Author Archives: Alexander Chow

About Alexander Chow

Alexander Chow is a Chinese American, born and raised in Southern California. He completed his PhD in theology at the University of Birmingham, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at Renmin University of China, where he was doing research in Chinese Christianity and teaching in the School of Liberal Arts, and joined the University of Edinburgh in September 2013. He is also co-director of the Centre for the Study of World Christianity and co-editor of Studies in World Christianity.

Studies in World Christianity 31.3

Posted on by
Reply

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.

Continue reading →

Studies in World Christianity 31.2

Posted on by
Reply

Ancestors, Spirits and the Holy Spirit

Historically, one of the most important theological questions raised by missionaries as they entered new contexts was the so-called ‘term question’ – that is, how do we speak of the Christian God in a new language and a new context? Do we coin a neologism in the new language to transliterate Deus or YHWH, or to translate key divine characteristics? Or, more often, do we look for a ‘high god’ in the new context and appropriate this for Christianity? The term question, if you will, is the key question if the Gospel is to be heard among this new people.

However, as Majority World Christians wrestle with their new faith and their pre-existing cosmologies, a new theological question arises: how do we reckon with our world of spirits and ancestors? No longer is there a term question. Now there is a discernment question. And the focus shifts from the doctrine of God to the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. How do we discern the spirits and, therefore, differentiate the one Holy Spirit from the rest?

Continue reading →

Thirty Years of Studies in World Christianity

Posted on by
Reply

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.

Continue reading →

Studies in World Christianity 30.1

Posted on by
Reply

Creation and Climate Change

The June 2023 meeting of the Yale—Edinburgh Group on World Christianity and the History of Mission was held in Edinburgh with hybrid hubs in Nairobi, Singapore and São Paulo. The topic for the conference, ‘Creation, Climate Change, and World Christianity’, brought together a dynamic conversation which had a surprisingly strong theological and ethical tone around the two keywords: creation and climate change. The first is a theological concept, since it assumes that something or someone enacted the work of creating. Hence, many Christians declare in the Apostles’ Creed and the Nicene Creed a belief in a God who is ‘Creator of Heaven and Earth’. Yet, these same Christians often appear to focus more on the heavenly realm than on the earthly realm. Furthermore, the popularity of theologies of domination over creation have led some to agree with Lynn White’s assessment that ‘Christianity is the most anthropocentric religion the world has seen.’ It cannot be overstated how essential any discussion about creation must consider the rapid climate change that challenges and disrupts the lives of humans and all other creatures which call this planet home. This demands a historical account of how we arrived at this crisis and asks what we can or should do about the situation – a matter of ethics.

Continue reading →