peel, J.D.Y. 1992. The colonization of consciousness—Of revelation and revolution: Christianity, colonialism and consciousness in South Africa, volume 1. By Jean Comaroff and John Comaroff. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991. pp. xx 414 $68.95 (paperback $21.75). The Journal of African History 33: 328–329. Said, Edward. 1993. Culture and imperialism. New York: Vintage Books. Sanneh, Lamin. 2008. Disciples of all nations: Pillars of world Christianity. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Sewell, William H. 1992. Theory of structure: Duality, agency, and transformation. American Journal of Sociology 98: 1–29. Walls, Andrew. 1996. The missionary movement in Christian history: Studies in the transmission of faith. Maryknoll: Orbis Books. Wariboko, Nimi. 2014. Nigerian Pentecostalism. Rochester: Rochester University Press. Young, Richard Fox. 2013. Loss and gain: An ‘intellectualist’ conversion and its socio-­ cognitive calculus in the Hindu-Christian life of Nehemiah Goreh. In Asia in the making of Christianity: Conversion, agency, and indigeneity, 1600s to the present, ed. Richard Fox Young and Jonathan A. Seitz, 213–240. Leiden: Brill.

CHAPTER 7

Mission

Contemporary Global Christianity cannot be understood apart from the history of the modern missionary movement. This movement is generally traced to the late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth-century expansion of Protestant voluntary societies, which were convened for the purpose of sending missionaries from the United States and Western Europe to convert non-Christians both at home and abroad. Roman Catholic religious orders had been active in Africa, Asia, and Latin America from the end of the fifteenth century and continue to the present day, and German Pietists also sponsored missions to South Asia in the early eighteenth century. These developments were inseparable from the expansion of Western imperialism and colonialism and are important for understanding how Christians’ views of mission have developed. This historical context has shaped how Christians engage in missions in a globalizing world today.

What Is Mission? Who Is a Missionary? Mission can generally be understood as the communication of the Christian gospel through words and deeds, often across a geographical, cultural, religious, or linguistic boundary. Missionaries have typically been “sent,” though the sending can be as formal as going through an extensive preparation that might take years and include commissioning by an agency or church, or simply be the feeling of being called or commissioned individually by God. Missionaries understand themselves as working with God in the world and they would generally agree that God expects Christians to be involved in work by which God uses human effort to accomplish God’s purposes on earth. Some scholars have argued that Christianity becomes most true when it is engaged in mission. For many contemporary Christians—especially those from evangelical and Pentecostal traditions, it might sound commonplace to hear verses like Matthew 28:18–20 and understand them as making a direct claim on oneself or one’s church. In other words, each Christian shares in a responsibility to “make © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 J. Bruner, How to Study Global Christianity, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-12811-0_7

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disciples of every nation, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” This has become a standard call to mission, a process of seeking out those who are not Christian with an intention to bring them into the Christian faith and church. But Christians have not always understood things in this way. What mission (or, missions) means has varied across time, as have the theological ideas and socio-political contexts that have informed it (Bosch 1991). Three meanings that are especially relevant to the study of Global Christianity are conversion, humanitarianism, and missio dei. Conversion. While the conversion of souls is a common motivation across nearly all missionary work, Christian traditions have different ideas about what constitutes conversion and what is required for entering the Christian faith. For some, an extensive process of learning the catechism followed by baptism could take years, whereas for others, a simple confession of faith is sufficient, taking a mere moment. These differences likewise imply contrasting missionary methods, priorities, and impacts. For the former, one might need to invest in schools, translation work, and trained catechists to properly convert others, while for the latter approach, one might simply rely upon basic confessions of faith that require little formal education or training at all. (For more on conversion, see Chap. 8.) Humanitarianism. The alleviation of human suffering has long motivated Christian mission. For some Christians, the presence of many forms of suffering were tied to the ways people lived, such that if people were to reform their lives, then they (and their societies) might be better off. These sensibilities led to an immense number of social reform movements, as well as domestic and foreign missionary efforts from the eighteenth century onward. These efforts were generally infused with a conviction that Christian responsibility was not simply to accept the world as it is, but rather to make concerted efforts to engage with it so as to change it. For Christians both in past centuries and today, ameliorating human suffering, whether it is the result of natural or human-made causes, was and is an essential expression of Christian love and compassion. For example, in the 1910s and 1920s, American Protestant missionaries played a central role in delivering tens of millions of dollars in aid to those suffering from the horrors of the Armenian Genocide. The organization of faith-based hospitals, foreign medical missions, social welfare, and emergency relief through non-governmental organizations likewise flow out of these convictions. For these reasons, child-sponsorship programs like World Vision and volunteer agencies like Caritas or Lutheran World Service continue to be important networks of global Christian engagement (Kaell 2020; Curtis 2018). Missio Dei. The Latin phrase missio dei literally translates to “the mission of God.” As it pertains to studies of Christian mission, it refers to the idea that God is eternally sending, such as the sending of the Word (John 1:1) to create the world, God’s son to be incarnated (John 1), and the Holy Spirit into the lives of Christians and the church (Acts 1–2). As such, the church (and individual Christians) should live within this general understanding of the work of

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God in the world, which is of a sending, transformational movement. In this sense, the idea of missio dei can be foundational for understanding the work of the church in general, with no firm boundaries between especially designated Christians who are “sent” (as in, sent abroad as missionaries), and those who remain at “home.” Instead, it reframes all of Christian life within the enduring movement of God through creation.

Mission and Imperialism The relationship between Christianity and political power has varied considerably since the first century when Christian communities emerged and came to be perceived as a threat to the Roman Empire. Those dynamics changed considerably after Constantine’s Edict of Toleration (312 CE) and then Theodosius’ making Christianity the established religion of the empire in the late fourth century. European emperors and monarchs in the centuries that followed generally sought to develop favorable ties to Christian churches, developments which also occurred outside of Europe, such as in Ethiopia and Armenia. Christians throughout history have had to live within empires that were not Christianized, particularly in the East. This section, however, focuses upon the relationship between Christianity and European empires over the past two centuries, when the faith spread globally to an extent previously unseen. The notion of cross-cultural missions is premised upon the belief that something genuine and true about the Christian faith can be transmitted across linguistic and cultural boundaries. Still, missionaries in the modern period have debated the relationship between “Christianity” and (often, Western) “civilization.” Christians such as Pope Benedict XVI see them as inextricably linked, with Western European concepts and cultures taking on a providential role in shaping and articulating Christian truth (Benedict XVI 2006). Some Christians believe that the same could be said for European political and economic power. This approach was articulated in 1792 by William Carey, a British Baptist who published a pamphlet titled “An Enquiry into the Use of Means for the Conversion of the Heathen.” In it, he claimed, against some of the prevailing theological assumptions of his time, that Christians ought to use “means” (i.e., conscious, organized effort) to effect conversions worldwide. In his view, the burgeoning British Empire in South Asia provided a providential trade and political network through which to engage in missionary work. Other missionaries considered Christianity and Western civilization to be separate or separable, employing a biblical metaphor of the kernel (i.e., the Gospel) and the husk (i.e., Western civilization). For example, there were controversies among missionaries to India in the 1820s–1830s over whether English should be taught before the doctrinal particulars of Christianity, or vice versa. Versions of this debate would play out in myriad other contexts as missionaries had to make practical decisions about what and how to communicate, and potential converts discerned what to make of the new teachings, communities, and institutions.

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Other missionaries saw the association between Christianity and European empires as actively harmful to understanding Christianity. Indeed, missionaries could be critics of empire, and they sometimes found their implicit association with Western imperialism a hindrance rather than a facilitator of their conversionary efforts. Missionaries like those of the China Inland Mission (founded by Hudson Taylor) sought to approximate the lives of the Chinese people they hoped to reach, including adopting local clothing and other cultural sensibilities, attempting by these methods to reduce their Western associations. One can see one example of how this looked in Fig. 7.1. Missionaries might seek to move toward the frontier of imperial reach, both because they sought new communities to convert, but also because they wanted to distance themselves from the seats of imperial power. Of course, as an empire expanded, the opportunities to move beyond its scope decreased, for both missionaries but especially for those who were indigenous to the land. Generally speaking, scholars of Global Christianity have tended to distinguish between the Western missionary and imperial enterprises, showing how the goals and methods of evangelization were frequently at odds with the aims of imperial expansion and governance. This historiographical approach has led

Fig. 7.1  Photograph of James Hudson Taylor, 1905. Note the combination of styles of dress among the Westerners in this photo. The original uploader was Ibekolu at Chinese Wikipedia., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

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to some nuanced understanding of missions in colonial contexts, but it has also meant that the field has not fully engaged with the sharper critiques of Christianity’s collusion with imperial power (Chidester 2014). By the end of the nineteenth century, one can find not only a wider array of missionary organizations and societies, both Protestant and Catholic, but also a shift in interest among those who were offering themselves to go as missionaries. Missionaries became more likely to have university or seminary education, come from middle class or upper-class families, and have formal training in engineering, medicine, agriculture, or education. These were areas in which missions and missionaries provided services that colonial governments were likewise interested in. One might think of this process as the “professionalization” of the foreign missionary movement. It was this generation of missionaries, from the late nineteenth century to World War II, who worked to establish institutions of colonial life, including schools and colleges, clinics and hospitals. They helped set and coordinate agricultural practices and translate governmental public policy. As a result, missionaries in the early-mid twentieth century often felt themselves to be removed from the daily life of those they were hoping to convert or minister to because they were increasingly charged with running organizations, projects, and institutions. Nevertheless, missionaries across the nineteenth and twentieth centuries recognized that the Christian gospel called them to work toward causes and projects that were not exclusively devoted to saving souls. Their advocacy against the opium trade, opposition to practices such as sati (the practice of burning widows in parts of India), establishing orphanages, organizing famine relief, teaching writing and European languages, and introducing Western forms of medicine, among others, were largely understood as an expression of Christian compassion and charity (and also of the providential superiority of the West). Still, some missionaries and their supporters wondered whether the investments in the institutions that supported these efforts allowed people to reap some material benefits for themselves without experiencing a renewal of their souls, a circumstance they lamented. However, these efforts at institutionalization were not without significant effects. If most missionaries of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries saw their missions grow extremely slowly, those of the late nineteenth to early twentieth centuries often met with successes that could be represented numerically, in numbers of patients treated, students graduated, and baptisms performed. This work had enormous social, political, and religious consequences, as missionaries helped to establish the foundational practices and assumptions of democratic forms of governance, including the vernacular press (Woodberry 2012). This expansion came at an enormous cost—both literally and figuratively. Hospitals, universities, and networks of grade schools are expensive to maintain, especially in addition to churches, printing presses, and seminaries. For this reason, many missions worked with colonial governments to subsidize this infrastructure.

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By the end of the colonial era in the mid-twentieth century, Western missionaries or ecclesiastical leaders were in important institutional positions worldwide. As these colonies pushed toward independence and self-­governance, many of these institutions came under similar pressure to nationalize and indigenize their leadership. The idea of a missionary moratorium was proposed in 1972 by Rev. John Gatu, a Presbyterian General Secretary of East Africa. Gatu’s request was based upon an understanding that Western missionaries, though few in comparison with indigenous converts and even local clergy, still had power and authority which flowed from their associations with Western societies, resources, and colonial histories. If these churches were to establish themselves in their own soil, then they needed space to grow their own roots (Reese 2014). The 1970s and 1980s saw indigenous Christians take on leadership roles such as pastor, priest, canon, bishop, and archbishop that only 30 years before were largely occupied by Western missionaries or churchmen. Over the course of the late twentieth century and into the twenty-first century, there were fewer full-time foreign missionaries being sent by the United States and Western Europe. Simultaneously, there were other important developments in global missions, such as new waves of global Pentecostal and charismatic influence that often had ties to the West. In addition, there was a massive growth in short-term missions from the United States during this period, coupled with the emergence of “reverse missions” from formerly colonized countries back to Europe and North America. While Gatu’s call remains noteworthy, how much of these transformations can be directly attributed to it is less certain.

Non-Westerners as Missionaries From Western Christian perspectives, missionaries were often viewed as (typically, male) heroes, singularly braving the hardships of foreign climates and potentially hostile societies in order to spread the Gospel. Yet, even as early as the 1850s, missionary leaders such as Henry Venn and Rufus Anderson saw the Western missionary’s role as temporary, and which would ultimately diminish as an indigenous church grew and produced its own leaders, thereby “euthanizing” the mission with a self-supporting, self-sustaining, and self-­propagating indigenous church. Gatu’s need to call for a moratorium in the early 1970s indicates that missionaries ended up not being as temporary as earlier leaders had theorized. Even if their presence cast a shadow over the budding churches of the Global South, the truth is that Western missionaries were always deeply dependent upon local helpers, collaborators, and converts, who served as translators, cultural experts, mediators, evangelists, “Bible women,” and missionaries themselves. Missions, therefore, should not be understood exclusively as a preoccupation with its Western expressions (Jeyaraj 2009). Of course, merely stating the fact that missionaries were dependent upon these converts does not mean that there were not power imbalances. Those

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converts who became evangelists, priests, pastors, and/or missionaries in the colonial era could meet with great difficulty. They were frequently paid a fraction of what Western missionaries were paid, and they could encounter opposition or prejudice among neighboring societies. In some cases, their evangelization efforts could draw the ire and violent suppression of colonial power (Kenny and Wenger 2020). While some of the better-known indigenous preachers are known because they started independent churches and directly contested missionary and imperial power, there are also scores of others who did less celebrated work of weekly preaching, translating hymns, and holding catechetical classes. If the field of Global Christianity privileges the growth of new expressions of Christianity in different cultural contexts, then the credit for that translation needs to rest not only with transformational figures like Pandita Ramabai (South Asia), but also with Christians whose work was integral to the communication of Christian faith and the spread of Christianity across boundaries (Fig. 7.2). The field of Global Christianity coalesced in an era of decolonization in which churches in former colonies felt that they needed to assume responsibility for the evangelization of their own societies. If demographic growth is evidence of success, then a strong argument can be made that leaders in these churches were more than capable of managing the transition. Churches in the Global South have not simply grown within their own societies, but have likewise sought to engage actively in cross-cultural missionary efforts, particularly in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries (Fig.  7.3). For some Fig. 7.2  Photograph of Pandita Ramabai and her daughter. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

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Fig. 7.3  A motorized boat that a Peruvian evangelist uses to travel along the Amazon River and its tributaries near Iquitos, Peru. He also uses it to carry supplies and groups of North and South American assistants. (Photo by author)

churches in countries like South Korea, Brazil, and Nigeria today, that means sponsoring their own missionaries and church plants in other countries, including in Europe and North America, as well as countries within their continents (Hanciles 2008). Even if Europe’s empires have largely dissolved, Western power didn’t entirely recede with them. If the Western world is now regarded by many Christians in other regions as being a mission field, it remains an important source of funds, resources, and ideas throughout the world (Wuthnow 2010). It is now moving globally and in relation to complex Christian centers and networks in which newly ascendant (and often self-funded) churches in the Global South are shapers of global Christian life, belief, and practices (Haynes 2015).

Mission in a Polycentric World Chapter 4 (Theology) discussed Andrew Walls’ insight that Christianity today resembles features of early Christianity. One of the similarities that Walls highlighted in this regard is Christianity’s “polycentrism,” by which he meant that there was not (and is not) a single geographical center or seat of power. Instead, mission can (at least theoretically) proceed from nearly any place on the planet to anywhere else. As a result, global missionary work has taken on many forms.

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Many Western missionary agencies, which tend to have greater access to material resources, have long debated what missionary work should entail after European decolonization. Mainline denominational agencies in particular have adopted the terminology of “partnership” and being “missional” to signal a mitigation of power imbalances that were undeniably part of the colonial-era modern mission movement. Alongside these developments are the growths of new trans-national Christian formations. For example, the fact that many Episcopal churches in the United States sought to place themselves under African or Asian Anglican bishops due to disagreements over polity, doctrine, and biblical interpretation. Alternatively, one could look to the rise of Roman Catholic priests from Africa, Asia, and Latin America who serve in parishes in Europe and North America due to a decline in ministerial vocations in those regions. These movements might also be understood as forms of global missionary work today. Likewise, the growth of short-term missions over the past 40 years is a noteworthy topic which hasn’t really been explored by scholars of Global Christianity (Fig. 7.4) (Priest and Howell 2013). Nevertheless, the impact of short-term missionary efforts can be substantial, and not simply in terms of money spent. These missions can blend conversionary missionary activity with humanitarianism, tourism, child sponsorship programs, and cultural exchange. Even practices like pilgrimage and religious tourism are by no means confined to Western

Fig. 7.4  Photograph of short-term missionaries from the United States building a church in northern Mexico. (Photo by author)

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Christians. For example, Christians from the Global South are organizing their own tours of the Holy Land. Yet a focus on the polycentrism of contemporary Global Christianity can mean that one might miss important distinctions. The funds needed to sustain global institutions, including non-profit and non-governmental agencies, are considerable. Even if Western countries have become targets of global missionary re-conversion efforts, they likewise have tremendous cultural, monetary, and material resources that Christians in resource-poor contexts might not have. This is a caution against using a Global Christianity perspective to argue that the world is “flat.” Many Christians, especially those in the Global South, continue to experience these power imbalances, even if one can reasonably say that Western Europe and North America no longer constitute the demographic center of the faith. Discussion Questions 1. What does it mean to be a Western Christian presence in a globalized world in light of the histories of socio-economic inequality and colonialism? If you come from a place that has been colonized, how do you think about this relationship in the present? 2. What is the responsibility of wealthier Christians and churches to those which are growing and would like partnerships and resources? Can this be done without creating paternalistic relationships? 3. Christian missions have been termed a “handmaiden of empire.” Do you mostly agree or disagree with this statement? Why? 4. What does it mean to be “sent” as a missionary in a globalized world?

Further Reading Asamoah-Gyadu, J.  Kwabena, Veli-Matti Karkkainen, and Wonsuk Ma, eds. 2018. Pentecostal mission and Global Christianity: An Edinburgh centenary reader. Oxford: Regnum Books. Bosch, David J. 1991. Transforming mission: Paradigm shifts in the theology of mission. Maryknoll: Orbis Books. Clarke, Sathianathan. 2014. World Christianity and postcolonial mission: A path forward for the twenty-first century. Theology Today 71: 192–206. Etherington, Norman, ed. 2009. Missions and empire. New York: Oxford University Press. Robert, Dana L. 2011. Christian mission: How Christianity became a world religion. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell. Schroeder, Roger P. 2008. What is the mission of the church? A guide for Catholics. Maryknoll: Orbis Books.

