Thirty Years of Studies in World Christianity
This year marks the thirtieth anniversary of Studies in World Christianity, established in 1995. It has been the first and foremost journal to promote the academic discourse of World Christianity. Its history has included the publication of many field-defining articles. It also continues to be the outlet of choice for studies on the local and the global particularities of Christianity as a worldwide religion.
Thirty years on, it is worth correcting two common misunderstandings of the journal’s legacy. First, many automatically presume the journal was started by the historian Andrew Walls, the doyen of the field. Rather, the journal was established — not by Walls, but by that scholar of World Christianity studies James Mackey. Mackey? Who is James Mackey? I suspect many readers of this journal would not readily know this name, because he is rarely mentioned in standard primers on World Christianity. James Mackey was a Catholic theologian — and, no less, the Thomas Chalmers Chair of Theology and the Dean of the Faculty (now School) of Divinity at the University of Edinburgh. Importantly, this esteemed theologian established the journal during a time when ‘World Christianity’ was still a nascent discourse.
Alongside that first presumption, many also view the journal as an extension of the Centre for the Study of World Christianity at the University of Edinburgh. This may be truer in recent years than it was in the beginning, especially since the two co-directors for the Centre — Emma Wild-Wood and myself, Alexander Chow — are also the two co-editors for the journal. But 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, hoping to promote the view that ‘World Christianity’ includes Europe and North America, as well as migratory and indigenous populations. So the Centre only adopted ‘World Christianity’ into its name a decade and a half after the establishment of the journal.
As Dean, James Mackey was instrumental in bringing Andrew Walls and the Centre from Aberdeen to Edinburgh. He was challenged by Kwame Bediako, a frequent Centre visiting lecturer, who spoke about the theological questions that have shaped the course of African theology — leaving Mackey with regret that he was turning students into ‘German sausages’. He 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 multiple disciplines around the globe. 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.
It is a privilege to publish this final issue of our thirtieth anniversary year with truly exceptional articles that are representative and reflective of World Christianity studies.
- Kenneth R. Ross and Angus Crichton, ‘Publishing World Christianity Locally and Globally: Opportunities and Ethics’
- Soojin Chung, ‘Recovering the Third World Force: World Christianity and Self-Determination’
- Benjamin Aldous, ‘(Re)discovering C. S. Song: Mission Studies, Theology and the Future of the Ecumenical Landscape’
- Calida Chu, ‘Lament as a Genre in Contemporary Christian Music: A Grassroots Theology in the Hong Kong Protests’
- Doug Liao, ‘The ‘Unpopular’ Version: The Story of Thailand’s Common Language Bible Translation’
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 have many more decades ahead to advance the field of World Christianity. We aspire to lead the international study of Christianity as a world religion and 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 is an excerpt from the editorial of SWC 31.3 by Alexander Chow, entitled ‘Thirty Years of Studies in World Christianity’.