Abstract
Decolonization and the Remaking of Christianity, edited by Elizabeth Foster and Udi Greenberg, is an outstanding contribution to emerging scholarship that analyzes the decolonization process and its interplay with Christian religion. The editors claim this volume is truly unique in that it “. . . is the first book to examine Christianity and decolonization on a truly global scale, ranging across a variety of contexts to reveal the tremendous scope of the transformations it describes” (p. 4).
The editors, Foster and Greenberg, are well-positioned for a task of this nature. Foster is Professor of History at Tufts University, while Greenberg is Associate Professor of History at Dartmouth College. Both authors are familiar with the terrain covered in this work, and have published monographs in the general field.
Using “an array of methodological approaches” (p. 5), each of the eleven authors works on a particular geographical region. There are chapters on Vietnam, China, Latin America, North Africa, Central Africa, Mozambique, and Swaziland. There are also more thematic chapters dealing with topics such as secularization, the ecumenical movement, political revolution, international law, and the impact of theologies arising from the Global South.
Two of the authors are well-known in the field of sub-Saharan Christianity: Joel Cabrita and Eric Morier-Genoud. Other authors include Darcie Fontaine, David C. Kirkpatrick, Phi-Van Nguyen, Justin Reynolds, Sarah Shortall, Lydia Walker, Charlotte Walker-Said, Albert Wu, and Gene Zubovich.
This book is part of a massive correction in the study of Christianity, as scholars look far more carefully than they have done in the past at Global South forms of Christianity. And instead of imagining Global South Christianity as merely “the handmaiden of colonialism,” as it has been characterized, this new approach is far more accurate and nuanced. Christians in the Global South were, indeed, often under the control of colonizers, but by no means should their agency be denied. They were able to work within the system, around the system, and eventually subvert the colonial project, often by using their own forms of Christianity to attain their political and social goals.
The key term of the book is decolonization, but it is not a book just about decolonization. It ventures into much of the drama that shaped the post-World War II decades: the Cold War, missionary organizations, Communism and anti-Marxism, Catholic as well as Protestant outlooks, indigenization of the churches, trade, the role of the United Nations, heresy, and more.
One undeniable theme that runs throughout the book is whether decolonization is what has happened in the Global South—especially in the churches—or whether “the task of ‘decolonizing Christianity’ is just beginning” (p.11). This is an intriguing topic that is fascinating to consider, although definitive answers are, of course, elusive.
Likely aimed at graduate students and professors, the book succeeds by providing new analyses to problems that are examined in the fields of global Christianity and Global South reactions to the postcolonial context. I suspect many readers will target one or two chapters that delve more specifically into their geographical area of interest. The quality of the articles is high, and most certainly adds to the conversations happening around these topics today. The articles are well-researched, as there are 46 pages of endnotes that will no doubt aid researchers.