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Works Cited Benedict XVI, Pope. 2006. Meeting with the representatives of science, lecture of the Holy Father, Aula Magna of the University of Regensburg. September 12. https:// www.vatican.va/content/benedict-­x vi/en/speeches/2006/september/documents/hf_ben-­xvi_spe_20060912_university-­regensburg.html. Bosch, David J. 1991. Transforming mission: Paradigm shifts in theology of mission. Maryknoll: Orbis Books. Chidester, David. 2014. Empire of religion: Imperialism and comparative religion. Chicago: Chicago University Press. Curtis, Heather D. 2018. Holy humanitarians: American evangelicals and global aid. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Hanciles, Jehu. 2008. Beyond Christendom: Globalization, African migration, and the transformation of the west. Maryknoll: Orbis Books. Haynes, Naomi. 2015. “Zambia shall be saved!”: Prosperity gospel politics in a self-­ proclaimed Christian nation. Nova Religio 19: 5–24. Jeyaraj, Daniel. 2009. Indian participation in enabling, sustaining, and promoting Christian mission in India. In India and the Indianness of Christianity, ed. Richard Fox Young and Grand Rapids. Eerdmans Publishers. Kaell, Hillary. 2020. Christian globalism at home: Child sponsorship in the United States. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Kenny, Gale, and Tisa Wenger. 2020. Church, state, and ‘native liberty’ in the Belgian Congo. Comparative studies in society and history 62: 156–185. Priest, Robert J., and Brian M. Howell. 2013. Introduction: Theme issue on short-term missions. Missiology 41: 124–129. Reese, R. 2014. John Gatu and the moratorium on missionaries. Missiology 42: 245–256. Woodberry, Robert. 2012. The missionary roots of liberal democracy. The American Political Science Review 106: 244–274. Wuthnow, Robert. 2010. Boundless faith: The global outreach of American churches. Berkeley: University of California Press.

CHAPTER 8

Conversion

Why do people convert to Christianity when they do? Are conversions explainable primarily through external factors, like social context, political developments, or economics? Or, should they be understood as internal spiritual transformations? In what contexts can Christianity be a means of preserving culture, and in which might it serve to fundamentally change it? Christian missionary efforts, generally speaking, are typically intended to gain converts for the faith. Though many Western missionaries and evangelists often came by relatively few direct conversions in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, by the late twentieth century, the field of Global Christianity could legitimize itself with a narrative of the expansive global growth of the religion. How might processes of conversion account for this dramatic transformation? While some scholars of Global Christianity (and certainly most Christian converts themselves) might ultimately attribute conversion to the work of the Holy Spirit, this chapter introduces three analytical approaches that are commonly cited on conversion to Christianity: socio-economic factors, cultural continuity, and cultural discontinuity.

Socio-Economic Factors in Conversion In what ways might social, political, and economic contexts have impacted converts’ decision to convert to Christianity? This section discusses Robin Horton’s theories of conversion in Africa, Elizabeth Brusco’s analysis of women’s conversion to Pentecostal Christianity in Latin America, and the prevalence of the prosperity gospel in a globalizing world. As a whole, they represent different ways that socio-economic factors can impact religious conversion. To Robin Horton, a scholar of colonial Africa, the function of religion was to provide a means of explanation, prediction, and control of a world (a term that is somewhat akin to “worldview” but is indicative of the totality of a geography, its people, plants, animals, and the other-than-human beings who © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 J. Bruner, How to Study Global Christianity, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-12811-0_8

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inhabit it). Spirits and gods only needed to account for the world as people encountered it, and that world was geographically limited. Horton argued that as that world expanded, one would observe corresponding changes in religious belief and practice to account for factors that were beyond the purview of the microcosm. Local spirits and territorial gods might be able to explain the forces at play within a relatively isolated network of villages, but what happens when those villages become part of a European colony (and its trade and labor systems), or expansive Muslim trading networks begin extending their influence into them? For Horton, monotheistic religions like Christianity and Islam, with their universalistic claims, can provide a better means of explanation, prediction, and control within the new “macrocosm” in a way that the beliefs and practices associated with the more limited microcosm might struggle to do. In his analysis, conversion in twentieth-century Africa reflects how Africans have accounted for the massive, violent, and dramatic changes that altered the socio-­ economic relations of their societies (Horton 1971). If Horton, writing in the 1960s and 1970s, seems prescient in hindsight because he predicted significant growth in Christianity in Africa (and, perhaps by logical extension, many other colonized places as well), his analysis is also limiting. He did not seem to think that it mattered much whether one chose Islam or Christianity, much less particular denominations or traditions within Christianity. Most converts would say that something more than generic socio-­ economic factors mattered to them in converting to a new religion. Yes, the theological ideas might resonate for reasons related to broad social changes, but, to echo the words of Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe, it might not be “the mad logic of the Trinity” that people found compelling, but rather “the poetry of the new religion” (Achebe 2009, 85). Apart from the new music, converts could also feel that there is spiritual power in the church or its practices, or a new community of relationships and resources that they want to join for a host of reasons. Working as an anthropologist with Latin American Pentecostals, Elizabeth Brusco developed a different kind of analysis of why conversion might happen. Brusco was interested in why so many Latin American women were attracted to Pentecostalism. She ultimately argued that these forms of Christian community gave the women a means to reform “machismo” and the negative impacts it had upon their families. Conversion, therefore, was a way to leverage moral changes in these women’s lives and societies, providing them with a community and language that sought to reduce certain kinds of masculine behaviors that detracted from the nuclear family, such as drinking alcohol or having multiple sexual partners. Brusco argued that Pentecostal churches were attractive to Latin American women because they are able to bring about socio-­ economic changes that benefited them and their families (Brusco 1995). The question of how beneficial Christianity or Christian churches might be to someone has been a long-contested idea within Christian missionary work. On the one hand, Christian missionaries of all denominations have been involved in work beyond preaching the Christian gospel in a narrow sense.

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They have put languages into writing, opened clinics and hospitals, engaged in all levels of education, operated farms and plantations, and coordinated humanitarian relief. Even in the early nineteenth century, just a few decades after the modern Christian missionary movement began, there were some missionaries who worried that their converts were only interested in taking the material benefits of affiliating with the missions without adopting corresponding changes in their spiritual or religious lives. If some missionaries feared that priming material benefits of Christian conversion could corrode the purity of its spirituality, there are others who see these elements as deeply interconnected. One prominent style of Christianity that has garnered a lot of controversy as well as attention is generally referred to as the “prosperity gospel.” While it is usually spoken of in the singular, the prosperity gospel is not a single denomination or movement. Its proponents and adherents can be found across a wide spectrum of Christian traditions and on all continents, though it is most commonly associated with evangelical, charismatic, and Pentecostal Christianity. It typically holds that God wishes to prosper materially those who are righteous and to deliver them from spiritual, physical, and financial affliction. While some scholars see in this style of Christianity a new wave of spiritual renewal, others view its popularity as evidence of the precarity caused by globalizing, capitalistic economic forces (Bowler 2013; Wariboko 2014). These ideas have been critiqued by Christians as being dangerous if not heretical, the churches as being authoritarian, the promises they often make as being grandiose and unrealistic, and the failures of Christians’ receiving their promised blessings as being the result of personal failings rather than unjust political or economic systems. Affiliating with prosperity churches (globally speaking, not just in the United States or other relatively wealthy nations) or converting to this style of Christianity can be seen as an attempt to secure protections against an unpredictable economic and political order. In one provocative study, the sociologist Peter Berger found that, for Christians living in some of the most economically precarious regions that the prosperity gospel actually “worked,” meaning that members of these churches were, on average, better off than those who were not affiliated with these churches. While the reasons for this are complex, they largely seem to do with the community of which one is a part (which can provide a wider range of resources), as well as the moral habits and social dispositions that these churches encourage (Berger 2008). These studies collectively show that conversion to Christianity can be intimately related to the broader socio-economic context. They also raise important questions, such as What is the difference Christianity is said to make in a person’s life? What effects should Christian faith have within a society or culture? What are those things that make one feel spiritually un-whole? These questions are inextricable from the societies in which we live, and there is no single “Christian” answer to these questions. However, they help us to consider a related issue that is foundational for thinking analytically about conversion: Christianity has been both an element of cultural continuity as well as

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discontinuity, and converts can be attracted to the faith and its communities for these seemingly opposing sets of reasons.

Continuity Some scholars have argued that processes of “inculturating” or “indigenizing” the Christian faith mean that people convert to Christianity (especially for those who are not from historically Christianized places) as a means of maintaining continuity with ways of life and thought that may have been eroded through colonialism, modernity, globalization, or other factors. These two terms generally refer to the ways in which Christian faith comes to take root or make sense within a socio-cultural context. This line of scholarship emphasizes the similarities between converts’ pre-­ Christian and Christian lives. The translation of scripture, literature, and liturgies (as well as the emergence of vernacular literature) is one way of thinking about cultural continuity. However, scholars are also interested in the practices that localize the Christian faith, the ways that rituals (such as baptism or the Eucharist) might be done differently due to contextual cultural factors. Scholarship on continuity and indigenization (or enculturation) often focuses upon the role that indigenous converts played in bringing these developments about, as opposed to prioritizing Western missionaries. Common in this line of scholarship are claims that conversion allowed people to hold meaningfully to a past that was being eroded and becoming more tenuous. Conversion to Christianity, in these contexts, could preserve language, habits of mind, and forms of relating to one’s neighbors, kin, ancestors, and spirits in the midst of rapid and massive change. Christianity becomes a new cultural home that can maintain healing practices and sites of pilgrimage, address afflicting spirits, and preserve political structures and family life. Scholarship that prioritizes continuity in conversion has examined independent Christian churches—those that broke with missionaries or critiqued Western missionaries and colonialism, ultimately forming churches that were independent of these missions. It isn’t limited to that, as similar questions can be raised about Global Catholicism as well as Pentecostalism on these points. For example, scholars have argued that Pentecostal spirit deliverance can bear continuities with indigenous methods and cosmologies for addressing afflicting spirits. One can observe the proliferation of vernacular liturgies in the wake of Vatican II (1962–1965) as providing points of cultural and linguistic continuity among Catholic converts (Fig. 8.1) (Paul VI 1963). An important assumption of continuity analyses of conversion is that Christianity does not simply come as a unified whole into a new place, but rather is made and re-made as people encounter it anew with different assumptions, practices, social structures, languages, and questions. Yet, in order for Christian faith to become intelligible in a new context, it needs to connect with what makes sense to the people living within it; prioritizing points of continuity

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Fig. 8.1  Photograph of Vatican II in session. This council would issue in a number of significant changes in Roman Catholic churches worldwide. Paul John XXIII likened it to opening the church’s proverbial windows to let in fresh air. (Catholic Press Photo, Unknown photographer, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

is one way of accounting for how the process of converting to Christianity can function in a society. Thinking about conversion in terms of continuity is not just about conceptualizing culture and how it changes (or doesn’t). For Christians, there are theological reasons for thinking about conversion in these terms. More specifically, theologies of inculturation or indigenization are themselves connected to the theology of incarnation. If God was able to join with humanity in the person of Christ and “dwell among us” in a particular culture, language, time, and place, it follows that such a process of expressing the gospel in another time, place, culture, and language can likewise be made into a vehicle for understanding God’s work in the world (Bevans and Schroeder 2014).

Discontinuity If some scholars think that cultural continuity can account for conversion to Christianity, others understand conversion to be a means of “making a complete break with the past” (Meyer 1998; Harding 1987). In this sense, conversion to Christianity is a way of forging a new path, of discarding old and undesirable traditions, practices, and ideas. This line of scholarship questions an earlier scholarly emphasis (described above) on cultural continuity, instead

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showing the importance of converts’ claims that Christian faith has allowed them to start a new identity, life, and/or moral framework. The discontinuity framework has become common among scholars of evangelical and Pentecostal Christianity, who have argued that Christianity’s potential for enacting cultural discontinuity accounts for its appeal (Engelke 2004). Ben Jones, an anthropologist, traveled to a rural area of Uganda in the early twenty-first century and was puzzled by what he observed in the built environment. The buildings from somewhat recent internationally funded health and development projects stood largely neglected and in disrepair, despite the fact that these were part of a development model that sought to embed these institutions within the community. One could say that these projects sought cultural continuity, but local Ugandans seem not to have prioritized them. Meanwhile, there were new Pentecostal churches, often with sophisticated sound systems, new paint, and metal roofs. Jones wondered why this community allocated resources to one set of institutions rather than another. The answer lies in how these different institutions (health clinics vs. Pentecostal churches) represented change. The region had just emerged from a violent insurgency, and they didn’t seem to have much interest in constructively building upon their past or in maintaining continuity with it. Rather, they invested in institutions that made a break with the past possible, and Pentecostal churches allowed these Ugandan Christians to move into a new future and away from a painful past (Jones 2013). This means of accounting for Christianity’s growth in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries is often intertwined with socio-economic factors described in the first section. That is, like the Ugandan Pentecostals who were wishing to move on from a violent insurgency, many in the Global South have found themselves in places with unstable governments, unpredictable healthcare systems, or otherwise in situations of existential and financial precarity. Finding a way to persevere within or chart a different course for oneself apart from these social, political, cultural, and economic forces can be appealing (Fig. 8.2). Conversion, therefore, can be thought of in terms of critiquing the spiritual, cultural, and political local or national context, or of signifying a break away from it. These dynamics are more easily seen in regions where converts are moving into a religious community that is in the minority—for example, when one converts to Christianity in a predominantly Islamic context, or, in the case of a predominantly Catholic context, converts to a tradition like evangelicalism. While a lot of the scholarship that emphasizes discontinuity in conversion is based on research conducted in the recent past, these elements are likewise present in earlier periods. Scholars have noted the ways in which indigenous converts not only helped to bridge cultural gaps between European Christianity and indigenous languages and practices, but also argued for radical, even violent, change to those practices. For example, movements like the East African Revival, which began in the early 1930s, were known for the ways local converts attempted to spiritually purify their societies—in this case, by burning

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Fig. 8.2  A photograph of a Pentecostal church that meets in a colonial-era administrative building in Kampala, Uganda. What elements of this are “old,” and which would you call “new”? Do you think the people who worship here see themselves as being in continuity with a past, or as moving toward a new future, or both? (Photo by the author)

objects they associated with “heathenism” and by flouting taboos (Peterson 2012). In the case of Dalit and Adivasi (“Tribal”) converts in India, Christianity served as a means to critique the inequality of the caste system and as a new community in which to endure it with new spiritual and material resources (Jayakumar 2000). These processes are complex, and while these summaries remain general, it is difficult to generalize about Christianity and Christian conversion. This is due to the fact that different churches, traditions, and individuals within a similar cultural context might draw in converts for very different reasons. Therefore, one shouldn’t assume that “continuity” or “discontinuity” is an easy way to simply describe all of Christians or Christianity in a particular time and place. To illustrate this last point, consider the fascinating dynamics among Makhuwa peasants in the Maúa District of Mozambique. Makhuwa people maintained a physically mobile and spiritually peripatetic life in which the dictum “a person cannot trust in one thing” became a survival principle under the pressures of the earlier Portuguese colonial government, as well as the attempts to root them in one place made by postcolonial governments (Premawardhana 2018, 65). As Devaka Premawardhana shows, many Makhuwa were initially drawn to Pentecostal churches, which preached a gospel of “breaking with the past,” only then to largely move through Pentecostal churches over the subsequent years, leaving the churches behind. Premawardhana’s summary of this process is perceptive: “not all who convert to Christianity convert to the Christian idea

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of conversion” (Premawardhana 2018, 141). (“The Christian idea of conversion” here representing one which values discontinuity with the past in favor of becoming a “new creation” in Christ.) The case of Makhuwa peasants serves as a helpful reminder of our own assumptions about the supposed finality of religious conversion. Whether one is thinking in a long historical trajectory across decades or centuries, or on a shorter span of an individual’s lifetime, conversion to Christianity might not necessarily be where the story ends. Discussion Questions 1. It’s common for Christians to think about conversion on the personal level, as an individual’s decision to join a church or “follow Christ.” Many of the ideas presented in this chapter, however, are about social trends or groups of people. What are the benefits and drawbacks of centering individuals—and of centering larger groups—in one’s analysis of conversion? 2. Some conversion accounts include powerful spiritual experiences (such as receiving a message from God, Jesus, angels, and/or saints or ancestors). In what ways (if any) should scholars incorporate these kinds of experiences into their analyses of conversion? 3. In the United States, scholars of religion have noted the rise of the “Nones” (i.e., those who check “none of the above” when it comes to describing their religious identity or affiliation on demographic surveys). In what ways might scholarly insights on conversion discussed above help us make sense of this development?

Further Reading Drescher, Elizabeth. 2016. Choosing our religion: The spiritual lives of America’s nones. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Hefner, Robert, ed. 1993. Conversion to Christianity: Historical and anthropological perspectives on a great transformation. Berkeley: University of California Press. Kane, Danielle, and Jung Mee Park. 2009. The puzzle of Korean Christianity: Geopolitical networks and religious conversion in early twentieth-century East Asia. American Journal of Sociology 115: 365–404. Meyer, Birgit. 1998. ‘Make a complete break with the past.’ Memory and post-colonial modernity in Ghanaian Pentecostalist discourse. Journal of Religion in Africa 28: 316–349. Rambo, Louis, and Charles Farhadian. 1999. Converting: Stages of religious change. In Religious Conversion: Contemporary Practices and Controversies, ed. Christopher Lamb and M. Darrol Bryant, 23–34. New York: Cassell.

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Works Cited Achebe, Chinua. 2009. Things fall apart. New York: W.W. Norton and Company. Berger, Peter L. 2008. ‘You can do it!’ Two cheers for the prosperity gospel. Books and culture. https://www.booksandculture.com/articles/2008/sepoct/10.14.html. Bevans, Stephen B., and Roger P. Schroeder. 2014. Constants in context: A theology of mission for today. New York: Orbis Books. Bowler, Kate. 2013. Blessed: A history of the American prosperity gospel. New  York: Oxford University Press. Brusco, Elizabeth Ellen. 1995. The reformation of machismo: Evangelical conversion and gender in Colombia. Austin: University of Texas Press. Engelke, Matthew. 2004. Discontinuity and the discourse of conversion. Journal of Religion in Africa 34: 82–109. Harding, Susan F. 1987. Convicted by the Holy Spirit: The rhetoric of fundamental Baptist conversion. American Ethnologist 14: 167–181. Horton, Robin. 1971. African conversion. Africa 41: 85–108. Jayakumar, Samuel. 2000. Dalit consciousness and Christian conversion: Historical resources for a contemporary debate. Oxford: Regnum Books. Jones, Ben. 2013. The making of meaning: Churches, development projects and violence in eastern Uganda. Journal of Religion in Africa 43: 74–95. Meyer, Birgit. 1998. ‘Make a complete break with the past.’ Memory and post-colonial modernity in Ghanaian Pentecostalist discourse. Journal of Religion in Africa 28: 316–349. Paul VI, Pope. 1963. Sacrosanctum concilium. December 4. https:// www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/ vat-­ii_const_19631204_sacrosanctum-­concilium_en.html. Peterson, Derek. 2012. Ethnic patriotism and the East African Revival: A history of dissent, c. 1935–1972. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Premawardhana, Devaka. 2018. Faith in flux: Pentecostalism and mobility in rural Mozambique. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. Wariboko, Nimi. 2014. Nigerian pentecostalism. Rochester: Rochester University Press.

