The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity

A little over twenty years ago David Barrett published his book World Christian Encyclopedia (1982; 2002) that documented a growing change in Christianity's center of gravity. After flourishing around the Mediterranean perimeter, Christianity was overtaken by Islam by the eighth or ninth century. For the next millennium, Christianity migrated to Europe. Now, with Philip Jenkins's new book, we can say with confidence that yet another massive shift has occurred in Christianity, away from the wealthy and primarily white regions of the northern hemisphere, to the poor and non-white regions of the southern hemisphere. Here in the wealthy west believers wrangle over gay rights, the role of women in ministry, declining membership in mainline denominations, increased secularity (at least by some measures), clergy celibacy and the like. But a counter reformation of sorts has already occurred among poor believers in the south, says Jenkins. Their orientation is theologically and socially conservative, with unapologetic belief in the supernatural, healing, exorcisms and so on. With so many failed states and dysfunctional governments in these parts of the world, the leaders of these ascendant Christian movements have gained increased power and prestige. This upsurge of conservative Christianity runs counter to so much of the modern west, but according to demographics, in the case of the Gospel the modern west might matter less and less. In 1900 Africa was about 10% Christian; today about 46% of the population is Christian. In fifty years, half of the world's Christian population will be in Africa and Latin America, and only about 20% of believers will be non-Latino whites. A Nigerian pope? It might only be a matter of time. If you cannot read his book length version, Jenkins has an abbreviated version of his research in the Atlantic Monthly (October 2002), pages 53-68.

In a memorable passage from the movie APOLLO THIRTEEN, a military man in the tense Houston control room shares with a political figure his premonition that the tragedy unfolding before them will be *the* catastrophic moment for the space program. Mission control flight chief Gene Kranz overhears their conversation and addresses it: 'With all due respect, gentleman, I believe this will be our finest hour.' The scene could stand in for the hand-wringing that often accompanies the apparent demise of the Western church when it comes to prognosticating on its fate over against the perceived adversaries of secularism and post-modernism. Philip Jenkins reminds us that, when viewed through a wide-screen lens, the immediacy of threat often yields to a broad panorama of opportunity. Over against the fear of resurgent religion that shows its face among our cultural elites, Philip Jenkins sketches the rise of 'global Christianity' in predominantly positive terms. The Penn State University scholar of religion has noticed long before most of us that the face of Christendom is already brown, southern, and confident. He helps us to work through the implications of this even as he persuades us that the hegemony of Euro-American Christianity is a thing of the past and that-unless we pay attention-we who are part of it are likely to be, as the old song says, the last to know. In the first of ten compact chapters ('The Christian Revolution', pp. 1-14), Jenkins starts out with a bang. Professional analysts of global trends have missed out on perhaps the biggest one, a fact that the title of Jenkins' opening chapter provocatively suggests. Religious revolutions are not, as Western intellectuals too often suppose, mere matters of the heart. They bring with them profoundly this-worldly repercussions like crusades, wars, and what Samuel Huntington has famously termed 'the clash of civilizations'. They can also renew societies. Jenkins informs us that a 'Christian revolution' is already underway in the developing world, one that our political leaders ignore to the peril of all of us. The historian who can write well-researched prose for a popular readership and manage to turn large assumptions on their head is a valuable person indeed. Jenkins accomplishes just this in his second chapter ('Disciples of All Nations' pp. 15-38). He helps us to see that Christianity is not best understood as a western religion. Its African, Middle Eastern, and Asian successes were large and entrenched centuries before it came to be perceived by some as the faith of white men. Even popular myth of Christian crusades dispossessing Muslims of their ancestral turf is misleading in the extreme when viewed against the historical facts of Islamic expansionism and enduring Christian communities among those peoples whom we today identify reflexively as Muslim. Europe entered late into this story. Jenkins wonders, with one of his sources, whether the universal Christianity he descri

