Studies in World Christianity 31.1

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

Other Articles


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

Lived Theology: Qualitative Data and Theology in World Christianity

On November 10, 2020, the Centre hosted a panel discussion around the intersection of qualitative and theological approaches to the study of world Christianity. We were glad to have with us Dr Easten Law (OMSC), Dr Diane Stinton (Regent College), and Dr Muthuraj Swamy (Cambridge Centre for Christianity Worldwide), and moderated by Dr Alexander Chow (University of Edinburgh). Topics ranged from personal interests in qualitative approaches to the study of theology, the knotty relationship between “elite” and “lived” theologies, and the value of such an approach to the study of the worldwide phenomenon of Christianity.

If you are unable to access the video above from YouTube, you can also try watching it from the University of Edinburgh’s Media Hopper service.

Studies in World Christianity 26.2

Migration, Identity and Pluralism

World Christianity is a discourse about Christianity as a worldwide reality. It is not merely about the growing numbers of the faithful ‘out there’, juxtaposed against the falling numbers in the West. Part of the demographic changes of Christianity include the migration of peoples from the majority world to my world, next door. In a recent Ph.D. thesis on Christianity in Glasgow, where 126 Church of Scotland churches operate within the presbytery, 110 new churches were established between 2000 and 2016; of those new churches, 65 per cent primarily work with minority populations of African or Asian origins. Scholars may be quick to discuss the implications of the secularisation thesis or the so-called post-secular. But for those Christian communities on the ground, they may be more readily concerned with addressing practical needs related to migration, ‘integration’ into the dominant society, and negotiation of identities. From the first century until today, Christians have been a people on the move. However, another part of the picture is that changes in a given locale often happen irrespective of the Christians who have come or gone. As the four main articles in this issue of Studies in World Christianity demonstrate, such migratory and demographic patterns demonstrate how societies are rarely homogenous, but, in actuality, quite pluralistic.

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Studies in World Christianity 26.1

Diversity and Difference

It perhaps goes without saying that World Christianity is diverse. In large part, this diversity comes from the multiplicity of cultural, religious and socio-political concerns of the majority world, which have raised new questions to pre-existing theologies and practices. Such differences exist not only between North and South, East and West, but also within the same locale – across the progress of time and diversity in visions of mission. Furthermore, these differences have often manifested themselves institutionally, through the proliferation of new church movements, often formed independent of established denominational structures.

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