Firbush Retreats Firbush retreats are organized and led by Robert T. Walker. Firbush retreats are designed to make the best theology accessible to as many people as possible and especially those not trained in theology and often not familiar with routine technical terms. They combine times of worship and prayer with reflection on a theme related to Torrance theology. For more information see https://tftorrance.org/firbush. ----------- This talk was recorded around the time of the Firbush Retreat Fall 2015. It appears to be part of a speaker series featuring faculty from New College, University of Edinburgh. The topic of the presentation is World Christianity. Please let us know if you have more information about this talk. https://tftorrance.org/contact/webmaster The audio recording for this presentation is available on the Firbush Retreat section of the website for the Thomas F. Torrance Theological Fellowship. The following AI transcript is too rough to rely upon, but perhaps useful for word searches and time-stamps. It is unretouched; if anyone wishes to listen to it and clean it up we will be happy to post an improved version (contact the webmasters). We invite speakers to send us slides for their talks, which we will post alongside the audios and transcripts. If any speaker wishes to have their talk removed from the website, just let us know and we'll take down both the audio and the transcript. ------------ 00:00-00:07 First of all, thank you very much for having me. Thank you, Jenny, for taking care of me and the 00:07-00:17 the Diocese of Edinburgh for having this program and really having these lectures, particularly 00:17-00:23 with those of us in New College in the School of Divinity in Edinburgh coming in and speaking. 00:23-00:36 Today I'm speaking on a subject which is very special to myself. On the one hand, 00:36-00:44 because my research involves the growth of Christianity and the development of Christianity 00:44-00:51 in mainland China, which according to one scholar by 2030 will be the largest Christian nation in the 00:51-01:02 world, whether or not that stat is true, only time will tell, but also because I am a member of the 01:02-01:10 faculty at the School of Divinity here in Edinburgh. And for those of you who are not so familiar, 01:10-01:16 the School of Divinity here has a center, a center for the study of world Christianity, 01:16-01:24 which specialty is the development of Christianity in the non-western world. It started with 01:24-01:32 Professor Andrew Walls looking at Christianity in Africa. He's a patristic scholar, so in the 01:32-01:40 past he did a lot of research on the early church and he went to Africa and he was working in Africa 01:40-01:46 and he said this is the early church, but there's a lot here that I see in common with the early 01:46-01:54 church. And the Center for the Study of World Christianity is a leading center in the study 01:54-02:06 of Christianity around the world. So I'd like to begin today's lecture with a picture, and it's a 02:06-02:14 picture that perhaps many of you are familiar with. This building. Does anybody not know what 02:14-02:25 this is? This is where I work. This is New College on the Mount, and let's see, my office is around 02:25-02:32 there roughly. Come visit me if you like. And if you go through the main gates, you'll see this 02:32-02:40 this courtyard here in in the middle of New College. Of course, on left hand side here is 02:40-02:48 the venerable John Knox. Why this is a Scottish Episcopal Church here, you know, is thank you John 02:48-02:56 Knox. And everybody thinks this steeple here is part of New College, it's not. It's actually a 02:56-03:02 church behind or what used to be a church behind the building. But if you look in the center of 03:02-03:09 this, you see these double doors. What are these double doors? Does anybody know what these 03:09-03:16 doors lead you to? The Assembly Hall. The General Assembly, the Great Assembly Hall or the 03:16-03:23 General Assembly Hall? General Assembly Hall. I apologize, Church of Scotland personnel and present. 03:23-03:30 So this is for the General Assembly Hall for the Church of Scotland, and it is where they meet each 03:30-03:39 year roughly around May time for their General Assembly. But it is also a very historic place 03:39-03:53 for world Christianity. In the year 1910, missionaries who were working in quote-unquote "heathen lands" 03:53-04:03 around the world gathered here for the great Edinburgh World Missions Conference of 1910. The 04:03-04:15 conference brought a thousand and two hundred delegates working around the world, and these 04:15-04:24 were missionaries who were coming from many different Protestant denominations that gathered 04:24-04:34 for this this meeting. And there were also indigenous missionaries that were present, so that is 04:34-04:40 missionaries from the non-western world that were present. Out of the thousand and two hundred and 04:40-04:48 fifteen delegates, how many would you guess? How many people were coming that were missionaries 04:48-05:02 from indigenous lands, from non-western lands? Any guesses? Ten, fifty-five! Or in the ballpark. 