CHAPTER 9

Gender and Sexuality

On a final introductory note, by gender, I am primarily referring to the meanings and cultural significance created around and assigned to real or perceived sexual difference. This is inclusive of masculinity and femininity. The vast majority of scholarship on Global Christianity and gender is oriented around this binary. Queer theory and theologies have challenged simplistic binaries in constructions and conversations of gender. I provide some sources on Queer theology in the final section, but since this chapter is primarily interested in providing an orientation to this theme of Global Christianity scholarship, it reflects the binaries present within most of it.

Missionaries and Men in the Study of Global Christianity Men have long had a celebrated centrality in the history of Christian missions. Indeed, going back to the New Testament itself, one can find a consistent historical focus upon the role of men in mission and evangelization. Subsequent sections will address how the history of women in Christianity has challenged these assumptions. This section introduces ways that missionaries and questions of masculine identities have shaped the ways that the modern missionary movement developed. The missionary movement emerged in Europe and North America at the end of the eighteenth century, and it was shaped by the gender expectations and assumptions of that era. Even if the priesthood, as well as all formal church hierarchies, were then exclusively occupied by men, the public influence of religion was being marshaled and, in many cases, curtailed, by new political currents issuing in from movements like the American war of independence and the French Revolution. In one common view in early modern Europe, religion came to be regarded as a “woman’s” sphere, tying spirituality to the heart and home, thereby making religion “feminine.” By contrast, men’s © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 J. Bruner, How to Study Global Christianity, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-12811-0_9

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“sphere” was supposedly outside of the home, in the realms of business and politics. Foreign missions could blend these two impulses, of adventure and domesticity. Throughout the nineteenth century, European missionaries serving overseas were not identified with traders, soldiers, or diplomats, though they could serve in these roles on occasion. In being concerned with religion and spirituality, most missionaries could be associated with a feminized view of religion in general. For these reasons, missionary men might be regarded in some cases (like clergy in general) as perhaps being feminized, even if they were engaged in the work of travel and adventuring toward the colonial frontier— then regarded as a typically “masculine” activities (Miller 2000). Missionaries might often be thought of as meddlesome or troublesome, not really fitting into the dynamics of colonial or other societies, at least from the perspectives of those who were in charge of colonial settlements. Sometimes, this discomfort could arise because of missionaries’ moralizing stances in contexts that were dominated by sailors and soldiers, who were not generally regarded for their scrupulous personal morality. In other cases, missionaries could exacerbate cultural and religious conflicts due to their conversionary efforts, which sometimes required the intervention of colonial authorities. Starting in the mid-nineteenth century, and continuing up through World War I, was an effort to celebrate the heroic (i.e., “masculine”) dimension of missionary effort. This sensibility had a number of causes, and it was connected with what has been termed “muscular Christianity” of the mid-to-late Victorian era. Perhaps no one embodied the heroic missionary persona as definitively as the British Protestant missionary to Africa, David Livingstone did. Having traversed large swathes of the African continent, his travelogues and lectures made him a household name on both sides of the Atlantic in the mid-nineteenth century. Livingstone advocated for the combined forces of Christianity, commerce, and civilization (or colonization) as he demonstrated that it was possible for white men to survive in what was perceived to be a hostile climate and geography (Cox 2009). The explosion of missionary interest in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries can by no means be attributed to Livingstone alone, of course. However, he provided a different kind of model of missionary masculinity. One can see the effects of that transition in the celebrity that surrounded the socalled Cambridge Seven—a group of top athletes, former soldiers, and university-educated young men who dedicated themselves to the China Inland Mission in the 1880s (Bruner 2014). Many male missionaries struggled to live out their own gendered expectations once they arrived in the mission field. Maintaining the ideals of separate gender spheres proved challenging in what could be quite isolated (geographically, or at least culturally) locations; and their ideas about family and homes might strike their potential converts as bizarre, peculiar, or even dangerous. Still, many missionaries by the early twentieth century had been educated, often in universities, colleges, or seminaries, and many had some experience in

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sports and athletics and, eventually, in the military. They often worked to maintain these “masculine” activities in their missions, incorporating sporting programs into their schools, or going on hunting safaris with other missionaries or western colonists (Mangan and McKenzie 2008). While there has been a lot of research on missionary men, very little of that scholarship has been done with an explicit focus on a gendered analysis or on what it meant for missionaries and their converts to think through cultural conflicts around gender ideologies (Sidenvall 2009). Similarly, one might think about the transformations in the practices of mission across the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. For example, there were precarious frontier mission stations staffed by lower-to-middle class Western men and their families in the early nineteenth century. Exploring how these stations were impacted by a shift to well-educated, middle-and upper-class missionaries by the early-to-mid twentieth century—missionaries who increasingly oversaw bureaucratic institutions—is one way to think about missionary masculinity. Similarly, how converts interacted with Western notions of gender, family life, and masculinity are equally important to consider in the context of Global Christianity.

Women and Missions The recognition of the essential role women played in the modern missionary movement and in the development of global Christianity moved alongside a larger historiographical recovery of women’s history more broadly. A foundational text that demonstrated the essential role women played in the modern missionary movement is Dana Robert’s American Women in Mission. One common line of argument has been that missionary work provided a field of agency to women that often went well beyond what would have been available to them in their societies of origin. Mortality rates throughout much of the nineteenth century were quite high for both men and women missionaries, and women who survived their missionary husbands’ deaths might well find themselves carrying on the work that had previously been regarded as the realm of male action. Women who either went as missionaries themselves or were accompanying their missionary husbands nevertheless played culturally and religiously important functions. For example, given the ideological importance of maintaining a religiously pure home space, the establishment of “Christian homes” played no small role in the larger project of missionization, whether that was in the context of the American frontier or overseas. A proper home entailed not only a new physical structure, such as spaces to denote separate sleeping areas for parents and children, but also an organization of labor that accorded with prevailing gender norms established in Western Europe and the eastern United States. The home’s ordering, therefore, embodied social, physical, and spiritual dimensions of gender assumptions. In these senses, women contributed directly to both the colonizing dimensions of missions, even as they became purveyors of Western ideologies of the family, body, and home.

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By the end of the nineteenth century, women had more options for independent missionary ministry. Part of this was due to the loss of so many men’s lives in the American Civil War (1861–1865), while another part was the very successful organizing done by women in North America and Europe to fund their own domestic and foreign mission projects. Single women missionaries tended to find that they had greater freedom by remaining unmarried. Some of them became so influential as to shape mission policy, like Lottie Moon, the Baptist missionary to China (Fig. 9.1). Fiercely independent, and unafraid to leverage her influence to get her way, she remained a force of American missions across nearly four decades (Harper 2002). It was during the late nineteenth century that the missiological phrase “woman’s work for woman” came to be used to describe a missionary effort that was largely organized by women within churches, with very small contributions from a large number of parishioners who sponsored missionaries and mission projects and societies, including running their own mission journals. Woman’s work for woman was premised upon the idea that women globally shared common desires, struggles, and concerns, and ought to band together to use their unique roles within societies to share the Christian gospel (Fig. 9.2). For example, in some cultural contexts in India or in the Middle East, women missionaries might more readily have access to women and children compared with their male counterparts. These efforts could likewise be understood as

Fig. 9.1  Photograph of Lottie Moon, a Southern Baptist missionary to China. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

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Fig. 9.2  Logo of Heathen Woman’s Friend, a missionary journal directed toward Western Christian women. Note the combination of terms, biblical phrases, and other symbols. Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

identifying cultural obstacles or practices that were thought to be uniquely detrimental to women. Women missionaries, for example, were essential to international campaigns around women’s rights and human rights, for example, in campaigning against the practice of sati in India, or in publicizing the horrific abuses of King Leopold’s Congo. They similarly questioned polygamous practices in Africa, and foot-binding practices in China. These were largely seen as moral evils that women were uniquely impacted by, as well as uniquely positioned to ameliorate. In this sense, woman’s work for woman was premised upon the moral obligations of shared suffering among women and girls worldwide (Thompson 2012; Robert 1997). By the early twentieth century, bureaucratic pressures from male-dominated denominational and missionary society boards tended to fold the semi-independent women’s missionary societies under their purview. Even still, by the end of the twentieth century, Dana Robert estimated that roughly two-thirds of practicing Christians globally were women. Today, in North America, women constitute the majority of missionaries who go on short-term foreign mission trips (Zurlo, et al. 2019; Priest et al. 2006).

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Global Christianity as a Women’s Movement Women have served in capacities as missionaries, translators, teachers, nurses and doctors, preachers, evangelists, lay leaders, and priests. Their contributions to the development of Christianity and Christian churches worldwide are foundational to the expression and nature of Christian faith in every cultural context, including in places and traditions where they might still be barred from ordination or other ecclesiastical leadership positions. Women comprise a significant majority of Christians demographically, and in most places, their active participation in church life through attending worship services, prayer meetings, and lay groups/ministries exceeds men’s. The disparities on these points can be so stark that some have termed Global Christianity a women’s movement. Why might this be the case? One way to account for the disparities in rates of conversion or adherence to Christianity among women is that in some colonial contexts, Christianity appealed to those on the margins of society. Those who were ill with diseases like leprosy, politically marginalized, or from less powerful ethnic groups were often people whom missionaries found to be more interested in joining a new religious community that was often associated (at least in a general sense) with the power of the colonizers. In this view, women might be seen to be one of these kinds of groups for whom new ideas about gender, family, and marriage may have proved appealing. Missionaries, for example, might have clinics that helped to improve maternal and infant mortality rates, and they might offer education (and the eventual possibility of paid employment as nurses or teachers) that could be useful within the capitalistic colonial societies that were emerging. Another factor in accounting for gender disparities could be that Christianity was seen as an empowering ideology and theology. The basic insistence upon common human dignity and at least the theoretical promise of all people’s equality before God could provide powerful tools to develop different selfunderstandings, as well as ideas for critiquing injustices within their cultures and societies. While men certainly converted because of this dynamic, women might also be understood as having more to gain as a result of a changing ideology. In this sense, Christianity could provide communal and cultural leverage for women who wanted to change their cultures or societies. As a result of these kinds of changes, Christian churches could be viewed by some women as providing new opportunities that were desirable to them. Mission stations might have a clinic or hospital which employed indigenous nurses; mission-educated women might find employment in a mission or government-run school. Protestant missions often utilized converts in a role they called “Bible woman,” in which they worked as translators, teachers, and cultural liaisons for Western missionaries (Fig. 9.3). For Roman Catholics, religious orders could help to structure some of these kinds of opportunities, as well as allowing them recognized opportunities outside of the structures of family life and motherhood. Christian missions and churches, therefore, could

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Fig. 9.3  Photograph of a Bible woman named Premlata, and Gladys Becker, a Mennonite missionary to India. In the records of Western missionaries, Bible women were often treated as a particular category of helper. They could serve as translators, counselors, and cultural guides and they could be given responsibilities for teaching and religious instruction. Mennonite Church USA Archives, No restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons

provide a place for agentive action and leadership for women that were not available previously. For example, in Mozambique, churches were essential conduits of care for those suffering from HIV/AIDS, and women within churches did remarkable work in organizing themselves to care for those within their communities (Kalofonos 2014). Some women even joined or formed churches that were independent of western Christian missions and in which they could assume roles like prophetess, healer, and/or medium. For example, Dona Beatriz Kempa Vita was a woman in early-eighteenth century Kongo who was believed to become St. Antony, and eventually amassed a powerful movement in the midst of Catholic Portuguese incursions into her native lands (Thornton 2009). There were women like Pandita Ramabai who was the center of the early Pentecostal movement in India (Anderson 2007). These reasons are not intended to be exhaustive or to account for the complexities of why women might want to join a Christian church; and each of these explanations also raises other concerns or critiques. For example, women might also find the changes incurred as a result of colonial Christianity to be detrimental to their families, or they might find the ideological rigidity of

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Christianity or its practices to be overly constraining or out of touch with their everyday lives (Kingsbury 2022). However, if one takes the fact that a representative Christian today could be described as a woman from Africa or Latin America who is in an economically precarious context, then it is worth thinking about how that came to be, historically, and what its implications might be for the future of the Christian churches worldwide.

Sexuality and Gender in Contemporary Global Christianity The ideas that missionaries brought about gender and sexuality, like the ones they brought about economics, politics, and religion, had effects beyond the relatively small group of missionaries and their immediate converts. They shaped the lives of those who converted to Christianity as well as those who didn’t. Sometimes, the changes wrought through both colonialism and Christian missionizing were profoundly destabilizing to other cultures. This destabilization was often most disconcerting as it manifested in altered home life. Constructing a “Christian home” is by no means a culturally or politically neutral act. In other words, there are always social structures and values that are being enacted, reproduced, and monitored. There are always trade-offs; what is liberating in one context might lead to cultural difficulties or tensions in another. So, in colonial contexts in which women might have more agency, they might also be regarded with suspicion or contempt because of their independence. Indeed, even as missionaries sought to enact changes they thought favorable to non-western women, colonial governments simultaneously passed legislation that regulated women’s lives in other ways. These could be through new legal procedures around divorce and annulment, or in sometimes expansive definitions of what constituted “prostitution” such that women who ran their own businesses might be suspected of being “prostitutes” under certain circumstances. Colonial prohibitions against polygamous practices likewise led to a high degree of women who found themselves struggling on the fringes of dramatically changing social structures and expectations. Missionaries saw the consequences of these societal changes and sought various kinds of contextual answers and solutions. Still, the overall trajectory of these changes was the gradual establishment of a legal and political order that was maintained through the policing of gender, sex, and family boundaries, a policing which came ultimately through the colonial government and, subsequently, the nation-state. While colonialism and Christianity in many cases profoundly altered the ways of life for people living in colonized contexts, and provided the means of critiquing social and cultural practices, ideas, and structures, it by no means ushered in a non-patriarchal society. The Botswanan scholar Musa Dube has cogently presented the myriad and often subtle ways

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that the change colonial Christianity wrought created new forms of oppression and patriarchy. Christians in newly independent states were in the position of having colonial-era laws that regulated marriage, sex, prostitution, polygamy, and so on, transferred into the postcolonial world. Christians in these contexts might view their support for these moral codes as more modern and progressive. Many Christians in formerly colonized nations felt that by upholding moral and ethical ideals they had received through colonial-era missionaries, they were upholding Christian tradition, morality, and theology in general. These issues get to complicated matters around political power, belief, moral conviction, and the distinctions that might be made regarding the relationships between Christianity and culture (with both terms understood to be highly dynamic). The relation between gender norms, the legal institutions of former colonies, and Christianity is a complex one, and it has been fiercely debated among many Christians globally over the past three decades. A number of scholars and commenters have described the roles that Christians from the Global South have played within denominational debates regarding questions of the ordination of LGBTQ priests and bishops and/or the blessing of LGBTQ relationships and marriages. Their role has generally been described as one of upholding “traditional Christian” view of marriage, gender, and sexuality, which tended to align with the teachings of colonial-era missionaries. In this sense, these churches of the Global South are viewed as being more theologically and morally conservative, and as preservers of orthodoxy amidst declining and decadent churches in the West. These debates have been especially prevalent within the Anglican Communion and the Methodist Church. For many progressively minded Christians in the West, the prevalence of “traditional” views in the Global South has been dismissed as a parroting of western conservatives, as if these Christians might otherwise hold different views. It is also true that those who generally opposed the recognition of LGBTQ persons and relationships within the churches used notions of “global” to leverage a kind of new demographic majority within these denominations as a means of combatting what they perceived to be dangerous innovation within Christianity. This raises important questions about who gets to decide what constitutes “tradition” and who might have the power to challenge or reform it. It also suggests that issues of decolonization are not easily resolved, when Christians who disagree are perceived to not be able to think or discern for themselves, or hold ideas that are contrary to those in the West. Discussion Questions  1. What do you think best accounts for the fact that women constitute the majority of the world’s Christians?  2. Due to the role that Christian ideas, beliefs, and missionaries played in colonization, Christianity has been termed a “white man’s religion.” What might it mean to re-imagine Christianity from the perspective that the aver-

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age Christian today is a woman of low-to-modest economic means living in Latin America or Africa? 3. Search online for sources regarding the controversies that led to the formation of the Global Anglican Futures Conference and the Global Methodist Church. In the arguments on various sides of the debates, take note of how different leaders addressed issues of colonial history, Christian tradition, gender, and sexuality. Whose voices were seemingly left out of these discussions? Why do you think both of these groups used “global” in the names of their organizations? 4. For those who identify as Christian or who have been part of a Christian church or community in the past: Identify how your gender impacted your experiences within that community, including formal roles you could (or couldn’t) inhabit, what authority you had, and what opportunities it afforded you (or precluded you from). Compare your experiences with classmates, friends, and/or family members.

Further Reading Chitando, Ezra, and Adriaan van Klinken, eds. 2021. Reimagining Christianity and sexual diversity in Africa. Hurst. van Klinken, Adriaan. 2013. Introduction: Jesus traditions and masculinities in World Christianity. Exchange 42: 1–15. Pui-lan, Kwok. 1992. Chinese women and Christianity: 1860–1927. Atlanta: Scholars Press. Robert, Dana L. 1997. American women in Mission: A social history of their thought and practice. Macon: Mercer University Press. ———. 2006. World Christianity as a women’s movement. International Bulletin of Missionary Research 30: 180–188. Wong, Wai-Yin Christina. 2022. Women worldwide: Interplay between church and society and the gender paradox. International Bulletin of Mission Research 46: 35–43.

Works Cited Anderson, Allan. 2007. Spreading fires: The missionary nature of early Pentecostalism. Maryknoll: Orbis Books. Bruner, Jason. 2014. The Cambridge seven, late Victorian culture, and the Chinese frontier. Social Sciences and Missions 27: 7–30. Cox, Jeffrey. 2009. The British missionary enterprise since 1700. London: Routledge. Harper, Keith, ed. 2002. Send the light: Lottie Moon’s letters and other writings. Macon: Mercer University Press. Kalofonos, Ippolytos. 2014. ‘All they do is pray’: Community labour and the narrowing of ‘care’ during Mozambique’s HIV scale-up. Global Public Health 9: 7–24. Kingsbury, Kate. 2022 (forthcoming). Danger, distress, disease, and death: Santa Muerte and her female followers. In Global visions of violence: Agency and persecution in World Christianity, ed. Jason Bruner and David C. Kirkpatrick. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.