The Next Christendom, by Philip Jenkins, 258 pages. This may be the most important book you'll read this year. "The Next Christendom" is a well-informed prophet's prediction about what the church will look like in the next century. Jenkins, professor of History and Religious Studies at Penn State, has thoroughly researched the current trends of the church worldwide, unlike most contemporary church literature, which tends to focus only on the U.S. His conclusions are filled with hope for a growing church, but challenging for the northern hemisphere in which mainline churches are dying. The face of Christianity in the next hundred years will no longer be dominated by white faces and English voices. It will be primarily African, Latin American, and Southeast Asian, what Jenkins calls the "Southern churches." The West has been criticized for capitalizing on missions. Jomo Kenyatta said, "When the missionaries came, they had the Bible and we had the land. They said, `Let us pray.' We closed our eyes. When we opened them, we had the Bible, and they had the land." Nonetheless, though colonialism has died, the churches have not. Southern churches are now actually sending missionaries back to Europe. There are 1500 of them in England. Stephen Tirwomwe of Uganda said, "The country needs reconverting." The church of the next hundred years will be lead by the results of the last century's missionary efforts. "The empires have struck back," says Jenkins. The next Christendom is fundamentally charismatic. In the Southern churches, people attend because they get healed. They are "simplistically charismatic, visionary, and apocalyptic. In this thought-world, prophecy is an everyday reality, while faith-healing, exorcism, and dream-visions are all basic components of religious sensibility." Furthermore, theologically, "...a Southernized Christian future should be distinctly conservative." Christians in the United States tend to look askance at the miraculous. No one will have to convince them, says Jenkins; they are simply being left behind. Of course the great religious conflicts of the next century will be between Christianity and Islam. African countries like Niger are now probably 45% of each, with both competing for control of the government. Pakistan currently has a potential death sentence for evangelizing Muslims. The 1960's witnessed bloodshed between the faiths in Africa, and riots through the 90's. Africa will be more and more on our radar screen in coming days. Episcopalean bishops in Africa are ordaining conservative North American priests in reaction to that denomination's views of homosexuality. Warfare in Rwanda and Sudan are more frequent in the media. This book is a must read for any informed Christian or church observer.

The author argues we stand at the threshold of historical point, one that is as important at the original Reformation. Historians will regard the twenty-first century as the time when religion replace ideology as the motivating force in human affairs.The first Reformation marked an end to the status quo in religious affairs; relations between religions and governments, to say nothing of relations between dominations because symbiotic, chaotic and often violent. The Reformation, and the Counter-Reformation it provoked, touched every manner of life, not just the practice of religion.Christianity, today, is experiencing a worldwide resurgence that coincides with an ebbing of religion in what is now the Christian West. News reports are filled with incidents demonstrating the growth of an often angry Islam. Yet in its variety, vitality and reach, the author says, Christianity will leave the deepest mark on this new century. Only the foolish would venture specific predictions about the nature of the religious picture 100 years from now, but it is certain to have an outsized influence on human affairs, guiding concepts and attitudes of political liberty, the nation state, conflicts and wars.This is a thought provoking book, one that will shake the self-centered beliefs of western readers to their core.

If you are interested in the future of religion in general and Christianity in particular, the one must read book this year has been written by Phil Jenkins. A respected professor at Penn State University who has been known for "going against the flow," Jenkins argues that the rapid growth of primitive/Pentecostal Christianity around the world (both within and alongside existing traditions) will literally reshape the world, with possible religious conflict affecting everything from historic European denominations (already happening in Anglicanism) to geopolitics.In a post-modern world, religion returns to center stage, and Jenkins has already turned on the spotlight. This is a must-read for all futurists--including the armchair variety such as myself. After reading Jenkins' seemingly airtight (even understated) analysis, it is difficult to give credence to any author suggesting the passing of Christianity. For every empty cathedral in Europe, there is a burgeoning congregation in Africa or Latin America. In fact, the western, modern version of Christianity may be be all but swept away in the next 50-100 years, but the primitive variety is reemerging at an incredible pace.Not many works from Oxford University Press read like thrillers. This is an exception.