05:02-05:11 Eighteen! Eighteen non-western missionaries. Of course you see the list here. Eight Indians, four Japanese, three 05:11-05:19 Chinese, one Korean, one Burmese, and one Turkish. The reason we know these numbers is my colleague 05:19-05:26 Professor Brian Stanley actually went in the books and he went through every single name to 05:26-05:35 enumerate this. He's written a very important book on Edinburgh in 1910. But this is just to highlight 05:35-05:47 what was happening around 1910. That this very historic meeting here in Edinburgh with missionaries, 05:47-05:54 this is considered the largest, the greatest missionary gathering, you know, in recent history, 05:54-06:06 and 18 of them were not Western. Now of course this is representative of the distribution of 06:06-06:12 Christians around the world at the time. In the Western world, in Europe, in North America, 06:12-06:18 in Australia, New Zealand, you have around 82% of the Christian population is based in these 06:18-06:25 countries in 1910. And the remaining roughly 18% were in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, 06:25-06:33 what we generally call the majority world. The vast majority of this 18% were in Latin America, 06:33-06:44 okay, mainly of Catholic Christianity. But it was quite meager in Asia and Africa at that time. 06:44-06:59 By 2010, there's a shift, very significant shift, that today about 40% of the Christian population 06:59-07:09 remains in the Western world, whereas 60% in the rest. And you know, if you look at Europe alone, 07:09-07:22 that's a shift in 1910 from roughly around 60% to 25% by 2010. A drastic shift in the Christian 07:22-07:31 population distribution around the world. And the vast majority of this 60% today is in Africa, 07:31-07:41 particularly sub-Saharan Africa. In Asia, there's actually not too many countries that have a 07:41-07:47 Christian majority. Does anybody have a guess of what country or countries may have a Christian 07:47-07:58 majority in Asia? Korea does not have a Christian majority. Philippines is a country. Korea has 07:58-08:06 roughly 30 some odd percent Christian population, which is one of the next largest Christian 08:06-08:12 populations. But the vast majority of the Christian population in the world today is in 08:12-08:21 sub-Saharan Africa. And we see this distribution. This is showing the population of Christians in 08:21-08:31 the world. And you can see how in sub-Saharan Africa is a very large body of Christians. In 08:31-08:41 the north of Africa is a lot of Muslim and African indigenous religions. But you can also see within 08:41-08:48 Latin America, there's not only Catholic Christianity, but the growth of both Pentecostal 08:48-08:58 and Evangelical Christianity within Latin America. And you can see other parts of the world how it's 08:58-09:07 distributed. Of course, when we look at the stats alone, we recognize that today, three out of five 09:07-09:15 Christians live in the majority world, live in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Catholics around 09:15-09:25 the world, 64% live in the majority world. Anglicans, since we're in a Scottish Episcopal 09:25-09:35 Church, how many Anglicans do you think live in, well actually, I think my stat is on Africa alone. 09:35-09:52 Any guesses? 10%? 50% of Anglicans today live in Africa. Slightly higher than 10%. 50% of 09:52-10:02 Anglicans today live in Africa. And this we'll come back to in a little bit. But also the largest 10:02-10:11 church in the world, roughly a million members, is a Yeo-eida Full Gospel Church in Seoul, Korea, 10:11-10:22 South Korea. And that's considered the largest church in the world today. So clearly there's a 10:22-10:30 shift that's happening. There's a shift that has happened in those who become Christians around 10:30-10:40 the world. But it is not only in out there, if you will, that Christianity has been growing. Because 10:40-10:48 of course people move around the world. And globalization and global transportation, airplanes, 10:48-10:55 railroads, all means of transportation have advanced the movement of people around the world. 