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Mangan, J.A., and C.  McKenzie. 2008. “Duty unto death”—The sacrificial warrior: English middle-class masculinity and militarism in the age of the new imperialism. International Journal of the History of Sport 25: 1080–1105. Miller, Lori M. 2000. The (re)gendering of high Anglicanism. In Masculinity and spirituality in Victorian culture, ed. Andrew Bradstock et al. New York: St. Martin’s Press. Priest, Robert J., Rob Terry Dischinger, Steve Rasmussen, and C.M.  Brown. 2006. Researching the short-term mission movement. Missiology: An International Review 34: 431–450. Robert, Dana L. 1997. American women in mission: A social history of their thought and practice. Macon: Mercer University Press. ———. 2006. World Christianity as a women’s movement. International Bulletin of Missionary Research 30: 180–188. Sidenvall, Erik. 2009. The making of manhood among Swedish missionaries in China and Mongolia, c. 1890–1914. Leiden: Brill. Thompson, T.  Jack. 2012. Light on darkness? Missionary photography of Africa in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Publishers. Thornton, John K. 2009. The Kongolese saint Anthony: Dona Beatriz Kimpa Vita and the Antonian movement, 1684–1706. New York: Cambridge University Press. Zurlo, Gina A., Todd M.  Johnson, and Peter F.  Crossing. 2019. Christianity 2019: What’s missing? A call for further research. International Bulletin of Mission Research 43: 92–102.

CHAPTER 10

Translation

The idea of translation in Global Christianity scholarship has had two primary meanings. The more general principle has long been part of Christian missionary efforts, and it claims that there is a translatability of the Christian faith across linguistic and cultural differences. A core assumption of this belief is that the Christian faith is best understood within one’s vernacular language, which is the second, more literal, understanding of translation.

Language, Texts, and Religion The opening chapters of the Book of Acts have long provided an important set of images, ideas, and models for Christians to think about the nature of the church. The book, which follows the New Testament Gospels, is a continuation of the Gospel of Luke, in which Christ’s work moves geographically, from Jerusalem to Judaea, and then “to the ends of the earth.” The latter represented in Acts as a westward movement toward Rome, from which it presumably dispersed through the political axis of the Mediterranean world. The scene in Acts chapter 2 is gripping. Jesus’ followers were gathered in Jerusalem, after his crucifixion and resurrection. During the Feast of Weeks, or Pentecost, when people journeyed to Jerusalem for the sake of worshiping in the Temple, and as the apostles were gathered, from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability. Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. Amazed and astonished, they asked, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 J. Bruner, How to Study Global Christianity, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-12811-0_10

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of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs—in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power”. (Acts 2:2–11, NRSV)

In this passage, God miraculously worked through the Spirit in order to make the Gospel intelligible to people in their vernacular language, a fact that was deemed all the more remarkable due to the fact that the apostles were generally perceived to be common men. The process of translating the Christian message from its Aramaic vernacular to other languages began in the first decades of Christian history. For example, the Apostle Paul worked among predominantly Greek-speaking Jewish and Gentile communities across the northern and eastern Mediterranean, composing all of his extant letters in common Greek. Even by the second century, Christian communities were known to be in a wide variety of cultures, which Christians often regarded as a beneficial feature of their movement. Take, for example, this letter from Methetes, a second-century Christian about whom little is otherwise known: Christians are indistinguishable from other men either by nationality, language or customs. They do not inhabit separate cities of their own, or speak a strange dialect, or follow some outlandish way of life. […] With regard to dress, food and manner of life in general, they follow the customs of whatever city they happen to be living in, whether it is Greek or foreign. (Diognetus n.d.)

What he describes here is an early vision of the cultural and linguistic translatability of Christian faith and practice, the capacity for people with different languages and customs to still be regarded as fully, truly Christian. This linguistic diversity would eventually make commonality with respect to the Christological controversies of the fourth and fifth centuries nearly impossible to remediate, even if it seemingly laid the foundation for the development of a wide range of regional and national Christian traditions, many of which have endured into the present. This history of the early Church and language is relevant because so much of the way Global Christianity has come to be understood is derivative of its being a recovery of the dynamics and ideals of the earliest Christians, especially those before Constantine issued his Edict of Toleration in 312 and Christianity moved toward becoming the official religion of the Roman Empire. In the centuries that followed, language and empire would come to map closely with religion, as the Greek/Byzantine East and Latin West gradually moved in different political and theological directions, and Coptic, Aramaic, Armenian, and Ethiopic traditions developed to the east and south of the Mediterranean.

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Language, Empire, and Colonialism The modern missionary movement, which was contemporary with European imperial expansion, introduced new dynamics with respect to power, the development of vernacular expressions of Christianity, and problems with the process of translation of Christian texts. Take, for example, a fascinating case in southeastern Uganda in the early twentieth century. British Anglican missionaries had completed translations of the Old and New Testaments just a few years prior, and they were quickly confronted with some challenging questions by new converts. They wanted to know why European missionaries distributed medicine and built hospitals, when the Bible which they had just given to Luganda-speaking people clearly prohibited such things. Their questions arose from the particularities of Luganda and the way missionaries had chosen to translate several key passages that condemned “witches” and “witchcraft.” Luganda can blur the linguistic distinctions between “medicine,” “doctor,” “witchdoctor,” because all can be referred to with a common word, musawo. Passages such as Leviticus 20:6 or Jeremiah 46:11 clearly condemn witchcraft and witchdoctors (musawo), and missionaries were left with little room to distinguish themselves, their hospitals, and their Western allopathic medicines from the traditional practices they were hoping to condemn and distance themselves from (Twaddle 1968/1969). Similar challenges confronted the China Inland Mission’s missionaries, especially when they sought to live in ways that closely resembled those of “medicine men.” In the case of the Luganda-speaking critics, some of them eventually formed an independent church. While there were unquestionably differences in power with respect to language in the colonial period, the instances above illuminate the reality that once texts are written down, they can become open to contestation within and across languages. Similarly, the new technologies of reading, writing, and publishing could create new venues for colonized people to both be colonized as well as to resist their colonization (Scott 2008). The colonial context could likewise put these into very close relationship. Again, in Luganda, the verb (kusoma) for “to read” is the same as “to pray.” The colonial encounter of reading and religion produced an enduring and conflicted legacy. On the one hand, vernacular language could be preserved. But since translating a text as large as a catechism or the Bible was a long, expensive, and painstaking task, missionaries had to make decisions about which languages to prioritize and, within them, which dialects to privilege. These choices could mean that choosing which languages to translate was often part of the politics of visibility, determining which tribes or people would have their dialects preserved in written texts. For many scholars working in the field of Global Christianity, the translatability of the Christian faith sets it apart from other religious movements, namely Islam, whose texts were ultimately regarded as untranslatable. Within scholarship on Global Christianity emerged a contrasting image of Christianity

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vis à vis other religions, whereby the Christian faith was presented as creative, dynamic, and culturally varied, while the other traditions were perceived as monolithic, static, and, therefore, hegemonic (Sanneh 2009). Both assumptions should be examined. On the one hand, it is true that expressions of Christianity have proliferated over the past two hundred years and that those expressions can largely be understood as vernacular both in the sense that they emerge out of texts translated into vernacular languages and in the sense that they are expressions of Christianity which are rooted in a local or regional cultural context. But this fact might also be contextualized as emerging from Western Christian assumptions about the Christian faith itself and its cultural and linguistic translatability. What I mean by this is that perhaps certain Western expressions of Christianity (such as most forms of Protestantism and Roman Catholicism) are themselves shaped by a sense of their cross-cultural translatability—a trait which not all expressions of Christianity share. Take, for example, the bishop at an Assyrian Church of the East mass I attended in the southwestern United States told me that the liturgy I was about to hear was ultimately untranslatable, as it had remained unchanged since the first century. Despite the fact that there was English text for much of the liturgy on television screens at the front of the congregation, the purity of the untranslated Aramaic liturgy remained. In fact, one of the parishioners told me afterwards that the issue of translation was one that they, as a community, had to face anew because their tradition had largely become one of “surviving persecution” rather than “fulfilling the Great Commission.” Within scholarship on Global Christianity, Islam has generally been regarded as its religious “other”—a foil against which Christian expansion and diversity is measured or compared. This is especially apparent when it comes to translation and language, where Islam is often described as a cultural monolith, a notion which seemingly derives from long-standing Christian apologetics against Islam. As Andrew Walls observed, “Islam, the only other faith hitherto to make a comparable impact in such global terms, can produce a single recognizable culture (recognizable despite local assimilations and variations) across its huge geographical spread. This has surely something to do with the ultimate untranslatability of its charter document, the Qur’an” (Walls 1996, 22–23, 46–47). Islam, of course, has a wide range of cultural expressions as well, both throughout history as well as in the contemporary world. While it is the case that classical study of the Qur’an should be done in Arabic, it also seems to be a rather Christianized (and Protestantized, at that) understanding of religion that would associate directly the practice of a religion with the personal or individualized study of its holy texts. In other words, Islamic practice worldwide evinces a diversity that might not be entirely analogous to that found in Christianity because the traditions have different ways of shaping culture and cultural expectations around what it means to be a Muslim, or a Christian. Additionally, Christian missions’ relationship to vernacular languages has been conditioned by the colonial contexts in which those relationships were

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established. During the colonial period, theological education routinely took place within various European vernaculars: English, French, Spanish, or Portuguese. In many places, it still does. It remains rather common for higher education, including theological education and clerical training, to be conducted in a colonial lingua franca rather than in a vernacular language, and it is still reasonably common for pastors, priests, or bishops to pursue additional training or higher degrees in North America or Western Europe. While there are practical reasons for this development—students from multiple languages need to establish some kind of common language of instruction—it can also be deeply limiting. It can mean, for example, that theological writing and publishing increasingly happens within European languages rather than local or indigenous ones. Furthermore, books and scholarly journals are overwhelmingly produced in European languages and they remain prohibitively expensive for many institutions outside of North America and Europe; this creates conditions in which it is challenging for scholars from the Global South to engage with scholarship being produced by scholars elsewhere, while also creating financial barriers toward developing their own vernacular publishing operations.

Texts and Translation Christian missionaries, both Catholic and Protestant, were often committed to translation in some form, from the practical need to learn another language (or, languages) to the more substantial commitment to set about making original textual translations, which itself might involve developing a new alphabet or orthography. Such a commitment is not without historical implications. On a macro level, sociologists like Robert Woodberry have located associations between postcolonial political movements, schools, and literacy with the presence of Protestant missionaries in the colonial period (Woodberry 2012). Teaching colonized people how to read and write could certainly provide them with powerful tools with which they might not only internalize colonists’ ideas, but also challenge them directly. In this sense, literacy brought new technologies or fields of agency. For example, newspapers provided one form of anonymous writing, through which colonized people could assume new identities and challenge social conventions and political developments (Newell 2013). The authority Western missionaries gave to texts in general meant that translating texts has been an enduring priority for Christian missionaries over the past several centuries. It includes not only the Bible, liturgies, and catechisms, but also related devotional literature like John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress (Hofmeyr 2004). However, historical debates around which terms might be represent Christian concepts (God, Satan, demons, salvation, faith, and so on) have often been occasions for contextual theological developments as well as fierce conflicts among Christians. This is to say that no translation is neutral. One fascinating study looked at how the young Gikuyu converts to Christianity who helped translate the Bible in their language often selected language that indicated God privileged the youth over their elders and created

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generational contestations that ended up impacting late colonial and postcolonial politics in Kenya (Peterson 2003). On a perhaps even more dramatic scale, translated Christian tracts that circulated in mid-nineteenth century China helped to spark the infamous Taiping Rebellion, whose leaders were motivated, in part, by the millennial vision of heaven the tracts conveyed (Boardman 1951). What these brief examples demonstrate is that translation can involve a potential loss of control because it places ideas and practices within a different cultural system that cannot be said to be in the control (in the colonial context) of missionaries. This is a point made eloquently by Lamin Sanneh in his insightful work, Whose Religion is Christianity? In it, he draws special attention to the central challenge of identifying a name for God in a missionary encounter. Those that elected to use a European name tended to emphasize the exogenous qualities of Christian faith, while those that named God using vernacular term(s) might be more likely to develop a more vernacular faith.

Problems with Translation The translation of Christian texts has been an essential—even defining—feature of Christian missionary effort and the related development of vernacular expressions of Christianity worldwide. Still, translation is not without its problems. One such problem is that one must choose terms for concepts, things, and beings that carry with them a host of cultural associations and meanings that might not be present in European languages. This is evident in the example above about “medicine” and “witchcraft” in Luganda, but applies to a range of other circumstances. Perhaps more importantly, the name that is chosen for “God” can have enormous consequences, as can the term for “demons.” In searching for a term for Maker/Creator, missionaries to northern Uganda selected a term for a spiritual being who was responsible, among other things, for spinal deformities—hardly the association they were intending. Likewise, translations of the Bible could enact forms of cultural violence, such as using a term for “ancestors” to translate the Christian concept of demons, as happened in a Setswana translation (Seitz 2013; Straight 2008; Dube 1999). Other contexts raise the challenge of the impossibility of translation. One way this can be expressed is through the Assyrian bishop’s claim that the true liturgy was untranslatable. One might also find difficulties with certain forms of Pentecostal worship, in which the Holy Spirit is understood to manifest in the form of spiritual gifts, including those of tongues and/or being baptized in the Holy Spirit. For some Pentecostal Christians, these gifts, some of which might be interpreted by another person in the worship service, can also be untranslatable—serving, perhaps, as a personal prayer language, or an embodiment of an intimate relationship between the Christian and God. I once visited an Indian Pentecostal church in a large city the United States that, though it only had about 30 people in attendance, had members who spoke 4 different South Asian languages. In this diasporic community, the worship service moved fluidly among those four languages, sometimes being

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incorporated through spontaneous prayers, at other times through testimonies or hymns. To complicate matters (at least for me), the worship also included speaking in tongues, which might be understood as another language. It was remarkable how fluidly these languages flowed into one another in a way that seemed rather seamless to me. Still, English served as a kind of common language, though many of the things sung or said in other languages were not necessarily translated into English. This dynamic, of churches in cosmopolitan contexts using a language like English, French, or Spanish, can be found on a number of continents. If one were to attend a megachurch in Nairobi or Seoul, one would likely hear a lot of English. In this way, those churches might present themselves as attractive to people in those cities who want to participate in a global cosmopolitanism in which worship and musical styles, theological ideas, and church practices connect churches globally into new networks. Discussion Questions 1. Is the translation of Christian ideas and texts necessary for the inculturation of the Christian faith or Gospel? Why or why not? 2. Have you attended a church service that was conducted in a language you did not know or fully understand? Describe your experience. Did you feel alienated? Could you still participate in some way? What felt familiar? Did something feel more meaningful in light of the language barrier? How did you communicate with those you encountered? 3. If you are reading this book or taking a class in a second (or third, or fourth) language, do you find certain ideas easier to express or understand in English, or in another language? Imagine explaining some of the ideas in this book to people in a language you are more comfortable speaking. Which parts would be more difficult to convey? If you were to write a book introducing Global Christianity in a non-European language, how would you organize it? What topics would you include? 4. Which of the following two statements do you tend to agree with more? Why? (1) The use of European languages in churches allows Christians worldwide to more easily participate in a global community of faith. (2) The use of vernacular or indigenous languages is important because it allows Christian faith to be more fully embodied within a particular cultural context.

Further Reading Aldridge, Boone. 2018. For the Gospel’s sake: The rise of the Wycliffe Bible Translators and the Summer Institute of Linguistics. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Publishing. Dube, Musa W., and R.S. Wafula, eds. 2017. Postcoloniality, translation, and the Bible in Africa. Eugene: Pickwick.

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Lai, Pan-Chiu. 2019. Reconsidering theological exchange between China and the West. International Journal for the Study of the Christian Church 19 (2/3): 103–119. Sanneh, Lamin. n.d. Whose religion is Christianity? The Gospel beyond the West. Maryknoll: Orbis Books. Walls, Andrew. 1996. The translation principle in Christian history. In The missionary movement in Christian history: Studies in the transmission of faith, 26–42. Maryknoll: Orbis Books.

Works Cited Boardman, Eugene P. 1951. Christian influence upon the ideology of the Taiping Rebellion. The far eastern quarterly 10: 115–124. Diognetus. n.d. Early Christian Writings. Translated by J.B. Lightfoot. Accessed August 7, 2020. http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/diognetus-­lightfoot.htm. Dube, Musa W. 1999. Consuming a colonial cultural bomb: Translating badimo into ‘demons’ in the Setswana Bible (Matthew 8:28–34; 15:22; 10:8). Journal for the Study of the New Testament 21: 33–58. Hofmeyr, Isabel. 2004. The portable Bunyan: A transnational history of The Pilgrim’s Progress. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Newell, Stephanie. 2013. The power to name: A history of anonymity in colonial West Africa. Athens: Ohio University Press. Peterson, Derek. 2003. The rhetoric of the word: Bible translation and Mau Mau in colonial central Kenya. In Missions, nationalism, and the end of empire, ed. Brian Stanley, 165–182. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Publishing. Sanneh, Lamin. 2009. Translating the message: The missionary impact on culture. Maryknoll: Orbis Books. Scott, James C. 2008. Weapons of the weak: Everyday forms of peasant resistance. New Haven: Yale University Press. Seitz, Jonathan A. 2013. Is conversion to Christianity pantheon theocide? Fragility and durability in early diasporic Chinese Protestantism. In Asia in the making of Christianity: Conversion, agency, and indigeneity, 1600s to the present, ed. Richard Fox Young and Jonathan A. Seitz, 163–188. Leiden: Brill. Straight, Bilinda. 2008. Killing God: Exceptional moments in the colonial missionary encounter. Current Anthropology 49 (5): 837–860. Twaddle, Michael. 1968/1969. The religion of Malaki revisited. In Published proceedings of University of East Africa social sciences council conference, 1968/1969: History papers, 249–262. Kampala: Makerere Institute of Social Research. Walls, Andrew. 1996. The missionary movement in Christian history: Studies in the transmission of faith. Maryknoll: Orbis Books. Woodberry, Robert. 2012. The missionary roots of liberal democracy. The American Political Science Review 106: 244–274.

