Philip Jenkins Response Paper By Lane J Severson Wheaton College September 29th, 2008

Critics both inside and outside of the church contend that the efforts of Christianity to evangelize the world have been determined a failure. Jaroslav Pelikan, his book Jesus Through the Centuries, has stated [d]espite the phenomenal success of Christian missions during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, it seems incontestable that the percentage of Christians in the total world population is continually declining1. Where the Church has been successful, it is criticized for being an agent of imperialism for western nation. Post-colonial criticism has been devoted to showing that Christianity is yet another form of control exercised over the global south. If these criticisms are true the Church should, as it has been called to do, completely re-evaluate the way missionary work is accomplished, if it is to continue at all. Philip Jenkins offers an alternative view in his investigation of World Christianity. He contends that we are not seeing a decline in Christianity. Instead, we are seeing a shift in the center of Christianity. And the project of missions is not one of inherent rhetorical violence either. As we will see Christianity has been explosively successful over the past century specifically because it speaks good news in a language that is natural to the Global South. The picture is extremely complex, and as it unfolds we are faced with questions of ecclesiology and exegesis that are far more urgent than the need to dewesternize Christianity. In fact, as Jenkins argues, Christianity today is not Western. Maybe it never was. When one thinks of the typical Christian today, Jenkins tells us they should think of a female, non-white, living in poverty. The shock of that statement indicates that we are not only inclined to make God into our own image but also the church. In fact, Jenkins argues that Christianity has historically been vibrant in Africa, Asia, and the South America. We are reminded of Nestorian and Monophysite communities in Africa and India, the seventeen hundred year history of the Ethiopian church, and that in prerevolutionary Russia, the common word for
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Pelikan 230

peasant was Krestianin, which derives from Christian.2 Even during the height of Christendom during the middle ages There may have been more Christian believers on the continent of Asian than in Europe, while Africa still had populous Christian communities.3 If we look at the landscape of Christians today we see that Christianity is by no means a purely western religion. In fact, although the most populous Christian nation is still Europe the growth trends throughout the world indicate a dramatic shift to the south. 2.1 billion Christians were alive in 2005, about one-third of the planetary population. The largest single bloc, some 531 million people, is still to be found in Europe. Latin America, though is already close behind with 511 million, Africa has 389 million, and 344 million Asians profess Christianity. North America claims about 226 Million believers.4 Claims that Christianity is in numerical decline lack an understanding of the statistical evidence available. As Jenkins says, Whatever the value of Christian claims to truth, it cannot be considered as just one religion out of many; it is, and will continue to be, by far the largest in existence.5 The criticism could, and should, be raised that although we are seeing an impressive worldwide growth of Christianity it is uncertain what a majority of Christians actually believe and how deeply they believe it. Jenkins understands the epistemological challenge in his methodology. The numbers we have are often gathered either by Church bodies or Government agencies. Census numbers lack the precision necessary to truly identify religious adherence. And Churches are inclined to boost their attendance numbers. Even if we can assume that the numbers reported by these groups are accurate the question remains of how orthodox the beliefs of these adherents are and how deeply they are held? Jenkins anticipates this and attempts to bring some clarity to the discussion by defining a Christian as someone who describes him- or herself as a Christian, who
Philip Jenkins, The Next Christendom: the Coming of Global Christianity (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007), 27. 3 Ibid., 28. 4 Ibid., 2. 5 Ibid., 255.
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believes that Jesus is not merely a prophet or an exalted moral teacher, but in some unique sense the Sod of God and the Messiah.6 The Christians in his study range in denominational affiliation from Baptist to Catholic to Pentecostal. In many cases the largest growing segments of Christianity throughout the world are elusive independent churches which normally posse a Pentecostal inclination but would make the normal revival service of many northern churches seem more tame than a toothless dog. Normal church practices in some regions include ancestral veneration and some times even animal sacrifice. To the Western hearer these things smack of syncretism: local customs distorting the true message of Christianity. But the church has an established history of venerating the saints. Is there a profound difference in the theology behind ancestral veneration? In the case of animal sacrifice, one must wonder if there is a place for animal sacrifices that are not meant to be atoning. But even within these communities there are dissenters. Nigerian, Byang Kato, represents the part of African biblical interpreters who believe that animal sacrifice is a form of syncretism and not a meaningful inculturation.7 Africans today are employing the book of Hebrews to speak to a very real threat of returning to ancient religious practices by integrating animal sacrifice into the worship of Christ. Still pastors in these regions believe that there are moral goods that have been given to the world through other religions than Christianity. For them there must be some presence of Christ, or at least Gods guidance, in the positive aspects of foreign religions. It seems Jenkins writes of them that perhaps the Spirit was working in other religions.8 Even if we cannot accept this movement towards pluralism, we must acknowledge that the practices and beliefs that have been developed in other religious communities have paved the way for modern Christian communities.
Ibid., 102. Philip Jenkins, The New Faces of Christianity: Believing the Bible in the Global South (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 206), 55. 8 Ibid., 85.
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David Adamo writes, [i]n the biblical miracle stories we [Africans] found many healing techniques we are accustomed to, such as potent words, touching, prayers, and ordinary water.9 The very healing methods of Christ are so meaningful to many communities because they are the healing methods of their shaman and medicine women. Jenkins doesnt offer an apology for the diversity of Christians that he presents. He offers guidance for thinking about the difference between enculturation and syncretism. Whereas enculturation is the necessary process of a culture practicing Christianity in its own language, syncretism is simply clothing traditional religious stories in the names and faces of Christianity. However when Jenkins speaks of diverse religious practices he does not ultimately consider himself the arbitrator of which is which. If we burden this project with the additional necessity of needing to prove the authenticity of each adherents faith it would be doomed to failure. Instead we are given an understanding of the current state of Christianity. And what we know is that regardless of the authenticity or orthodoxy of believers an overwhelming majority of them are now residing in the global south. The very fact that Northern Christians may wonder about the orthodoxy of Southern Christians speaks to the independence of these beliefs. Even in areas where western Missionary efforts have been pivotal in establishing a local church those churches are reading the bible in their own way. To continue with the example of animal sacrifice, communities in Africa that practice animal sacrifice read Old Testament books like Leviticus with more enthusiasm than Christians elsewhere who have no reference. Jenkins argues that the bible speaks more directly to a believer who lives in conditions that are very much like those in the early church or even ancient Israel. This is not to say that the biblical understanding of churches in the global south in not complicated. Jenkins asks whether liberal Northern or conservative Southern readings are more dated in their
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Ibid., 117.