10:55-11:04 We could even look at Edinburgh alone and we could see how what we call the diaspora, the dispersion 11:04-11:13 of people around the world, impacts Edinburgh. You can see, for example, here down the street from 11:13-11:19 where I live in Trinity is the Edinburgh Tabernacle, part of the redeemed Christian 11:19-11:27 Church of God of Nigeria. That's purchased in Old Church of Scotland building. And of course 11:27-11:34 the redeemed Christian Church of God is a Pentecostal denomination originating Nigeria 11:34-11:43 and has a thriving congregation here in Edinburgh. You can see in Stockbridge area there's a True 11:43-11:53 Jesus Church which originated in mainland China in the 1920s, 1930s. And there's actually several 11:53-12:02 True Jesus churches here in Edinburgh. The name True Jesus Church makes a particular statement 12:02-12:14 in its name asserting that they hold to the True Jesus. It has a tie with what some people 12:14-12:22 would talk about as one is Pentecostalism. So they are non-Trinitarian but Pentecostal. But 12:22-12:29 there's a several of their the True Jesus churches here in Edinburgh. And of course there's other 12:29-12:39 types of diaspora like this. Sorry. But it's true. In the sense that we see different types 12:39-12:48 of movement and it's not just of non-westerners into Western lands but within Western lands. And 12:48-12:55 sometimes there's movements because of religion, sometimes is movements like the current situation 12:55-13:05 with Syria you know because of forced migration if you will that shape and reshape the face of 13:05-13:12 Christianity in what is generally considered Western lands. And this is a phenomenon which 13:12-13:20 many scholars call reverse missions in which previously it was the Westerners that went to 13:20-13:27 Africa and Asia and Latin America. Now it's those from Africa and Asia and Latin America that are 13:27-13:37 moving towards Western lands and evangelizing peoples and the lands. And you see the the 13:37-13:46 changing dynamics of Christianity in the UK as well as around the world. I think there was an 13:46-13:51 article actually earlier this week I think it was on the telegraph or the Guardian that spoke about 13:51-14:02 how in London the Anglican Church is actually not on decline as we would think but is actually 14:02-14:09 growing and largely is growing because of immigrant populations and how that is shaping the 14:09-14:19 local London Anglican Church. So we can see how there is a global shift that is happening both 14:19-14:30 out there and right here. And we see how different churches and different people from different 14:30-14:41 churches and cultures and contexts come together and develop the face of Christianity. That it is 14:41-14:51 no longer what we would have thought of back in 1910. Now the question then is why? Why has this 14:51-14:59 happened? Okay and there's a couple reasons that scholars have highlighted. This the backdrop here 14:59-15:06 is a yo-yo full gospel church in case you're curious. That was the senior minister there. 15:06-15:17 I believe is well we won't talk about him. But there's several causes for the shift as scholars 15:17-15:28 have noticed. First is the dynamic of decolonization and indigenization. And this is a sort of a 15:28-15:36 two faces of the same coin if you will. And what has happened is since the end of the World War II 15:36-15:42 of course we have you know the British Empire had all these colonies around the world. In particular 15:42-15:48 in Africa and Asia there was a lot of colonization but there was a shift towards decolonization and 15:48-15:58 the development of nation-states, the development of individual countries that were formed as a 15:58-16:09 result of the decolonization. But while decolonization is happening the locals are taking what the 16:09-16:16 missionaries brought previously as their own. There is an indigenization. There is a rooting of the 16:16-16:25 Christian faith within these lands. And so this rooting and this ownership of Christianity has 16:25-16:34 helped it to grow. And related to that is evangelization, evangelism. That the local Christians 16:34-16:41 are therefore becoming an evangelistic force within their own lands and outside of their own 16:41-16:54 lands. We can think of even a place like Korea in which South Korea is the second major sending 16:54-17:01 country of missionaries around the world today. The first still being the United States. And a lot 17:01-17:09 of that many historians would trace back to the great 1907 Pyongyang revival. A revival that was 17:09-17:19 in what is now North Korea. But this revival in Christianity in which the the Koreans involved in 17:19-17:27 the revival at the time were saying well in order to be truly faithful to the gospel we need to be 17:27-17:38 the greatest sending nation of the world. And from 1907 and as decolonization develops not only in 17:38-17:47 Africa but in Asia as well as as different Western powers