CHAPTER 11

Migration

The growth of Christianity over the last 200 years and its expansive geographical spread have come in an era of unprecedented global migration, both forced and voluntary. While the missionary movement of the eighteenth–twentieth centuries was itself one form of migration, so was the transatlantic trade in enslaved people from the African continent and the northward migration of people from Latin America to the United States and from Africa to Europe. Additionally, new international church networks of churches, founded in Latin America, Asia, or Africa, have emerged and spread by sending missionaries back to North America and Europe in what is often termed “reverse mission.” All of these processes have had important implications for thinking about how Christianity has become constituted globally through migration. These movements are not simply about population and demographics, but are also about how global flows of information and populations are themselves part of how Christianity is now developing and how Christians understand themselves globally.

Missions, Migration, and Colonialism Migration should be understood as a consistent, common, and repeated practice throughout human history. People, of course, have moved permanently or temporarily for a wide variety of reasons. Some of these movements, such as the Israelites’ return to Canaan from slavery in Egypt, have become imbued with religious or theological significance. At other times, migration can be the cause of change in religious practice or belief, as happened with the expansion of Islamic armies from the Arabian Peninsula in the decades following the Prophet Muhammed’s life. While these kinds of broad processes are important to note, for the sake of brevity, this section will focus upon the relationship between migration and Christianity over the past two centuries, putting these movements in relation to European colonialism (Hanciles 2021). © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 J. Bruner, How to Study Global Christianity, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-12811-0_11

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Missionaries can be understood as migrants; that is, as people who have gone from one place to another intentionally for the spread of the Gospel. Up through the middle of the twentieth century, most missionaries would live for long periods of time—years, if not decades—in the places where they ministered, typically developing deep ties to the place, its people, and culture. Missionaries fit into patterns of migration of European and American people traveling globally through improved means of transportation, especially from the nineteenth century onward. These patterns of settlement often echoed European colonial ties. Missionaries traveled the same routes that other Europeans and Westerners traveled when they went overseas, or to their colonies. The nineteenth and twentieth century, which saw the massive expansion of Christian missionary projects worldwide, was a time in which people imagined their relationship to global travel as a new possibility. Missionary letters and books, therefore, joined travelogues and global reportage as regular sources of information abroad. A number of European missionaries experienced this as a cultural push toward the imperial frontier (or beyond it). The imagination to “Go, ye, into all the world” was met with the technological means and cultural impetus to do so. When late Victorian evangelical missionary supporters proclaimed “the evangelization of the world in this generation,” it was in part because such a thing had become a practically achievable goal (Robert 2003). These dynamics also meant, increasingly by the twentieth century, that simply going to a place didn’t necessarily mean that one would never see one’s homeland again (as it did for a large number of people in the early nineteenth century and before). In this sense, missionaries could participate in a peripatetic, migratory world that was largely created through European imperialism and colonization. In fact, many missionaries shared with imperial officials an internationalized experience of serving in multiple locales across a colonized world, with occasional trips back to Western Europe on furloughs or sabbaticals. These impulses could dovetail with other forms of migration. For example, when China was closed to Western missionaries in the early nineteenth century, Western missionaries developed a schema to evangelize Chinese migrants who were working across southeast Asia outside of China. Their hope was to convert these labor migrants, who might then return to China and serve as native evangelists. Though motivated by different politics and racial attitudes, a similar track was pursued simultaneously in the United States with respect to evangelizing the African continent. In the imagination of (typically white) American Christians, formerly enslaved Africans would serve as missionaries back to Africa. These ideas formed the basis for the establishment of the colony of Liberia. In the case of China, the method was employed because of the practical and political realities of not having access to a territory; in the case of West Africa, it was more motivated by a racialized sense of perceived compatibility

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between those who had been taken as slaves generations prior and those who remained (Tiedemann 2008). Migration was an expansive reality across the colonial world. Colonialism caused an enormous amount of displacement. This could take the form of cultural displacement, in the disruption, suppression, or outside prohibition of indigenous practices and languages. However, it could also mean physical displacement, as in the disintegration of village life, the forced labor of others, or forced removal from villages during pandemics or in the suppression of insurrections, or of the practical necessity of leaving villages in order to find employment for the sake of paying colonial taxes. All of these created contexts in which migration for many became wrapped into the ordinary experience of Western colonialism and empire. These factors could contribute directly to missionary efforts, methods, and the rationale given for why people sought to convert to Christianity. The early-twentieth century history of Global Christianity, Kenneth Scott Latourette, attributed the success of many Christian missions in colonial contexts to a sense of mitigating the pernicious and violent effects of European colonialism (Latourette 1940, 468–469). In this view, Christianity might offer material resources, a new sense of community, and a new spiritual or moral framework amidst severe cultural disruption.

Reverse Mission It should be apparent that the relationship between migration and missions is not simple or simplistic. Even in the midst of colonialism, migration did not move in simply one direction, and migration and mission were associated with multiple forms of forced and unforced movement of people. Over the past few decades, scholars of Global Christianity have made note of a trend that they have termed “reverse mission.” The use of this phrase plays on the idea that Christians in Western countries like France, the United States, and Great Britain played an important role in establishing missionary movements and agencies since the eighteenth century. Reverse mission is the idea that churches in the Global South—that is, churches from nations and regions that had recently been designated as subjects of Western missionaries’ conversionary efforts—have been funding their own missionaries and church plants in North America and Europe. As a result, the idea is often woven into larger historical narratives about the “decline” of churches in North America and Europe and a growing secularism, or a disinterest in Christianity. These efforts are geographically moving in a number of directions at once. For example, Brazilian Pentecostal churches are funding extensive missionary efforts to Sub-Saharan Africa as well as North America. Churches based in Africa are likewise sponsoring missionaries and church planters across the United States, and many successful European mega-churches have been established by African pastors

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(Asamoah-Gyadu 2006). South Korea has become the second-largest sender of missionaries globally, with some of them targeting the United States. In Roman Catholic parishes in the United States, this phenomenon might look like an increased likelihood of having a priest serving from another country due to a decline in vocations in the US. In his book Beyond Christendom, Jehu Hanciles used his expansive study of immigration, diasporic networks and churches in the United States to critique previous models of understanding Global Christianity, particularly as they were articulated by Philip Jenkins in his book, The Next Christendom. Jenkins had based his analysis of a generally liberal, decrepit Global Northern Christianity and a conservative, charismatic, and growing Global Southern Christianity upon Samuel Huntington’s “clash of civilizations” model. To Hanciles, the realities of migration, and the roles that Christian immigrants to the United States were playing within a variety of churches constituted reason to re-imagine how Christianity was being expressed globally and trans-regionally through migration. Hanciles’ argument is premised upon the continued demographic success of Christianity in the Global South, and a conviction that this Global Southern Christianity will rescue, reverse, and/or mitigate the secularization of the Western world (Hanciles 2008). While the future is difficult to ascertain, what is clear is that immigration is shaping Christian faith, communities, and identities in new and profound ways. Indeed, the issue is not simply about how an Episcopal church in the US might respond to having an African priest, but also in attuning to the ways in which traditions themselves are being reshaped and refashioned in light of global and trans-regional migration. In these processes, new identities are shaped, and new networks can be formed. Global diasporic networks of Coptic Christians or Assyrian Christians can both shape American Christian and public life but also be shaped by it (Fig. 11.1). For example, both have participated in and leveraged political power from using the language of the “global war on Christians” or of global anti-Christian persecution (Lukasik 2021). Both communities have in recent years developed national networks in support of Donald

Fig. 11.1  St. George Coptic Orthodox Church, Queens, New York. Jim.henderson, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

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Trump (Altaji 2020). Such developments suggest that the power of American society and politics can shape how diasporic traditions and Christian faith and identity are expressed.

Other Contemporary Forms of Migration Pilgrimage. This is a temporary, or generally short-term form of migration in which a person travels on a journey and/or to a specific place for the sake of transformation, healing, education, and/or spiritual benefit. Pilgrimage in the Christian tradition started in the first centuries CE, and with Constantine and subsequent emperors, it became newly possible for Christians to travel to specific sites (such as the Holy Land or the sites of martyrdoms). Today, the Holy Land remains an important place of pilgrimage for Christians globally, but so do places like Lourdes or the Vatican (Fig. 11.2). These practices can enable and produce a sense of place and global community. Such practices should not be thought of as pertaining only to Christians in Europe or North America. African, Asian, and Latin American church regularly sponsor trips to the Holy Land, for example; and sites like the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in

Fig. 11.2  Pilgrims kneel at Lourdes. The southwestern French town has become known as a place of healing since Mary, Our Lady of Lourdes, appeared there in 1858. CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

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Mexico can attract pilgrims from across the Americas, even as celebrations like those associated with Uganda Martyrs’ Day draw the faithful from Nigeria and beyond. Asylum/refuge. This is a form of migration that is often the result of natural disaster, pervasive violence, persecution, a direct threat of personal violence or harm, and/or war. Refugee and asylee communities can establish or join diasporic communities who live in a place with their faith. These communities, therefore, aren’t there necessarily as missionaries, per se, but they can have a Christian presence. For some of them, Christianity is part of a cultural form that unites and distinguishes them in the society they have fled to. The reason that someone seeks refugee or asylee status does not need to have a direct relationship to their religious identity or personal faith in order to have an impact upon Christians or Christian churches, or upon how one thinks about Christianity globally. For example, the presence of refugees might result in collective action from a group of churches in the receiving country in order to aid. Alternatively, the prevalence of refugees might occasion a cultural and religious backlash against them. Work. A number of international immigrants are seeking better educational or employment opportunities. Though they might personally be Christian, they might not think of themselves as “missionaries.” Such movement of people who cross the Mediterranean to attempt to reach Europe, or who travel from Central and South America to come to the US can have a range of impacts upon Christianity, churches, and their own subjective religious identity. These forms of migration can change politics as well as religious identities and practices. For example, this movement can be part of a shift toward Protestantization of Latin American Christianity, because it creates new flows of ideas and practices, styles of worship, and money between countries.

Christianity and the Spirituality of Migration I would like to leave you with a couple of caveats with respect to Christianity and migration. One is that migration and movement do not necessarily or inherently lead to increased faith or toward a proclivity to adopting Christian faith or practices in particular. David Hollinger, for example, traced long-term impacts of American missions on the children of missionaries and found that they tended to move away from personal faith commitments (Hollinger 2018). And not a few commenters have connected processes of globalization to various forms of secularization, though both of these terms capture processes that can vary significantly from region to region (Beyer 1999). Finally, as was discussed in Chap. 6 (Conversion), the example of Makhuwa-speaking people of Mozambique have a cultural history of not settling—either physically or spiritually—on one option. In other words, the same dynamic that might move them into Christianity might also have them leave it behind. In these, and many other, ways, migration can lead to a variety of outcomes, impacts upon, and relationships to Christian faith and practices.

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A second caveat is that the experience of migration can, for some Christians, be imbued with spiritual significance. Leah Sarat’s ethnographic study of an indigenous community in Mexico can be instructive here. In showing how faith can divide a community along confessional lines (Catholic/evangelical), she also illuminates the multiplicity of ways that spiritual experiences associated with crossing the US/Mexico border impact their lives before, during, and after they made the journey to the US (and often back to Mexico). In this sense, migration was a contextualizing feature of Christianity for this community, but not simply in the sense that they believed Christian faith or God protected them while they crossed. Rather, people of this community developed the notion of the “Mexican Dream”—a vision of a just, economically thriving nation that suspends the need to migrate in order to survive—a vision that has worked, in this community at least, to ecumenically unite Christians to work to achieve it. Discussion Questions 1. Have you had an experience where you’ve either chosen or been forced to migrate? If you are a Christian, what impact did this have on your faith, religious practice, or identity? 2. Look around the area where you live for examples of diasporic communities that are based in churches, keeping in mind that some of these communities might not have their own church building but often meet in buildings of larger churches, in shopping malls, or theaters. Did you find a community you didn’t know existed? Are churches integrated in your area, or can you notice differences of language, nation of origin, or race in how the church communities near you are defined? 3. How have migrations informed your own sense of self, or your identity? Do you think of yourself as having a “home” or “homeland”? Do you feel separated or alienated from it, or closely connected to it? If you are separated from it, are there practices, beliefs, technologies, or forms of community that you can use or participate in that help maintain those connections, even across great geographical distances?

Further Reading Chow, Christie Chui-Shan. 2022 (forthcoming). From persecution to exile: The Church of Almighty God from China. In Global visions of violence: Agency and persecution in world Christianity, ed. Jason Bruner and David C.  Kirkpatrick. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press. Hanciles, Jehu. 2021. Migration and the making of global Christianity. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Publishing. Olupona, Jacob. 2011. The changing face of African Christianity: Reverse mission in transnational and global perspectives. In West African migrations: Transnational

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and global pathways in a new century, ed. Mojubaolou Olufunke Okome and Olufemi Vaughan. New York, Palgrave Macmillan. Ralston, Joshua. 2017. Bearing witness: Reframing Christian-Muslim encounter in light of the refugee crisis. Theology Today 74: 22–35. Sarat, Leah. 2016. Fire in the canyon: Religion, migration, and the Mexican dream. New York: New York University Press.

Works Cited Altaji, Yasmin. 2020. Assyrians host Trump’s Son in bid to promote untapped constituency. The Assyrian Journal, October 2020. https://theassyrianjournal.com/ assyrians-­host-­trumps-­son-­in-­bid-­to-­promote-­untapped-­constituency/. Asamoah-Gyadu, J. Kwabenah. 2006. African initiated Christianity in Eastern Europe: Church of the ‘Embassy of God’ in Ukraine. International Bulletin of Missionary Research 30: 73–75. Beyer, Peter. 1999. Secularization from the perspective of globalization: A response from Dobbelaere. Sociology of Religion 60: 289–301. Hanciles, Jehu. 2008. Beyond Christendom: Globalization, African migration, and the transformation of the west. Maryknoll: Orbis Books. ———. 2021. Migration and the making of Global Christianity. Maryknoll: Orbis Books. Hollinger, David. 2018. Protestants abroad: How missionaries tried to change the world but changed America. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Latourette, Kenneth Scott. 1940. A history of the expansion of Christianity, vol. 6: The great century in Africa and Asia, 1800–1914. London: Harper. Lukasik, Candace. 2021. The American politics of Coptic martyrdom. Sightings, January 28. https://divinity.uchicago.edu/sightings/articles/ american-­politics-­coptic-­martyrdom. Robert, Dana L. 2003. Occupy until I come: A.T. Pierson and the evangelization of the world. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Publishers. Tiedemann, R.G. 2008. Indigenous agency, religious protectorates, and Chinese interests: The expansion of Christianity in nineteenth-century China. In Converting colonialism: Visions and realities in mission history, 1706–1914, ed. Dana L.  Robert, 206–241. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Publishing.

CHAPTER 12

Decolonization

This chapter addresses two notions of decolonization: 1. The historical era of the mid-late twentieth century, in which the field emerged and formed its core set of analytical priorities, and 2. The mode of inquiry that is attentive to the enduring effects of colonialism upon how one understands and interacts with the world.

Decolonization as Historical Context The period of decolonization often refers to the decades that followed the end of World War II in 1945 up through the mid-1970s. These years witnessed dramatic geo-political changes, including most colonized lands in Africa, Asia, and the Pacific achieving political independence from European empires (Aldrich and McKenzie 2013). The study of Global Christianity developed amidst calls for political independence among colonized peoples, global liberation movements, and intellectual currents that formed the first wave of postcolonial scholarship (and its sharp critiques of the relationship between Christian missions and colonialism). Church leaders in these new nations used the receding political power of colonial governments to push for a recession of Western ecclesiastical and missionary personnel. The idea, in most cases, was not to sever ties with Western churches but to create space for these churches to grow in their own soil, to develop modes of operating that were resonant with local realities, and to train up indigenous leaders to lead their own churches. It was ultimately a request that harkened back to the prescient (if contextually idealistic) vision of missionary leaders like Rufus Anderson, who envisioned the “euthanasia” of a mission once a local church could be established. (Recall the discussion on the missionary moratorium, as discussed in Chap. 7, “Missions”). The field of Global Christianity got its bearings amidst movements that critiqued the missionary enterprise and indigenous church leaders’ calls for greater © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 J. Bruner, How to Study Global Christianity, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-12811-0_12

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autonomy in determining the ways that their churches should develop in these new contexts. The field took its momentum from local Christians who were developing the faith within their nascent nations. Scholarship on Global Christianity in the 1970s and 1980s celebrated the work of non-Western Christians in shaping new expressions of Christian faith, theology, institutions, and practice that were perceived to be largely independent of Western churches. Global Christianity scholarship moved to analyze those people who were colonial subjects, an analytical move that historians, area studies scholarship, and anthropologists were likewise making. See, for example, Lamin Sanneh’s insistence in his influential 1983 monograph, West African Christianity, that scholars ought to focus upon the “straight religious aspect” of Christianity. Sanneh’s focus was a response to the predominant assumptions of social scientific thought in the 1970s and early 1980s, which subsumed “religion” under socio-economic models of social and political development—an approach most scholars of Global Christianity viewed as being reductive. But the approach articulated by Sanneh moved the study of Global Christianity in an analytical direction that minimized the contextualization of religious developments with respect to political and economic power. This feature of Global Christianity separated it from most other contemporary scholarship on newly independent nations, which, generally speaking, foregrounded economic and political structures and the imbalances that accrued as a result of colonization. Global Christianity scholarship prioritized developments like religiously inflected movements toward political independence, many of which grew up around missionary schools and churches, including churches that had broken away from Western missions. And religious movements that overtly sought to leverage power toward political change, especially anti-colonial political change, tended to receive more attention among scholars, compared with movements that were more politically quiescent (Gordon 2012; Barrett 1970). The relationship between religious independency (in this sense, establishing a church apart from Western missionary institutions and direct influence) to political independency is not always direct or obvious. One ought to be careful about assuming that a political goal is the necessary end of a religious movement. If so, analyses of the movement might only focus upon those elements of it that are manifested through certain kinds of political action. Examining religious movements and developments with respect to decolonization is another way of approaching the broader relationship between Christianity and politics. While scholars writing in the midst of these challenges frequently noted the influence of Christianity on politics, it is also the case that political conditions influenced the character of Christian faith and churches in newly independent nations (Ranger 1986). Still, missionary work and Christian conversion did much to move along political consciousness that led to decolonization and the establishment of new nation states across the Global South. For example, mission schools were important places where reading and writing were taught. These skills not only

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democratized knowledge, but they also became part of the development of collective identities, such as “nations” or “tribes.” Bible translation could help foment these ideas and identities by solidifying and codifying linguistic and cultural boundaries. Colonial governments tended to look suspiciously upon populist movements that they feared could quickly mobilize sentiment against colonists or the colonial regime in general. These processes are more typical of nations on the African continent, though they are certainly present in parts of the Middle East and South Asia (Womack 2019; Moe 2019). And the case of Korean nationalism is quite different altogether because Christianity there came to be associated with anti-Japanese imperialism rather than Christianity’s deep association with a colonizing Western power. This context is particularly relevant for the African continent and many parts of Asia and Oceania, but it is less directly helpful in the context of Latin America, whose relationship with European and American colonialism moves along a different chronology than other regions. If the period of decolonization refers to the geo-political processes of the mid-twentieth century, by the end of the twentieth century, some scholars and analysts were speaking of “neocolonialism.” What this term sought to describe were the enduring legacies of the colonial world that could be expressed across a wide range of institutions, processes, and uses of power. For example, it might refer to formerly colonized countries’ heavy dependence upon foreign aid, or the monetary policies of the World Bank with respect to debt, the role of Western Non-Governmental Agencies and humanitarian groups in formerly colonized nations, or the control of natural and other resources by foreign entities, businesses, and institutions. It can also refer to processes of “under-­ development,” whereby dramatically unequal power relationships prevent (or make extremely difficult) the ability of many non-Western nations to develop into sovereign, well-functioning states. In short, the concept of neocolonialism can be used to examine the enduring influence of the Western world upon societies, politics, economies, and institutions in the Global South. Considering neocolonialism with respect to the study of Global Christianity is important for several reasons. One is that the field of Global Christianity was being formed amidst these global socio-economic forces of the 1980s to the present. This means that it is worth considering how the socio-political contexts in which scholars developed approaches might be related to other forms of political, cultural, and economic power. Another is that if neocolonialism is a means of accounting for the global movements of influence and power, then one ought to account for the unequal power relations worldwide that shape and condition the expression of Christianity. This includes the influence of Western churches and politics on churches elsewhere but is not limited to the West (Cowan 2021). For example, churches in countries like South Korea and Nigeria have been accused of being “neocolonial” or “sub-imperial” for the globalized presence they have.

