Abstract
This collection of essays forms volume fourteen of the Regnum Edinburgh Centenary Series. It represents one of the study themes from the centenary celebration of the 1910 Edinburgh World Missionary Conference.
The 2010 meeting reflects a distinct shift from a century earlier, with most participants coming from the non-Western world. This echoes Philip Jenkins’ thesis that there is a global shift in Christianity from being primarily a Euro-American religion to becoming a truly global faith. The contributors’ demographics underscore this point: five from Africa, two from Latin America (both of whom were from Bolivia), one from Israel/Palestine, one from Eastern Europe, six from Asia, and one from the Korean diaspora in the USA. For most of these authors, ‘mission’ is less about traveling to faraway lands to convert unbelievers and more about ‘local missions’ or domestic evangelisation.
One distinctive feature of global Christianity highlighted in this collection is the emphasis on visions, prophecies and supernatural healings. As stated in the foreword, ‘…it appears preposterous for many non-Western Christians not to believe in the existence of active and engaging spirits, among whom the Holy Spirit is supreme’ (p. viii). While Pentecostal-charismatic spiritually has grown in the West, Euro-American Christians have also gravitated towards spiritual disciplines, mysticism, personal and social transformation, etc., in understanding Christian spirituality. These additional dimensions are largely overlooked in this book, which is stressed by Matthews A. Ojo who writes of African Christian spirituality’s lack in socio-political involvement (pp. 49-51).
In contrast with 1910, the participants of 2010 also came from a larger variety of Christian traditions and ministries. Roman Catholic contributions highlight the post-Vatican II developments of Lumen Gentium and new evangelisation, while Valentin Kozhuharov’s chapter speaks of the revival of the Russian Orthodox mission since the fall of communism in Eastern Europe. Papers also discuss youth in Bolivia, Chinese missionaries to the Muslim world, and Korean diaspora reaching the heathen of Southern California.
This volume provides a snapshot of the vitality and the pneumatological character of Christian mission today in the non-Western world. It gives general readers inspiration and reason for sober reflection for the state of Christianity in the West today, and for the forthcoming century.