are removing themselves from these these 17:47-17:54 places there is the growth of a stronger autonomy. This a stronger sense in which we can do something 17:54-18:04 and they do do something. They do something quite phenomenal. And so there's a decolonization that 18:04-18:10 happens. There's an indigenization that happens. There's the growth of evangelism that happens 18:10-18:21 within the majority world. But also there's maintains high fertility rates which is the 18:21-18:31 greatest way to make converse is through babies. That through while while in many Western contexts 18:31-18:39 the industrialization and the development of modernity moves towards smaller families in 18:39-18:46 which you have one maybe two children if any children today. You know my wife and myself 18:46-18:51 you know living here we have two kids and we're thinking yeah that's probably enough. You know 18:51-18:59 we it's enough to handle two you know. Whereas that's not quite the same case in many other 18:59-19:07 countries around the world in which there still is a high fertility rate. There is still families 19:07-19:19 which which have much more than just two children. And finally the the shift is also caused by 19:19-19:27 something that's happening in Western lands which is secularization. And this a different type of 19:27-19:37 shift that's happening if you will in Western lands. A retreat of those who of Christianity 19:37-19:45 of the Christian faith within Western lands. So while there is this growth in the propagation 19:45-19:52 the evangelism there's a growth in the autonomy and there's a growth in the sheer numbers of 19:52-20:01 people who are part of Christian homes in the majority world. In the West there's a decrease 20:01-20:10 in Christian adherence and of course a decrease in fertility rates and decrease in evangelism. 20:10-20:20 That Christianity is having a very significant shift in both areas both regions and that 20:20-20:30 reshapes Christianity around the world. Now mindful of this global shift there's a few 20:30-20:41 things that I wanted to just just highlight as how this then shapes and impacts Christianity 20:41-20:52 here as well as there if you will okay around the world. First is the reality that along with 20:52-20:59 this global shift of Christianity is the growth of Pentecostalism. Pentecostalism and charismatic 20:59-21:09 Christianity. That today about a quarter of the Christian population can consider themselves part 21:09-21:17 of the Pentecostal or charismatic church or Christianity. This is quite significant if you 21:17-21:27 think about it is right around 1910 there were very few Pentecostals there weren't Charismatics 21:27-21:33 back then there weren't you know Pentecostalism was just starting at the turn of the century okay 21:33-21:42 around 1901 Azusa Street revival. But this has shifted so that about a quarter of the Christian 21:42-21:52 population today considers themselves Pentecostals or Charismatics. Just one footnote here the two 21:52-22:00 terms Pentecostal and Charismatic often the the vision is that Pentecostals they trace back to 22:00-22:08 the early 1900s when new denominations like Assemblies of God, Four Square, these denominations 22:08-22:14 which started emphasizing the baptism of the Holy Spirit as a and and the evidence of that through 22:14-22:21 the speaking of tongues okay speaking of at that time it was it was known as Xenolalia which is a 22:21-22:27 foreign tongues so the first first person to be filled with the Holy Spirit and speaking tongues 22:27-22:38 spoken Chinese of course. So many Chinese around the world you gotta speak Chinese. But you know 22:38-22:46 that was how you know what we generally term Pentecostalism is back tracing back to denominations 22:46-22:52 that started around that time. Charismatic the Charismatic movement is something a term that we 22:52-23:02 use often to apply to all denominations that have received some type of a an empowerment of the Holy 23:02-23:13 Spirit and roughly around 1960 actually in in Episcopal Church in California in fact the vicar 23:13-23:20 of the church said well I've been filled with the Holy Spirit I can speak in tongues what you can't 23:20-23:27 do that it was kicked out of the church of course around that time was when the the baptism of the 23:27-23:35 Holy Spirit let's say fills all the major mainline denominations and every denomination today has 23:35-23:47 some form of Charismatic Christianity even Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches. So we see 23:47-23:54 one of the dynamics is the growth of Pentecostal Charismatic Christianity which of course has a 23:54-24:00 very different emphasis on the Holy Spirit you know since we're here in Scotland you know where 24:00-24:06 