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Decolonization as Intellectual Process The second notion of decolonization discussed in this chapter has to do not so much with a geo-political process or historical era, but rather treats the term more as a scholarly method. Decolonization is also an intellectual movement that seeks to work against the ways in which Western thought, categories, and intellectual power have shaped the ways that people perceive, think about, and interact with their world and its history. Decolonization in this sense has not been taken up directly by many within Global Christianity, though it has been addressed within the anthropology of Christianity, which is a related scholarly literature. This section will make some suggestions toward bridging that gap by asking what it means to think of Christianity worldwide in light of the questioning of the post-Enlightenment Western origins of the modern category of “religion” (Asad 1993; Masuzawa 2007). What does it mean to decolonize how we think about Christianity in its global historical study? A few years ago, I sat in a packed seminar room at Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda to listen to a lecture by David Zac Niringye, an Anglican bishop who had just published a book on the history of Christianity in Uganda, titled The Church in the World (2016). He opened by stating that religion is foreign to Uganda. There was no word in Luganda (the primary language of south-central Uganda) that serves as the equivalent to the concept of religion as it has come to be defined in the Western world. Even the word dini, which is the closest approximation, was imported through Swahili and Arabic, rather than being part of the indigenous vernacular. If “religion” is foreign to Uganda, then Ugandan Christians need a more indigenous way of thinking about their Christian faith, Bishop Niringye argued. One might expect that Niringye, an Anglican bishop, would be interested in religion. After all, many of us would likely describe Christianity as a religion— and even a “world religion” at that (Robert 2011). What was the distinction he could have been making and why might it be significant for the study of Global Christianity? The field of Global Christianity is premised upon a “world religions” view of the globe. In this model, religious traditions are imagined as largely monolithic entities that hold sway over people within delineated geographies. One might go further and say that, in such a view, religious traditions are thought to determine the societies they shape. If that sounds esoteric, consider the following: Have you heard someone use phrases like “the Islamic world,” or perhaps refer to India as “a Hindu nation”? Some people would describe the United States as a “Christian nation.” These are subtle, but important, ways that the idea of “world religions” can shape one’s view of the relationship between religion, culture, and politics. The “world religions” model remains pervasive in the modern world. It has been, to a large degree, institutionalized through discourses of religious freedom or religious minorities, human rights, and citizenship. Mapping so-called new Christian lands and then quantifying adherents is a way to quantify the

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supposed global cohesion and size of the Christian faith. In virtually all such attempts to quantify world religions, Christianity comes out as the largest numerically. Within the study of Global Christianity, therefore, such a view of the world seems to be related to demonstrating that Islam is both a global “competitor” as well as numerically smaller. What might it mean to “decolonize” this world religions model of thinking about Christianity? To start, it could begin with a questioning of the presumed unity, or collective singularity that is implied in the use of the term “Christianity.” In fact, some scholars have made compelling arguments for using the plural, “Christianities,” in order to capture the diversity of belief and practice among Christians. One could say that the need to define something as pertaining to a single collectivity shares something of a colonial impulse. The theologian Peter Phan has argued that the plural, Christianities, can be a way to de-center Western expressions of the faith. In this view, Western Christianity/ies merely becomes one among many possible expressions of the faith rather than the paradigmatic one, from which all others are, presumably, variations or derivations. There are good reasons to question the supposed unity or uniformity that is conveyed with a concept like Christianity, even if one allows for considerable diversity within it. The fact that many Christians do not themselves regard all other Christians as legitimately Christian means that one is hard-pressed to locate where, exactly, the singular object of “Global Christianity” actually exists in practice, at least outside of the scholarship that defines it. There is also the matter of how the idea of Global Christianity (as defined by the scholars working in the field) might conflict with other ways of imagining local and global Christian identity and belonging—for example, in global diasporic networks among ethnic, racial, or national communities worldwide, or through trans-­ regional movements like those that shaped the Global Anglican Futures Conference. These are actions that are undertaken by Christians themselves that impact what being Christian means today in a globalizing world and the field of Global Christianity should attend to the range of possibilities that Christians themselves produce and have produced (Rose 2019). Within discussions of decolonization and religion, Christianity is often given to be the originator of the notion of “religion” in the early modern era (Smith 2013). By this, I mean that certain actions, practices, and ideas came to be described, understood, and segmented as “religion” or “religious.” In this way, “religion” emerged as a disparate, particular area of life that then spread and became institutionalized through European colonization. In some views, the work of decolonization means re-evaluating the ways that European categories divided up life into foreign conceptualizations and categories. This was the idea Bishop Niringye articulated when he said that “religion” was foreign to Uganda. A critical issue to consider here is how one defines what is “colonial” on the one hand, and what is regarded as “authentic” (or “decolonial”) on another. How one discerns this in a particular cultural context is directly relevant to studying Christianity for both the scholar, as well as for the people who are

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living within those societies. To state it simply, if one is to “decolonize” Christianity, does that necessarily mean discarding Christian faith altogether? The question is not simply rhetorical, but one that has been confronted in some sense by Christians globally, as well as those who didn’t convert or left the faith altogether. For those from colonial contexts who have become or remained Christian, the biblical metaphor of separating the (colonial) chaff from the wheat can resonate. And given the fact that Christianity has expanded in many parts of the world since the mid-twentieth century, including in many formerly colonized regions suggests that people are finding ways to be “Christian” and “African” or “Asian” or “Pacific Islander” without feeling an inherent conflict between these (and other) identities (de la Torre 2021). The lines here can be blurry. Are Christians in formerly colonized contexts who held or hold what might be thought of as conservative or traditional beliefs about gender and sexuality, or doctrines of salvation, to be regarded as still “colonized”? Conversely, some Christians from the Global South have also regarded more liberal western Christians’ changed views on these kinds of matters to be a form of moral re-colonization. If the field of Global Christianity hasn’t really taken up the more strident of the postcolonial or decolonial critiques, it has long been attuned to some dynamics that these approaches to knowledge and scholarship have pushed for. Scholars in Global Christianity have given attention to other dimensions of Christian life besides doctrinal belief or formal church structures, and have done illuminating research into the ways that Christians in non-Western contexts lived and the ways that their faith was woven into their lives. Many of these studies can be read as histories “from below” (i.e., from the perspective of non-elite actors). In this way, the field has centered non-Western converts and those who were often marginal to systems of power. A decolonial approach to scholarship and research, however, can go beyond simply the way that research questions or projects are conceptualized. Rather, it might ask about the processes by which knowledge is accessed. For example, archives relevant to research on Christianity worldwide tend to be located in Europe, which can be prohibitively expensive to travel to for researchers in the Global South. There have been remarkable efforts at digitizing these records, such as those housed at Yale Divinity School Library. There are also collections and preservation efforts that are well maintained in all regions of the world. But it remains the case that for historical scholarship to be recognized by those in the Western academy, it often means traveling among multiple foreign countries, including to Western Europe and/or North America—a factor which can be severely limiting for those with fewer resources. In short, decolonization as a scholarly method means an attention to what languages people can (or can’t) publish in, how expensive those resources are, where people go for training, and how those processes are related to the actual people who are being studied. It is a way of questioning the history of the extractive nature of research, which has impacted the study of Global Christianity just as it has many other fields.

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Discussion Questions 1. What does it mean to imagine Christianity according to the “global Christian paradigm”? How does this way of viewing the world benefit Western scholars and Christians? How does it impact or benefit Christians living in the Global South, or scholars in the Global South? 2. In what ways is the production of the idea of “Global Christianity” a result of processes of power and colonialism? In what ways might it run counter to colonialism? 3. Harvey Kwiyani wrote, “It’s hard to imagine world Christianity without white supremacy” (Kwiyani 2021). Think about the layers of meanings this statement might have to both the field of study, as well as to the lived reality of global Christian faith. Do you agree or disagree with the statement? If you agree, what would a Global Christianity without white supremacy look like? If you disagree, in what ways is Global Christianity understandable without reference to white supremacy?

Further Reading Barreto, Raimunda C. 2019. Brazil’s Black Christianity and the counter-hegemonic production of knowledge in World Christianity. Studies in World Christianity 25: 71–94. Pui-lan, Kwok. 2005. Postcolonial imagination and feminist theology. Louisville: Westminster John Knox. Tuhiwai Smith, Linda. 2021. Decolonizing methodologies: Research and indigenous peoples. London: Zed Books. Woodley, Randy S. 2022. Indigenous theology and the western worldview: A decolonized approach to Christian doctrine. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic.

Works Cited Aldrich, Robert, and Kirsten McKenzie, eds. 2013. The Routledge history of western empires. London: Routledge. Asad, Talal. 1993. The construction of religion as an anthropological category. In Genealogies of religion: Discipline and reasons of power in Christianity and Islam, 27–54. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. Barrett, David. 1970. Schism and Renewal: An analysis of 6000 contemporary religious movements. Nairobi: Oxford University Press. Comaroff, Jean, and John Comaroff. 1991. Of revelation and revolution: Christianity, colonialism, and consciousness in South Africa. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Cowan, Benjamin. 2021. Moral majorities across the Americas: Brazil, the United States, and the creation of the religious right. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. Gordon, David M. 2012. Invisible agents: Spirits in a central African history. Athens: Ohio University Press. Kwiyani, Harvey. 2021. Mission after George Floyd: On white supremacy, colonialism and World Christianity. ANVIL 36.

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Masuzawa, Tomoko. 2007. The invention of world religions: How European universalism was preserved in the language of pluralism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Moe, David Thang. 2019. Christianity as a majority religion of the ethnic minorities in Myanmar: Exploring triple dialogue in the currents of World Christianity. Expository Times 131: 45–64. Niringiye, David Zac. 2016. The church in the world. Carlisle: Langham. Ranger, Terence O. 1986. Religious movements and politics in sub-Saharan Africa. African studies review 29: 1–69. Robert, Dana L. 2011. Christian mission: How Christianity became a world religion. Oxford: Wiley and Sons. Rose, Lena. 2019. Geometries of “global” evangelicalism. Global networks 19: 86–100. Smith, Jonathan Z. 2013. Religion, religions, and religious. In Critical Terms for Religious Studies, ed. Mark C. Taylor, 269–284. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. de la Torre, Miguel. 2021. Decolonizing Christianity: Becoming badass believers. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Publishers. Womack, Deanna Ferree. 2019. Protestants, gender and the Arab Renaissance in Late Ottoman Syria. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

CHAPTER 13

Neglected Topics in the Study of Global Christianity

Global Christianity can and should be an expansive area of study. Over the past several decades, scholars have worked to bring to light the many ways that Christianity has changed and is changing through its encounters with cultures, politics, and new contexts. Yet no book or field of study can be truly exhaustive, and despite the breadth and depth of past research, there are a number of relevant topics that either have been neglected entirely by the field or are peripheral to its central concerns. Saying that a topic has been neglected, of course, isn’t to claim that past scholarship isn’t valuable or that scholars didn’t have good reasons for focusing on other dynamics (many of which are included in this book). This chapter offers short descriptions of topics that have been marginal to Global Christianity scholarship, along with suggestions that could frame their inclusion within the literature and suggest directions for future research. These items, of course, are only meant to be brief introductions to elements that appear to be contextually relevant to thinking about Christianity globally today.

Failure and Decline The field of Global Christianity is premised upon an optimistic narrative of historic Christian growth and expansion, especially as that growth has occurred (and is occurring) with respect to the Global South. Early scholars of Global Christianity, writing from the mid-twentieth century, were doing so amidst the rise of theories of secularization. These theories were used to describe a decline in the political authority of established churches and to account for a growing sense of a decline in church attendance and the overall prominence of religious institutions in daily and public life in Europe (and, to a lesser degree, North America). These scholars highlighted the demographic growth of Christianity (as well as Islam), which was already becoming apparent in the late colonial era, as a response to predictions of a global trend toward secularization. As a result, the © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 J. Bruner, How to Study Global Christianity, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-12811-0_13

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field has tended to prioritize those regions in which the growth of Christianity is most evident, namely, Sub-Saharan Africa, East Asia, and the Pacific Islands. It’s with good reason that so many scholars have focused upon these regions. The cultural and religious changes they have undergone over the past century (and especially the past 50 years) are substantial and important to study. But what are we missing if accounts of success are uniformly privileged within the literature? The field of Global Christianity has not meaningfully incorporated Christians or Christian traditions that have not experienced this growth, such as Christians of Iraq, Palestine, areas of Eastern Europe, and North Africa, for example (Womack 2021). In addition, it has given substantially less attention to Latin America, which has been Christianized for several centuries, beginning in the late fifteenth century (Kirkpatrick 2019). (Though Latin American Christianity has received more attention in the growth of its Pentecostal and charismatic churches.) These lacunae are to some degree accounted for by Global Christianity’s proclivity toward Protestantism rather than Catholicism or Orthodoxy (discussed below). Data from these regions also present an uneven narrative of both demographic growth and contraction of Christian populations. Scholars of Global Christianity should consider contextualizing claims of demographic growth with respect to population growth more generally. While there are some sources that have done this, the ways that these numbers usually figure into Global Christianity scholarship are more simplified. Likewise, there is a need to examine contexts in which Christianity is not appealing, is disintegrating, or has almost vanished entirely (Fig. 13.1). These instances, too, are part of what Christianity was, is, and is becoming globally and within local contexts. Future scholarship might take up the question, Where does the faith seemingly fail to resonate, and why?

Violence and Persecution Tharcisse Gatwa, a Rwandan theologian and historian, observed an “absence of theological reflection on the tragic African history as compared to the triumph of statistics of churchgoers” (Gatwa 2017, 39). His critique is perhaps most sharply directed toward scholars of Global Christianity, whose work has long been premised upon “the triumph of statistics” that show Christianity’s growth. However, for many Africans (as well as those living in other regions), the contexts of their daily lives are often painful, violent, and difficult. Global Christianity, however, has tended not to dwell upon a socio-political diagnosis of structural or political problems, eschewing as it did socio-economic explanations for religious identity and trends in the mid-twentieth century. Rather, the field sought to account for the “straight religious aspect” of Christianity (Sanneh 1983). As a result, Global Christianity has generally not done much with respect to colonial-era or postcolonial violence, intra-Christian violence, or religious persecution in general (Thomas 2021). Global Christianity’s lack of engagement with instances of intra-Christian violence is due in part to the field’s ecumenical

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Fig. 13.1  Photograph of Assyrian Christian church in Mosul, Iraq. Mar Sharb, CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons. org/licenses/by/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

sensibilities. After all, if the priority of a field is to examine Christianity in general as it exists across cultures and with a preference for newer expressions of the faith, then there is little incentive to focus upon places or moments when Christians are in direct conflict with other Christians. Yet, there are some important reasons to think about these phenomena with respect to Global Christianity. While a lot of Global Christianity scholarship has celebrated the explosive growth of Pentecostal, charismatic, and evangelical churches worldwide, less of that scholarship engages with the substantial conflicts that this growth has produced with other Christian traditions, including Roman Catholics, Orthodox, and mainline Protestant Christians. The relationship between these mainline or more established churches and the newer ones is often a direct part of how they develop new theologies, practices, and critiques of past expressions of Christianity in particular contexts (Omenyo 2006; Stoll 1990). Similar things might be said about anti-Christian violence more broadly. Much of the literature on Christian persecution stands independently of the scholarship on Global Christianity and is often motivated by explicit political concerns and advocacy networks (Marshall and Gilbert 1997). This scholarship tends to view Christians as mere victims and Christianity more generally as being under global duress—both claims being near antitheses of Global Christianity’s view of contemporary Christianity. There are important reasons to use the

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conceptual tools of the field to examine Christians living in contexts of persecution. Such scholarship might show that Christians are not simply victims. Rather, they find ways to adapt their faith and practice, develop networks across regions and the globe, and respond through political advocacy, inter-religious cooperation, and, in some cases, engage in armed resistance or other forms of violence. One important and original contribution to this line of scholarship is the “Under Caesar’s Sword” project at the University of Notre Dame (Philpott and Shah 2018). This project gathered sociological and historical data to examine the many ways that Christians have responded (and are responding) to situations of persecution and violence. What these scholars have so helpfully illuminated is the reality that Christians have taken a tremendous range of responses to these situations. As such, the project overall presents not only the difficult circumstances under which many millions of Christians live, but it also shows them very much as engaging actively with those circumstances by means of local, regional, and international political activism, by developing new theological resources, forming ecumenical and inter-religious networks to share resources and build political power and solidarity, and by even engaging in organized self-defense. These kinds of elements can shape Christian faith and worship on all continents (Fig. 13.2).

