Variety and Connections

Nine out of the last ten issues of this journal have been special issues that have focused on a specific topic in World Christianity or have been developed from a particular conference theme. In this issue, then, it is pleasing to return to the familiar collection of general articles. The articles in this issue offer a range of topics, disciplines and geographical locations. The articles range from philosophical and theological enquiry to the history of Christian organisations and sociological reflections on contemporary phenomena. Two articles have an African focus. Three focus on Asia. Together they offer a smorgasbord of tasty scholarly ‘dishes’ that demonstrate the variety of the study of World Christianity.

Yet even in an eclectic selection there are ideas and questions that connect subjects over time, space and disciplinary endeavour. Critiques of colonial influence appear in an exploration of Tite Tiénou’s theology of religious pluralism against Mazuri’s synthesis of religions (van Veelen) and in an historical discussion of the inculcation of international values by missionary use of the scouting movement that contravened a sense of Chinese nationalism expected by the state (Law). Nationalism and religious pluralism are also themes addressed in the assessment of Catholic Indian theologians’ defence of secularism when faced with Hindutva politics (Beltramini). Arguments for distinct roles for Christianity appear in Tiénou’s theology and in the use of Mozi, a philosopher from the fifth century BCE, by nineteenth century Protestant missionaries to China (Liu and Zou) in another chapter in the contested history between Christianity and Confucianism. Institutional change is the topic of the article on charismatic Anglicans in Nigeria (Wong). Wong finds fruitful for his sociological assessment the notions of hybridity, insider and multiple religious belonging. Topic and disciplinary difference illuminate distinct perspectives on similar themes, allowing readers to consider surprising connections and to identify important distinctions. Such a comparative exercise is not intended to make facile links that erase difference. Rather, thinking across variety can hone our consideration of local forms and global ideas within Christianity.

This issue also contains the second Walls–Bediako memorial article awarded to scholars from the Majority World and established in memory of two pioneering scholars in World Christianity: historian and missiologist Andrew F. Walls and theologian Kwame Bediako. The designation Walls–Bediako memorial article is given to ‘Caught in Colonial Contradiction: British Missionaries and the Cultivation of Chinese Citizenship amongst Griffith John College Boy Scouts in Hankou, 1915–1925’, written by Peter Kwok-Fai Law. Conscious of Walls and Bediako’s emphasis on the role of the vernacular in theology, we are glad to publish the abstract of Law’s article in his mother tongue of Cantonese.

Walls—Bediako Memorial Article

• Peter Kwok-Fai Law, ‘Caught in Colonial Contradiction: British Missionaries and the Cultivation of Chinese Citizenship amongst Griffith John College Boy Scouts in Hankou, 1915–1925’

Other Articles

• Wouter van Veelen, ‘“The Right To Be Different”: Tite Tiénou’s Engagement with Ali Mazrui’s Synthesis of Religions’
• Enrico Beltramini, ‘Indian Theology and the Crisis of Indian Secularism’
• Song Liu  and Tianyu Zou, ‘Mohism as a Weapon to Criticise Confucianism: Navigating the Complex Dynamics between Christianity and Confucianism in Nineteenth-Century China’
• Ho Lun Donald WONG, ‘Charismatic Anglicanism in Nigeria: Understanding the Hybrid Identity through the Lens of “Insider Movement” and “Multiple Religious Belonging”’

This is an excerpt from the editorial of SWC 31.1 by Emma Wild-Wood, entitled ‘Variety and Connections’.