the preaching of the Word of God is important you know it's very Christ centered very word centered 24:06-24:13 that's quite different from the Pentecostal Charismatic emphasis which is on the Holy Spirit 24:13-24:20 about the filling of the Holy Spirit about the healing that comes through the Holy Spirit about 24:20-24:26 the outworking and the practice of Christianity that comes out of the Holy Spirit and one of the 24:26-24:40 the complications that comes with this is sociologically scholars are not too sure where 24:40-24:52 how Pentecostal Charismatic Christianity develops. One scholar Harvey Cox speaks about Pentecostal 24:52-25:01 Charismatic Christianity as a primal spirituality and what it means by that is that Christianity in 25:01-25:16 a sense has caught on the primal religion that has existed in other places that in fact the first you 25:16-25:23 know the Azusa Street revival which which is famously you know what the point in which many 25:23-25:32 people trace back the origins of Pentecostalism was led by an African-American holiness preacher 25:32-25:40 and though there's some connections with with a sort of Wesleyan holiness tradition within 25:40-25:51 Pentecostalism there's also this emphasis of a type of spirituality in which scholars like 25:51-26:00 Harvey Cox claim are come from in this case African spirituality African religious spirituality so 26:00-26:08 you see a an intermixing if you will in many contexts of indigenous religions in Africa Asia 26:08-26:16 and Latin America with Christianity which then poses some some new questions about how does 26:16-26:25 Christianity relate to other religions and how does do localized forms of Christianity that embrace 26:25-26:35 systems of thinking and ways of practice into the Christian faith how are we to engage that is this 26:35-26:40 something good is this something bad is this something neutral how do we how would do we deal 26:40-26:55 with that so this is one characteristic Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity the second is really 26:55-27:06 a shift from the emphasis on personal sin to structural sin okay let me elaborate what I mean 27:06-27:19 by this this is of course a picture of Pope Francis and a very very popular photo but it's also a very 27:19-27:28 common image of Pope Francis as he has shown a lot of compassion to those that he has encountered of 27:28-27:35 course Pope Francis coming from South Africa excuse me South America not South Africa different South 27:35-27:46 the coming from South America is shaped by a context that has emphasized the need to address 27:46-27:57 those who have been oppressed those who have been vulnerable those who have been who have felt the 27:57-28:06 hardship of the sins of the structures of society that society in a sense have oppressed the 28:06-28:17 individual and so you know one of the famous statements is this idea of God's preferential 28:17-28:23 option for the poor and the vulnerable and this of course is it comes actually out of Vatican 28:23-28:31 two conversations in Latin America but develops into what we would generally term liberation 28:31-28:39 theology and in Latin America there's this development in not only Catholic circles but 28:39-28:47 also evangelical circles in which Christianity must address the problems of this world the 28:47-29:01 problems of society the structural ills that exist as well as the personal sins but this growth of 29:01-29:08 liberation theology we see not only in Latin America but we see this developing in North 29:08-29:16 America in what was generally called black theology in feminist theology we also see this 29:16-29:24 in places like South Korea in what's term Ming Dong theology in which there's a there's a discussion 29:24-29:33 about emphasizing the sinned against those who have been sinned against up by others rather than 29:33-29:40 the sinner we emphasize how this person has been sinned against how this person has been afflicted 29:40-29:50 rather than how they themselves are sinners but we also see this in parts of Africa most notably 29:50-29:58 the development in South Africa with apartheid and the pulse apartheid developments within the 29:58-30:16 church in South Africa so what we see happening in both the Pentecostal charismatic dimension as 30:16-30:27 well as this more liberative liberation theology development is that these two are emphases around 30:27-30:35 questions that are very prevalent within particularly in the non-western world and that's 30:35-30:46 one in terms of religious dynamics the multi-religious dynamics and to the poverty that 30:46-30:54 exists okay on the one hand with the Pentecostal charismatic movement we see this engagement with 30:54-31:05 indigenous religions with the the reality