Fig. 13.2  Photograph of chapel where four American churchwomen—Maura Clarke, Ita Ford, Dorothy Kazel, and Jean Donovan—were tortured and murdered in El Salvador in 1980. (Photo by author)

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Religious Freedom Scholarship on religious persecution is often related to the notion of religious freedom, or international religious freedom. That is, it is often motivated by a concern about the need to spread religious freedom or to enact protections for religious communities that are unjustly targeted by governments or civil society. Modern notions of religious freedom were often formed and instituted amidst Western colonialism and imperialism, though these ideas were developed within the context of Early Modern Europe, particularly in relation to the Reformation and the development of Christian pluralism within Europe. Europeans and Americans took these ideas as colonists and missionaries in the era of colonial expansion from the eighteenth century to the present. In these ways, there is a direct relationship between the development of the Western notion of “religion” and the legal protections that arose around that category. (You might recall the discussion of the category of religion in the “Decolonization” chapter, and the related discussion in the section on belief in the “Theology” chapter.) While a number of scholars have investigated the modern notion of the category of “religion” in relation to the European colonial project, fewer have done similar work on the implications about the spread of the idea of religious freedom. At the very least, the concept of “religious freedom” implies or necessitates the notion of “religion,” and studying these ideas’ global reach can illumine how Christianity changed in relation to them (Hurd 2017). Colonial-era missionaries were frequent advocates of these policies, especially when they favored their missions—for example, when a Protestant mission hoped to open a mission station in a predominantly Catholic colony or protectorate (Kenny and Wenger 2020; Wenger 2009). Scholars of Global Christianity could examine the long-term effect of these ideas on local Christians, as well as on regional, national, and international denominations and networks. The field could explore how Christians have interacted with these ideas in different international contexts. They could also investigate how ideas about religious freedom might be leveraged differently by Christians who lived as religious minorities with respect to other, more dominant traditions, as well as by Christians who took up these ideas in nations in which they held significant political power. One might also consider how notions of religious freedom interact with other uses of colonial power, such as Christian converts’ and missionaries’ concerns regarding indigenous cultural and religious practices, which they often termed “pagan” or “heathen.” These ideas are part of the cultural context in which expressions of Christianity emerged or, in some cases, became suppressed, and thinking about the ideas and political mechanisms which shaped those contexts seems relevant to thinking about why and how Christianity changes.

Power Imbalances With some exceptions, the field of Global Christianity has not spent much time conceptualizing the enduring influence of Western foreign power in the form of cultural, political, and religious ideas, institutions, and practices. This

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includes the continued role of missions and missionaries from the United States to other regions of the world, as well as the flow of material, cultural, and financial resources within global networks. Rather, the narrative of Global Christianity scholarship is generally based upon the power of converts to shape and re-shape the faith within localized contexts. Meaning, Global Christianity as a field is largely premised upon what converts did with the faith under socioeconomic constraints rather than with the constraints themselves or how they got there (Wuthnow 2010). Still, one must not overgeneralize. A history of Christian missions from the West/Global North was foundational to the field and is still very much present in the literature on Global Christianity. While missionaries factor prominently within Global Christianity scholarship, they are rarely critiqued substantively. It is important to note here that scholars from other scholarly fields have issued critiques of Western missions and colonial Christianity (Tiberondwa 1998; Hall 2005; Sharkey 2013). One would search the literature on Global Christianity with some difficulty to locate a strident critique of the ways in which Christian missions were entangled with colonialism (Kwiyani 2021). In addition, when Global Christianity scholars suggest that Western power might travel with new styles of religiosity, such as Pentecostalism, the tendency of the field is often to critique such an analysis for insufficiently accounting for local agency (Shaw 2012). One might consider other forms of power imbalances, such as the phenomenon of Brazilian, South Korean, and Nigerian churches’ global reach and missionary efforts, or the roles that diasporic communities in more affluent countries might play in shaping faith in their homelands. One notable example here is Coptic Christians who have often been successful in leveraging their political standing in the United States with respect to the US government’s commitments to protecting religious minorities. Yet, as Candace Lukasik has shown, Coptic Christians are still caught in an ambivalent place, as they are often racialized as “Arab” (and, therefore, “Other”) through the optics of the global War on Terror (Lukasik 2022). This is to say that while the field of Global Christianity has tended to celebrate the agentive work of non-Western Christians, it has largely neglected the ways in which cultural, economic, military, and political powers have endured into the postcolonial context. At the very least, this is a matter of tension within the field, as scholars like Kapya Kaoma or David Stoll might emphasize the enduring power of American Christians; others, like Nimi Wariboko, would seriously question the extent or nature of this influence (Kaoma 2009; Stoll 1990; Wariboko 2014). Part of reckoning with power is to avoid a stark binary between “local” and “global,” which has been a feature of Global Christianity scholarship. Still, it would mean being attentive to that which is included or excluded from either category. A Global Christianity approach that factored in power would also mean avoiding related binaries, like the suggestion that something is either exogenous (and, therefore, less authentic) or indigenous (and, therefore, more authentic).

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Catholicism and Orthodoxy To what extent does Global Christianity have a Protestant bias? Joel Cabrita and David Maxwell observed, “the notion of ‘World Christianity’ tends to be a predominantly Protestant preoccupation” (Cabrita and Maxwell 2017, 14). While scholars such as the late Lamin Sanneh are notable exceptions, the field as a whole has prioritized Protestant expressions of Christianity. It has done this not only by featuring Protestant missionaries and churches in its research, but also by emphasizing novelty, inculturation, and the development of new forms of Christianity, including new denominations, churches, and localized theologies. While these approaches need not be understood as inimical to including Catholic or Orthodox Christians, the underlying assumptions do give priority to phenomena that privilege Protestant-derived Christianity. The roles of tradition and ecclesiastical hierarchy, for example, are not typically at the forefront of Global Christianity scholarship. The recent emergence of journals, books, and book series on topics like Global Catholicism and Global Orthodoxy suggest that “Global Christianity” (or, World Christianity) as a field has been limited in its analytical purview. At issue is the prioritization of alternate conceptualizations of Christianity itself, one oriented less toward novelty and more toward tradition, continuity, and ideas about national and ethnic identity. What would it mean for Global Christianity to meaningfully incorporate these traditions? One possible result is the consideration that the reproduction of existing traditions is just as much a part of the story of what Christianity is and is becoming, as are the newer churches that are being formed. The emerging interest in diaspora, migration, and global networks can be an important point to connect these kinds of issues and communities.

Ecology Even as the World Council of Churches has worked for more than two decades on initiatives related to environmental justice and climate change, and Pope Francis issued his landmark 2015 encyclical, Laudato Si, scholars of Global Christianity have not followed suit. Topics relating to ecology or climate change are almost entirely absent from the literature on Global Christianity. This is not to say, of course, that Christians around the world are not or have not been organizing around these issues and their related crises and challenges. Rather, scholarship in the field itself has treated them as extremely marginal to other developments. As the environmental issues facing Christians worldwide are significant, it is clear that if climate change disproportionately impacts the poor, and many Christians worldwide live in contexts that are economically precarious already, the conditions in which the world’s Christians live are likely to be made more difficult. Pope Francis exhorted the world to think about the poor, and the earth and its many creatures, as being among “the poor,” and, therefore,

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deserving of particular ethical actions, leveraging Christian ethics and theology toward the “care of our common home.” To develop this topic within Global Christianity scholarship, environmental challenges should be understood as both global and local in the ways that they impact Christian communities, faith, theology, and action. For example, climate change has led some churches in countries that are heavily dependent upon oil to leverage their roles and orient their theologies toward different notions of public good and responsibilities (Fretheim 2016; Berry 2022). For others, the organization might be local, such as mobilizing to raise concerns about a polluted river or water source, or the degradation of a forest. For example, in the Amazon rain forest, Christian and indigenous activists have been killed for working to oppose and prevent deforestation. In the Pacific Islands, Christian leaders have called for organized responses to the direct threats posed to their countries by rising sea levels. On the African continent, Christians have mobilized alongside others to work against “desertification”— or the expansion of deserts into areas that were previously not desert. These efforts are not simply expressions of Christian belief or values, but rather are part of contexts which can shape Christian faith and practice. One might consider the tragic case of the role of oil in the Niger Delta, in which ecological changes occasioned by environmental degradation are directly related to an astonishing rise in witchcraft accusations in the region, accusations that were often led by Christian priests and pastors (Wilbanks 2013). In these ways, the study of ecology can be woven into the field’s existing methodological approaches and analytical priorities. Discussion Questions  1. Think about Christians around you, or Christians you might know well. How do the topics discussed within this chapter (or the rest of the book) relate to their concerns? What issues do they most often talk about with respect to their faith or church?  2. Based on what you know of Global Christianity (as a field of study), what would you say are the field’s priorities? What are additional “neglected topics” might you include here? Why are those topics important? 3. Develop a research proposal that includes one of these topics and places it in relation to Global Christianity scholarship. How would it change how scholars address the topic? How might it change how scholars think about Christianity in relation to it?

Further Reading Berry, Evan, ed. 2022. Climate politics and the power of religion. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Hurd, Elizabeth. 2017. Beyond religious freedom: The new global politics of religion. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

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Kirkpatrick, David C. 2019. A gospel for the poor: Global social Christianity and the Latin American evangelical left. Philadelphia: Pennsylvania University Press. Philpott, Daniel, and Timothy Samuel Shah, eds. 2018. Under Caesar’s sword: How Christians respond to persecution. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Thomas, Sonja. 2021. “Studying up” in World Christianity: A feminist analysis of caste and settler colonialism. Journal of World Christianity 11: 195–209.

Works Cited Berry, Evan, ed. 2022. Climate politics and the power of religion. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Cabrita, Joel, and David Maxwell. 2017. Relocating World Christianity. In Relocating World Christianity: Interdisciplinary studies in universal and local expressions of Christianity, ed. Joel Cabrita, David Maxwell, and Emma Wild-Wood. Leiden: Brill. Fretheim, Kjetil. 2016. Oil dependence and climate change: Public theology in Norway. International Journal of Public Theology 10: 193–210. Gatwa, Tharcisse. 2017. African theologies: Issues that matter to World Christianity. In African Christian Theologies and the Impact of the Reformation, ed. H.  BedfordStrohm, T. Gatwa, and E. Jähnichen. Zurich: Musemakweli. Hall, Catherine. 2005. Civilising subjects: Metropole and colony in the English imagination, 1830–1867. Oxford: Polity. Hurd, Elizabeth. 2017. Beyond religious freedom: The new global politics of religion. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Kaoma, Kapya. 2009. Globalizing the culture wars: U.S. conservatives, African churches, and homophobia. Political Research Associates, December 1. https://politicalresearch.org/2009/12/01/globalizing-culture-wars. Kenny, Gale, and Tisa Wenger. 2020. Church, state, and ‘native liberty’ in the Belgian Congo. Comparative Studies in Society and History 62: 156–185. Kirkpatrick, David C. 2019. A gospel for the poor: Global social Christianity and the Latin American evangelical left. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. Kwiyani, Harvey. 2021. Mission after George Floyd: On white supremacy, colonialism and World Christianity. ANVIL 36. Lukasik, Candace. 2022 (forthcoming). Modern-day martyrs: Coptic blood and American Christian kinship. In Global Visions of Violence: Agency and Persecution in World Christianity, ed. Jason Bruner and David C.  Kirkpatrick. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press. Marshall, Paul, and Lela Gilbert. 1997. Their blood cries out: The worldwide tragedy of modern Christians who are dying for their faith. Nashville: Word Publishing. Omenyo, Cephas. 2006. Pentecost outside Pentecostalism: A study of the development of charismatic renewal in the mainline churches in Ghana. Zoetermeer: Boekencentrum. Philpott, Daniel, and Timothy Samuel Shah, eds. 2018. Under Caesar’s sword: How Christians respond to persecution. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Sanneh, Lamin. 1983. West African Christianity: The religious factor. Maryknoll: Orbis Books. Sharkey, Heather J. 2013. Cultural conversions: Unexpected consequences of Christian missionary encounters in the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press. Shaw, Mark. 2012. Robert Wuthnow and World Christianity: A response to Boundless faith. International Bulletin of Missionary Research 36: 179–184.

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Stoll, David. 1990. Is Latin American turning protestant? The politics of evangelical growth. Berkeley: University of California Press. Thomas, Sonja. 2021. ‘Studying up’ in World Christianity: A feminist analysis of caste and settler colonialism. Journal of World Christianity 11: 195–209. Tiberondwa, Abe. 1998. Missionary teachers as agents of colonialism: A study of their activities in Uganda, 1877–1925. Kampala: Fountain Publishers. Wariboko, Nimi. 2014. Nigerian Pentecostalism. Rochester: Rochester University Press. Wenger, Tisa. 2009. We have a religion: The 1920s Pueblo Indian dance controversy and American religious freedom. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press. Wilbanks, Jessica. 2013. On the far side of the fire: Life, death, and witchcraft in the Niger Delta. Ninth Letter. Fall/Winter. Womack, Deanna Ferree. 2021. Incorporating middle Eastern Christianity into World Christianity. In World Christianity: History, methodologies, horizons, ed. Jehu Hanciles, 171–184. Maryknoll: Orbis Books. Wuthnow, Robert. 2010. Boundless faith: The global outreach of American churches. Berkeley: University of California Press.

CHAPTER 14

The Futures of Christianity

What are the stories we tell about Christianity? What do they say about who we are and how we think it will change in the future? The New Testament contains several possible futures that the earliest Christians considered. There is the imminent eschaton that the Apostle Paul seems to have anticipated, and the apocalyptic vision of Revelation. There is likewise the vision of Luke, which sees the church gradually expanding “to the ends of the earth.” Christians have drawn upon all three of these throughout history in order to envision the future of their faith and with their faith. Some Christian leaders, and especially Protestant and evangelical ones, have predicted the eschaton in recent history. Many Christians have lamented the perceived decline of Christianity, and within the United States, such lamentations have become almost a national pastime (Bercovitch 1978). There are surely many Christians who have faced apocalyptic scenarios in the recent past, such as Christians of Iraq and Syria who faced genocidal violence alongside the Yazidis. All of these futures continue to be possible, depending upon one’s location and context, in the future. I want to highlight three aspects of how scholars have discussed the future of Christian faith. These are Vitality, Violence, and Secularization. I chose these because they are part of the ways that scholars within the field have imagined Christianity globally, and even though they are premised upon different projections of future possibilities, they continue to exercise considerable influence on contemporary analyses of Christianity worldwide.

Violence and Vitality Should we expect greater global hostilities around religion, or greater demographic growth? Why? Can these expectations be geographically defined or contained in light of globalization, migration, and communication technologies? © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 J. Bruner, How to Study Global Christianity, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-12811-0_14

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The field of Global Christianity is largely a field premised upon the vitality and dynamism of Christianity worldwide. It celebrated the fact that while Christianity may have been receding in Western Europe and, to a lesser extent, in North America, there were new fields—or “younger churches”—that were expanding elsewhere. Scholars of Global Christianity wrote of these developments in triumphalistic terms, celebrating Christianity globally as the largest “world religion.” As should be clear, scholarship on Global Christianity celebrated this growth and dynamism, which are repeated throughout books and articles. In this view, it is a fascinating and exciting time to be a Christian, as Christianity is seemingly returning—albeit in newly globalized forms—to its origin in the New Testament and pre-Constantinian Christianity. This is seen in its multi-cultural, multi-polar, and multi-lingual characteristics. Demographers have predicted that Christianity will likely remain the largest religion over the coming three decades, but it is also likely that the global Muslim population will nearly equal Christians by 2050, with Sub-Saharan African being home to nearly half of the world’s Christians (Zurlo et al. 2022). The Global Christian paradigm, in other words, will seemingly be upheld in the near future. How to balance these claims with scholarship that asserts there were more martyrs in the twentieth century than in the previous nineteenth centuries combined, or that there is currently a “global war on Christians”? In fact, some have taken to talking about a generic “Christian genocide” that seemingly intends to eliminate Christians worldwide. In such a view, it is a dire time to be Christian, and the faith’s future is seemingly bleak, or at least embattled. Certainly, it is a dire time for Christians in some parts of the world, and Christian-centered media have focused attention upon the attacks that are perceived as targeting Christians because they are Christians (Allen Jr. 2016). These incidents impact Christians globally and they have contributed to the development of Christian identity politics in the United States, and added concerns that America is a “post-Christian” nation (Perry and Whitehead 2020). Certainly, direct religiously motivated violence against Christians is not the only challenge Christians are facing globally. Add to these issues the likelihood of an increase of climate-related refugees, or of conflicts (like the recent war in Syria) that were impacted by climate change, and one finds a direct threat to whole communities, if not some island nations. These environmental factors could combine with the hardening of nationalistic impulses within countries that, despite a supposedly common Christian identity might regard them as a political or cultural “other,” as has frequently been the case with respect to migrants from Latin America to the United States (Alvarez 2017). So, which vision is more likely to come to pass? I would suggest both, perhaps even simultaneously. Christianity’s demographic growth is projected to come more from increased birth rates rather than merely from conversions. It is also important to note that a perceived vitality can look quite different, depending upon the context. Images of Nigerian megachurches founding their own cities is one kind of

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vitality (through the leveraging of material resources and communal will). A different kind of vitality could also be seen in the revivalistic fervor that has come to define conservative politics in the United States in recent years, even if that fervor isn’t clearly tied to church attendance, for example (Sharlet 2016; Stetzer and MacDonald 2018). In addition, for some Anglicans in North America, being Anglican might mean being in communion with a bishop from Africa rather than the Bishop of Canterbury (Hassett 2009). Indeed, Christianity has grown in places where Christian communities exist as religious minorities. This means that while Christianity globally might be the largest “world religion,” a high number of Christians live their day-to-day lives as a cultural, ethnic, and/or religious minority. This is an important dimension of thinking about anti-Christian persecution globally. Though some Christians do face serious hardship, repression, or violence, one shouldn’t consider them merely as victims. Rather, violence (physical, cultural, political, and economic) can shape Christianity and Christian practice in profound ways; and Christians have shown the remarkable ways that they have responded to persecution and not simply stood by passively (Philpott and Shah 2018). Intra-Christian violence has been and continues to be a part of these dynamics as well. As some regions of Europe and North and South America are finding new expressions of nationalist identitarian movements—some of which have deep Christian roots, the overall impact upon Christianity globally will be challenging to predict. If one anticipates that refugees and other forms of migration will become more rather than less common, for example, one will need to see how Christian faith and identity intersect (or don’t) as means of inclusion or exclusion, even of those who might otherwise be regarded as Christian but have different national, ethnic, or racial identities.