own ways.10 He continues, The liberal view thus claims the right to assess the value of particular texts based on historical criticism. The African view effectively follows more contemporary theories of reading and interpretation, stressing the role of the communities that receive and use the texts in question.11 He tells stories of communities verbally responding to Paul as the letter to the Corinthians is read in their midst. The fact that meaning is being found not in an abstract philosophical methodology but in the bones of the congregation is not primitive; it is in many ways a more historically accurate depiction of what Pauls original audience would have felt. So for all the sophistication that surrounds it, exegesis might be described by the global south as a necessary crutch for a culture that is so far disconnected from the world of Jesus and his apostles. It is often said of third world churches like China that they are a mile wide but an inch deep. But Jenkins does not accept this clich. He points to the fact that in many cases new converts endanger their lives and fortunes and must preserve their faith in the face of death or suffering.12 Still Jenkins is concerned about the use of the term authenticity. He does not think that levels of biblical fidelity or, presumably orthodox theology, are foolproof methods of judging the reality of religious belief in a community.13 Jenkins is not a theologian he is a scholar of religions. His project is not to describe the church as it should be, but the church as it is. Imagine Jenkins is rewriting Jesus parable of the sower (Matthew 12:24-30). The church has grown very rapidly and in many different ways throughout the whole world. In some pockets there are strange, and possibly heretical beliefs. But even in those churches there are extremely devout congregants who would give their lives for their faith in Jesus. Likewise, there are many churches that adhere to the creeds absolutely, and yet they may be dwindling or irrelevant. While Jenkins tells this story the theologian approaches and ask should we determine which churches are authentic? To which
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Ibid., 40. Ibid., 41. 12 Ibid., 187. 13 Ibid., 191.

Jenkins could very well answer 'No; for while you are gathering up the tares, you may uproot the wheat with them. Allow both to grow together until the harvest; and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, First gather up the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them up; but gather the wheat into my barn. What should be eminently clear is that Christianity is far from dead. The efforts of missionaries throughout Church history continue to bear fruit. The work of the gospel is anything but culturally violent or oppressive. It is giving new voice and new life to the poor and disenfranchised in the most powerless places in the world. It is providing a new forum for understanding local practices and in some cases infusing them with a deeper more profound meaning. This meaning is so deep and immediate that people around the world are risking their lives to have a piece of it. As the church continues to grow throughout the world we will continue to find it struggling to remain true to its tradition while at the same time speak in the language of the people. We must be devoted to orthodoxy. But we must also carefully examine ourselves for the ways in which Christianity has become a shroud for our own cultural practices. I find it encouraging that this concern is not just from north to south. The global south has raised their voice too in criticism of what they see as our cultural flaws.