This year, Studies in World Christianity celebrates its thirtieth anniversary. Today, readers will recognise it as the leading journal in the study of World Christianity, and often presume it to be founded by the historian Andrew Walls and an extension of the Centre for the Study of World Christianity at the University of Edinburgh. In actuality, the journal was founded in 1995 by a theologian—and one with an international and egalitarian vision—during a time when ‘World Christianity’ was still a nascent discourse.
The Centre itself had a different name when it was established by Andrew Walls in 1982 at the University of Aberdeen, before it moved to Edinburgh in 1987. The Centre for the Study of Christianity in the Non-Western World, as Walls called it, highlighted the history of Christianity beyond a glorified form of ‘European clan history’ (hence, ‘Non-Western’). Brian Stanley, the Centre’s fourth director, renamed it in 2009 to its current name, because ‘World Christianity’ includes Europe and North America, and is mindful of migratory and indigenous populations.
World Christianity: a dialogue of equals
So, if the Centre only associated its name with ‘World Christianity’ a decade and a half ago, why has a journal existed in Edinburgh for three decades? The answer is that the journal was not started by Andrew Walls, but by the theologian James Mackey, the Dean of the Faculty (now School) of Divinity at the University of Edinburgh. Mackey was instrumental in bringing Andrew Walls and the Centre from Aberdeen to Edinburgh. He also saw the ways Christianity encountered cultures in Africa and Asia as echoing the ways Christianity encountered cultures in Europe, like the Celtic culture of his own background as an Irish Catholic. Mackey’s view of ‘World Christianity’ is summarised by the masthead of the early volumes:
The journal aims to provide a truly international forum for a dialogue of equals, so that, by a common hearing of the voices of those who respond most positively to [contemporary] challenges, each from his or her own place, the related disciplines of Christian theology and religious studies may advance.
This ‘international forum for a dialogue of equals’ encapsulated Walls’ notion of ‘Non-Western’ Christianity—but it also went beyond it. Mackey saw the journal as part of the intellectual leadership of the Faculty of Divinity, with an international mission and vision to promote and influence its disciplines. He even had the foresight to secure private donations so he could ensure copies of the journal were in libraries in the majority world. This is why the journal’s full title, which is often abridged for brevity, is Studies in World Christianity: The Edinburgh Review of Theology and Religion. This is also why many of the early issues of the journal included those easily recognisable as World Christianity scholars—Andrew Walls, Kwame Bediako, Musa Dube, and Edmond Tang—next to names recognised for other aspects of theology and religious studies—John Polkinghorne, Ian McDonald, Ruth Page, and Martyn Percy.
A home for creative thinking and lively scholarly interchange
While Centre directors and staff have had some involvement in suggesting and writing articles for the journal throughout its history, the most significant change occurred in 2012, when the Centre director Brian Stanley became the new chief editor of the journal. The masthead is again an interesting indicator. Stanley echoes Mackey’s vision by speaking of the journal as promoting ‘creative thinking and lively scholarly interchange in the interpretation of all aspects of Christianity as a world religion’. Furthermore, even though he is a historian, Stanley insists that the World Christianity highlighted by the journal includes ‘historical, theological, and social scientific perspectives’.
Mindful that the World Christianity discourse had significantly matured from 1995 to 2012, Stanley writes in the masthead that the journal prioritises topics on the majority world, but also welcomes ‘contributions that reflect on channels of influence in either direction between Christianity in the majority world and western Europe or North America’. In a further prudent decision, Stanley explains in his first editorial that one of three issues a year would be dedicated to a special issue connected to the previous year’s Yale-Edinburgh Conference, the seminal discursive space for World Christianity.
Studies in World Christianity in recent years
We have since seen articles on Black British Christianity from the 19th century (Killingray 2022) through to the 21st century (Adedibu 2013), Russian Orthodox diaspora since 1918 (Burlacioiu 2018), sexuality and nationalism amongst Zambian Pentecostals (Van Klinken 2014), gender and modernity amongst Chinese fundamentalists (Tseng 2015), African theological considerations of digital culture (Agana 2022), Chinese Catholic notions of God as a Great Parent in the 17th century (Xie 2023), and Mizo pneumatological contributions to the climate crisis (Zorinthara 2024). We were one of the first journals to address Christian responses to the COVID-19 pandemic from around the globe in a double special issue (26.3 and 27.1). We have also tried to redress limitations in the discourse of World Christianity, with issues paying particular attention to Catholicism (25.3), the Middle East (28.3), and Latin America (30.3).
As we look beyond these three decades, the journal’s current co-editors, who are also the Centre’s current co-directors, hope Studies in World Christianity will continue to advance the field of World Christianity. Even more, we aspire for the study of Christianity as a world religion to challenge and influence the many disciplines within and beyond theology and religious studies. May this journal continue to invite ‘a truly international forum for a dialogue of equals’.
This post first appeared on the Edinburgh University Press blog on 11 March 2025.
Studies in World Christianity marks its thirtieth anniversary in 2025. Join the celebrations by diving into this year’s Open Access Walls-Bediako Memorial article: ‘Caught in Colonial Contradiction: British Missionaries and the Cultivation of Chinese Citizenship amongst Griffith John College Boy Scouts in Hankou, 1915–1925’.