Secularization The field of Global Christianity established itself as a critique of older secularization theses that predicted a global waning of religious identity and belief. What, then, might it mean to study Christianity globally in what some have termed our “post-secular” era? To be clear, the term “secular” can have a wide variety of meanings, and to some Christians, it has a negative connotation. In a simple form, the “secular” can mean that which is not “religious” or “the Church.” In another sense, a phrase like “growing secularism” might refer to changes in people’s habits— fewer people attending church; but it could also describe a different disposition around beliefs, such as an inclination away from theological or doctrinal accounts of creation and human nature in favor of ones that are defined as scientific or atheistic. In another sense, secularism could generally describe the waning of influence of religious institutions, beliefs, and moral stances. What, then, does it mean to speak of Christianity in a “post-secular” world? On the one hand, it could refer to the demographically based claim that religious practice, identity, and communities aren’t declining but actually

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growing. It, therefore, questions earlier assumptions about the purported trajectory of humankind toward a supposedly rationalistic, scientific, and less religious future. One might find this in North American conversations around “spirituality,” or point to demographic studies that suggest that even if fewer people are attending church or becoming “members” of churches, the interest in questions of God or spirits remains rather high. In technological fields, including social media and bio-tech, there are movements that are often termed “transhumanism” as a supposed telos of human evolution and/or achievement but which seems to borrow from a range of religious conceptualizations and assumptions (Latour 2013). What do these developments have to do with the study of Global Christianity? Global Christianity emerged as part of a critique of theories of secularization, demonstrating, as it did, the expansion of religious belief and practice across the nineteenth and twentieth centuries rather than a contraction of those phenomena. Secularism provided a conceptual frame, and even the methodological tools (via the humanities and social sciences) to investigate it. Yet theology, an area with continued interests in transcendent and normative claims, might still be said to exist in an “awkward relationship” with the related fields of anthropology, history, and sociology (Robbins 2006). Some anthropological research, especially that described as part of the “ontological turn” in anthropology, has re-introduced normative claims in fascinating ways. The ontological turn examines that plurality of ways that objects, people, and beings come to exist within the world—or, their ways of being in the world (“ontology” derives from the Greek term for “being”). While these studies do not necessarily mean that they are making theological claims about the nature of spiritual or divine beings, some of this literature does engage directly with these kinds of issues. One can look to work by people like Tanya Luhrmann, Eduardo Kohn, and Stefania Pandolfo for some examples of what this can look like and how it might inform a new and productive engagement with theology and the social sciences (Luhrmann 2013; Kohn 2013; Pandolfo 2018). In these ways, we might consider how the study of Global Christianity in the future might question the secular framing of the study of religion itself. Does research into other ways of being Christian question our own positionality as scholars from the West? What, exactly, would that look like? Whose frames of analysis should take priority, and why? In connecting to a theme in the previous section, attending to post-­ secularism within the study of Global Christianity could also mean putting in view Christian movements that consciously are based upon a deeply nationalistic, even fascistic fervor. This sensibility has driven national politics in a number of countries (Russia, Hungary, the US and Brazil, among others). In these contexts, Christianity and Christian identity are less tied to practices, habits, or beliefs, and might better be described as an embodiment of a politicized ideology. In this sense, Christians in national contexts might become less inclined toward democracy as a polity. It is not at all clear to what extent, or in what contexts, democratic claims within Christianity trans-regionally or globally

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might have an impact upon what Christianity becomes. Looking back historically, of course, one can observe Christianity thriving under a wide range of political structures, and being made to legitimize them. What political, economic, and cultural structures are Christian beliefs and practices being used to support, push, or change today? What is the narrative that we tell about the political, cultural, and economic orders that are being produced and reproduced in our present? How are these a part of the making of the world of tomorrow? What is clear is that Christians and Christian churches will continue to shape that world as they bring to bear their faith and practices on new challenges, issues, and developments; and these interactions will produce new expressions of Christianity, which will join the dynamic history of Christianity worldwide. Discussion Questions 1. Imagine you can instantly travel 50 years into the future. What does the world look like? Does Christianity have a place in it? If so, in what sense? Be as specific as you can. What is the anticipated history between now and then that accounts for what you envision? 2. Make at least one recommendation for how the study of Global Christianity should change in the future. How might you contribute to this change? 3. In this chapter, I used the terms violence, vitality, and secularization to describe forces that could shape Christianity in the coming decades. Which of these terms captures the most important dynamic that will shape Christianity’s global future? Or, do you think another term is more appropriate? Why?

Further Reading Cox, Harvey. 2011. The future of faith. New York: HarperCollins. Dean, Terrance, and Dale P. Andrews. 2016. Introduction: Afrofuturism in Black theology—Race, gender, sexuality, and the state of Black religion in the Black metropolis. Black Theology: An International Journal 14: 2–5. Pew Research Center. 2015. The future of world religions: Population growth projections, 2010–2050. April 2, https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2015/04/02/ religious-­projections-­2010-­2050/.

Works Cited Allen, John, Jr. 2016. The global war on Christians: Dispatches from the front lines of anti-Christian persecution. New York: Image. Alvarez, Alex. 2017. Unstable ground: Climate change, conflict, and genocide. Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield. Bercovitch, Sacvan. 1978. The American Jeremiad. Madison: University of Wisconsin.

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Hassett, Miranda K. 2009. Anglican communion in crisis: How Episcopal dissidents and their African allies are reshaping Anglicanism. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Kohn, Eduardo. 2013. How forests think: Toward an anthropology beyond the human. Berkeley: University of California Press. Latour, Bruno. 2013. An inquiry into modes of existence: An anthropology of the moderns. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Luhrmann, Tanya M. 2013. When God talks back: Understanding the American evangelical relationship with God. New York: Vintage Books. Pandolfo, Stefania. 2018. Knot of the soul: Madness, psychoanalysis, Islam. Chicago: Chicago University Press. Perry, Samuel L., and Andrew L.  Whitehead. 2020. Taking America back for God. New York: Oxford University Press. Philpott, Daniel, and Timothy Samuel Shah, eds. 2018. Under Caesar’s sword: How Christians respond to persecution. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Robbins, Joel. 2006. Theology and anthropology: An awkward relationship? Anthropological Quarterly 79: 285–294. Sharlet, Jeff. 2016. Donald Trump, American preacher. New York Times Magazine, April 12. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/17/magazine/donald-­trump-­ american-­preacher.html. Stetzer, Ed, and Andrew MacDonald. 2018. Why evangelicals voted Trump: Debunking the 81%. Christianity Today, October 18. https://www.christianitytoday.com/ ct/2018/october/why-­evangelicals-­trump-­vote-­81-­percent-­2016-­election.html. Zurlo, Gina A., Todd M. Johnson, and Peter F. Crossing. 2022. World Christianity and religions 2022: A complicated relationship. International Bulletin of Mission Research 46: 71–80.

Glossary

Anthropology of Christianity  A sub-field of cultural anthropology that began emerging in the late 1990s. Whereas anthropology in general tended to eschew Christians or Christianity as subjects of analysis, this movement centered them. Within the sub-field are scholars who have conducted ethnographic research on Christians on all inhabited continents. Archives  Repositories of historical materials that are typically kept at libraries or historical associations. These can also be found at governmental institutions, businesses, and non-profit organizations. Baptism  An ancient Christian ritual practice (or sacrament), whereby people are welcomed into the Church. The methods used for baptism have varied over years and by tradition. Some Christians fully immerse people under water, while others pour or sprinkle water, typically on the head. In many churches, baptism is preceded by a confession of faith and/or extensive training in the doctrines and practices of the faith. Baptism by the Holy Spirit  A phenomenon most commonly associated with Pentecostal and Charismatic Christians, in which the Holy Spirit is believed to uniquely embody an individual and is often manifested physically as an overwhelming experience of divine presence and power. This can result in dancing, praying, shaking, and/or speaking in tongues. Bible woman  A term used in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to refer to a female convert to the Christian faith who worked closely with Western missionaries to facilitate their work. Their work was often a combination of activities like translation and teaching/catechizing, but could include forms of spiritual or pastoral care. Catechism  The formal teachings of a denomination or tradition of Christianity. These are typically associated with more highly liturgical denominations, like Roman Catholicism, Anglicanism, Presbyterianism, and Lutheranism.

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These are used to instruct children and others who wish to convert and to be baptized. Thorough catechetical instruction typically precedes baptism. Charismatic  This term can refer to a personality trait, worship style, a personality trait, or a form of Christian expression. As a personal description, it can refer to the grace, charm, and/or personal powers of persuasion that an individual such as a pastor, priest, or prophet might have. As a worship style, this tends to refer to phenomena like dancing, shouting, clapping, divine healing, and spontaneous prayer in worship. Charismatic churches are typically characterized by the presence of these phenomena, which are attributable to the presence of the Holy Spirit. Charismatic is sometimes used to refer to churches that might otherwise resemble Pentecostal churches but might not insist upon certain spiritual gifts of the Spirit (such as speaking in tongues) as being definitive of Christian spirituality. Alternately, it can describe people in non-Pentecostal denominations (such as Anglicans or Roman Catholics) who worship in these styles or hold these beliefs but remain in those denominations. Some researchers have distinguished between charismatic and Pentecostal churches, while others use a generic term like “Pneumatic” (Pneuma being the Greek term for “spirit”) that encompasses both. Colonialism  Process by which one nation extends its political, economic, and/or cultural power into another region, typically through the establishment of settlements or colonies inhabited by people from the colonizing nation. These regions can be contiguous to the colonizing power’s current borders, but often are not, as was often the case with European colonization of Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Pacific Islands. Evangelical  A Christian tradition that is often traced to mid-eighteenth-­ century England, but which has roots in the German Pietist movement that precedes it. It is generally characterized by a very high regard for the Bible, a belief in the need for individuals to make a conscious decision to commit to a personal spiritual relationship with Jesus Christ, and a belief that in Christ’s atoning sacrifice. Evangelicalism spread globally through its social activism and deep commitments to missionary work. In Latin America, the term evangelico is commonly used to refer to any Protestant. Evangelist  Literally, someone who preaches “good news.” This has tended to refer to someone who seeks to convert others to Christianity within their own nation or culture. Great Commission  Specifically, the text of the Gospel of Matthew 28: 18–20, wherein the resurrected Christ instructs his disciples to “go and make disciples of every nation.” Generally, this phrase can stand in as a short-hand for the involvement of Christians in evangelization and the work of missions, domestic or foreign. Imperialism  Process by which a nation or polity extends its control over another, often through a combination of political, military, and/or cultural power.

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Independency/Independent church  This can refer to colonial-era churches in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Pacific Islands that severed ties with churches that were founded by European missionaries (as in, African Initiated Churches). It can also refer to churches with an independent church polity, such that they recognize few, if any, ecclesiastical authorities outside of a single congregation (as in, Independent Baptists). Late Colonial Period  A term used to denote the period typically between the time of World War II and the mid-1960s, when many nations declared independence from European colonization. Mission station  A base of Western missionary operations, typically in a foreign location. At its most basic, it could be little more than a house or small settlement. In its more elaborate formations, it could resemble a small village, including multiple residences, a hospital or clinic, a school, and even a printing shop, farm, and industrial shops. Modern missionary movement  The expansion of foreign and domestic missionary effort in Europe and North America. It is often marked by the establishment of Protestant missionary societies in the eighteenth century and carries through the mid-twentieth century. Though the dating tends to center Protestant histories, Roman Catholic missionary activity expanded dramatically across this time period as well. Muscular Christianity  A movement that began in the mid-nineteenth century that sought to meld a sense of vigorous masculinity to evangelical Protestant Christianity. This was evident in its appeal toward sports and athleticism, as well as to businessmen and soldiers. Native helper  A gender-neutral term but which often referred to male assistants of Western missionaries in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. These were often employed by the missionaries and would assist with running the mission station, including organizing clinics and schools, but could also assist with arranging preaching or evangelistic tours, translation, and teaching. Orthodoxy  As a general term, this can refer to the adherence to Christian dogma or doctrinal teachings and practice (orthopraxy). As a capitalized term, it refers to a variety of Orthodox churches, many of which (such as Romanian, Greek, and Russian Orthodox churches) trace their origins to eastern Europe. They are defined theologically by their adherence to the first seven ecumenical councils, from the Council of Nicaea in 325 CE to the Second Council of Nicea in 787 CE. Oriental Orthodoxy refers to a group of churches that have adopted what is called a miaphysite (one-nature) theology, a distinction that derives from early Christian disputes over the divine and human natures of Christ. Oriental Orthodox churches include Coptic, Ethiopian, Syrian, and Armenian churches, among others. Patriarchy  Rule by men. This can refer to instances in which men occupy positions of power (as in many church hierarchies), but it can also refer to a general sense of male-centered power within culture and society.

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Pentecostal  A Christian tradition or expression of Christian faith that traces to the late nineteenth century. It takes its name from the miraculous expressions of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, as described in Acts 2, whereby early Christians began to “speak in tongues.” It often refers to the manifestation in Christian worship of other gifts of the Spirit, including healing, prophesying, and being “baptized in the Spirit.” Pentecostal churches can be independent or part of established denominations, like the Assemblies of God. Roman Catholic  A Christian tradition defined by its theological adherence to the first four ecumenical councils, starting with the Council of Nicaea in 325 CE, through the Council of Chalcedon in 451 CE, and its churches were typically those who followed a Latin liturgy, though vernacular liturgies have become far more common after the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965). Its church structure is defined by being in communion with the bishop of Rome, who is called the pope. Victorian Era  A historical period covering much of the middle nineteenth century, associated with the reign of British monarch, Queen Victoria, though it also refers to a sense of conservative moralistic styling around gender roles and the home. Woman’s Work for Woman  A missionary idea and movement that emerged in the mid-nineteenth century that was especially influential among British and American Protestant missionary societies. It held that Christian women had a unique and essential role to play in reaching women worldwide with the Christian Gospel. It often centered its attention upon the need to develop Christian practices within a household.

Index

A Africa, 2, 6, 16, 51, 52, 59, 61, 65, 73, 77, 78, 88, 91, 94, 96, 107–109, 115, 124, 135 African Initiated/independent churches, 6, 61, 63, 71 Aid to the Church in Need (organization), 46 Anglican/Anglican Communion, 34, 46, 95, 118, 135 Anthropology, 3, 13, 24–26, 35, 57, 136 Anthropology of Christianity, 25, 118 Aquinas, Thomas, 37 Aramaic (Neo-Aramaic), 1, 100, 102 Armenia, 67 Association of Religion Data Archives (ARDA), 51, 52 Assyrian, 46, 104 Atlantic, 47, 88 B Baptism, 36, 66, 69, 80 Benedict XVI, Pope, 5, 67 Bible, 13, 29, 38, 44, 45, 93, 101, 103, 104, 117 Bible woman, 92, 93 Boko Haram, 50 Brazil, 7, 72, 136

Britain, 37, 109 British Empire, 67 C Cardenal, Ernesto, 38 Carey, William, 44, 45, 67 Catholic (Roman Catholic), 1, 34–37, 44, 65, 69, 73, 80–82, 92, 103, 110, 113, 125, 127, 129 Center for the Study of Global Christianity, 5, 43, 46, 51 Charismatic, 1, 13, 33, 35, 51, 70, 79, 110, 124, 125 China, 26, 32, 50, 90, 91, 101, 104, 108 China Inland Mission, 68, 88 Colonization/colonial, 61, 88, 95, 101, 108, 116, 119 Congo, 91 Constantine, Emperor, 111 Conversion, 22, 45, 47, 61, 66, 67, 77–84, 92, 112, 116, 134 Crimea, 47 D Daoism, 50 Demon, 35, 37, 103, 104

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 J. Bruner, How to Study Global Christianity, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-12811-0

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INDEX

E Ecumenical movement, 5, 34 Ethiopia, 32, 67 Ethnography, 21–30 Europe, 2, 6, 11, 24, 32, 34–36, 67, 72, 73, 87, 90, 103, 107, 109, 111, 112, 120, 123, 124, 127, 135 Evangelical/evangelicalism, 1, 4, 6, 18, 33, 34, 52, 65, 79, 82, 108, 113, 125, 133 Evangelization, 22, 47, 60, 68, 71, 87, 108 F Francis, Pope, 37, 129 G Gatu, John, 70 Gender, 15, 28, 34, 45, 50, 58, 87–96, 120 Global South, 2, 6, 7, 16, 32, 37, 38, 45, 46, 70–72, 74, 82, 95, 103, 109, 110, 116, 117, 120, 121, 123 Great Commission, 102 H Historical theology, 31–35 I Imperialism, 65, 67–70, 108, 117, 127 Indonesia, 48 Islam, 47, 49, 78, 101, 102, 119, 123 J Jew/Judaism/Jewish, 4, 36, 44, 99, 100 K King Leopold, 91 L Latin America, 2, 6, 32, 38, 65, 73, 77, 78, 94, 96, 107, 117, 124, 134

Laudato Si, 37, 129 LGBTQ, 95 Liberation theology, 38 Livingstone, David, 88 Luganda, 101, 104, 118 M Mbiti, John, 37 Medicine, 12, 16, 69, 101, 104 Mediterranean, 34, 99, 100, 112 Methodist, 1, 34, 91, 96 Middle East, 6, 90, 117 Migration, 6, 107–113, 129, 133, 135 Mission/missionary/missionization, 3, 5–7, 11–16, 21–25, 34, 44–47, 58–62, 65–74, 77–80, 87–95, 99, 101–104, 107–110, 112, 115, 116, 127–129 Moon, Lottie, 90 Mujerista, 38 Muslim/Mohammedan, 36, 44, 78, 102, 134 N New Testament, 4, 87, 99, 101, 133, 134 Nicaea (Council of), 32 Nigeria, 3, 7, 50, 72, 112, 117 Nones (religious “nones”), 31, 46, 50, 51 Nuba, 32 O Open Doors (organization), 46, 47 Oral history, 11, 12, 14–15, 17 P Pacific Islands, 2, 6, 124, 130 Paul, Apostle, 4, 100, 133 Pentecostal, 1, 3, 6, 33, 34, 51, 65, 70, 77–80, 82, 83, 93, 104, 109, 124, 125 Persecution, 12, 26, 46, 47, 102, 110, 112, 124–127, 135 Pew Research Center, 51

 INDEX 

Postcolonial/postcolonialism, 45, 59, 60, 83, 95, 103, 104, 115, 120, 124, 128 Prophet Muhammed, 107 Prosperity gospel, 77, 79 Protestant, 5, 34, 35, 44, 65, 66, 69, 88, 92, 103, 125, 127, 129, 133 R Ramabai, Pandita, 71, 93 Reformation, 34, 36, 127 Reverse mission, 6, 70, 107, 109–110 S Secular/secularization/secularization thesis, 43, 46, 110, 112, 123, 133, 135–137 Sierra Leone, 47 Sociology, 3, 26, 43, 48, 57, 136 Solentiname, 38 South Korea, 7, 72, 110, 117 Sub-Saharan Africa, 6, 109, 124

145

T Taiping Rebellion, 104 Taylor, Hudson, 68 Theology, 3, 31–39, 58, 72, 81, 87, 92, 95, 116, 125, 127, 129, 130, 136 Third World, 6 U United Nations (UN), 51, 52 V Vatican II/Second Vatican Council, 80, 81 W World Christian Database, 48, 51 World Council of Churches (WCC), 5, 35, 51, 129 World Health Organization, 51, 52