Abstract
Here is another remarkable volume of essays by Andrew F. Walls. All but one of the 17 chapters are reprints of articles from a variety of books and journals, most written between 2002 and 2015. This book may be read alone or together with the author’s two earlier Orbis collections: The Missionary Movement in Christian History (1996) and The Cross-Cultural Process in Christian History (2002). In all three volumes, the essays are grouped under three nearly identically worded section headings: The Transmission of the Christian Faith, Africa in Christian Thought and History, and The Missionary Movement and the West. An additional must-read to appreciate the essential Walls is his article “Christianity,” in A New Handbook of Living Religions, edited by John R. Hinnells (Penguin Books, 1998, 55–161). In this extensive chapter, we may glimpse the historical and theological framework informing Wall’s shorter writings.
Each chapter is a study that could stand on its own, each bringing unexpected insights in content and approach. What delight, for example, to discover that Walls could present Origen as a contextual theologian with ecumenical genes, thereby providing a model for the task before today’s World Church.
Today’s shift in the center of global Christianity forms the book’s underlying motif. For Walls, World Christianity is not a new reality but a renewed one, a point he repeatedly emphasizes in parts of chapters 1, 2, 5, and 15. Today, once again, Walls argues, Christianity may be poised to regain its essential pluralist nature lost after sixth-century ecumenical disruptions.
But will it? One certainly hopes for a globally diverse World Church speaking in a distinctly Christian voice with a measure of apostolic unity in the face of worldwide violence and angry populism. But roadblocks abound: pushback against what Walls calls “The Great Reverse Migration,” faded ecumenical enthusiasm, sharp divisions between Conciliar and Evangelical Christians, and persisting mono-cultural ecclesial patterns in both the global West and South. Still, as Walls underscores, the demographic shift in Christianity potentially can be a game-changer.
Missionary, university professor, and foremost interpreter of World Christianity, Walls possesses a large missiological toolkit. He is biblically informed, historically proficient, field tested, able to discern patterns and interpret them, and—not least—has the charisma to call others to the task.
This book is an essential guide to understanding the dynamics that are transforming World Christianity. One should not only read this book, but also devour it.