that religion is more than just Christianity in Europe 31:05-31:12 it's a lot harder to say that but in parts of Africa and Asia it's more prevalent and more easy 31:12-31:20 to say that and it's and a significant question how does Christianity relate with other religions 31:20-31:34 but secondly the question of poverty oppression of structural evils which within non-western 31:34-31:41 context becomes is seemingly much more prevalent than in the West perhaps it's prevalent in the 31:41-31:51 West as well but we don't see it but clearly it is a question that within non-western context is being 31:51-32:03 emphasized and being discussed much more the third area I want to highlight and this is a 32:03-32:13 slightly controversial one is start with this picture does anybody know what this picture is of 32:13-32:29 looks like primates yes primates as in the you know the the religious one you know yeah so this 32:29-32:41 is the gathering of the Anglican primates this week and this is of course a very interesting 32:41-32:49 week if you follow the news and if we go back to one of the points that I highlighted earlier 32:49-32:59 which is that 50% of Anglican today live in Africa okay and one of the dynamics that we see 32:59-33:08 happening in the majority world is that Christianity in the majority world tends to be much more 33:08-33:17 conservative than it is in the non-majority world in the Western world and so one of the 33:17-33:28 debates that has been happening this week down south with the Anglican primates meeting is the 33:28-33:34 question of homosexuality and how that fits into the church we're not going to debate that right 33:34-33:49 now but suffice it to say that it has been a very tense week in this meeting and in particular it's 33:49-33:57 been the majority world primates that have been emphasizing the need to uphold a conservative 33:57-34:03 conservative reading conservative understanding of the question of homosexuality in the church 34:03-34:16 and the accusation that is made by many of these majority world leaders is that Westerners who 34:16-34:28 previously colonized Africa and Asia are bringing in a type of neo-colonialism that by trying to 34:28-34:35 emphasize in this case the question of homosexuality the views of homosexuality from a secularized West 34:35-34:44 into the Anglican Communion is a a move of neo-colonialism and so there's there's this very 34:44-34:55 strong very intense debates about this but really what that highlights is that on the one hand in 34:55-35:02 the majority world as there is a growth of Christianity in the majority world it is a 35:02-35:13 growth of Christianity that is strikingly conservative and on the other hand that also 35:13-35:21 makes it incredibly uncomfortable for certain people because that comes back and the global 35:21-35:31 shift of course as I highlighted is not only out there but is something here right and it raises 35:31-35:38 the question and a very significant question about how do we understand Christianity around the world 35:38-35:47 what is the relationship between the Christians in this room and the Christians outside of this 35:47-35:55 room in the city in this country you know in this world what is the relationship between Christianity 35:55-36:07 different Christians around the world and you know really points to what professor Andrew Walls the 36:07-36:12 founder of the Center for study of world Christianity that I'm a part of professor Andrew 36:12-36:27 Walls talks about how throughout Christian history as Christians as the Christian faith engages new 36:27-36:34 cultures and new contexts there are two dynamics that are happening one is what he calls the 36:34-36:44 indigenizing principle in which Christianity finds its way to become home in these new contexts find 36:44-36:50 this ways whether you know in the example of Pentecostalism how it there's this this embrace 36:50-37:00 of a certain cultural and religious ethos within a certain context that make it home make itself 37:00-37:08 there you know localized so there's an indigenizing impulse but there's also the what he calls the 37:08-37:16 pilgrim impulse and that is impulse in which Christianity is in a sense not of this land not 37:16-37:28 of this world in which there is a that Christianity transcends cultures and contexts and unique local 37:28-37:36 experiences and it's a it's a tense it's a tension between these two ideas this indigenizing 37:36-37:45 principle and this pilgrim principle and of course with the the growth of of majority world 37:45-37:52 Christianity as primarily conservative it highlights and and and in the Western world that 37:52-38:03 that Christianity is becoming much more broad if you will that how different contexts how different 38:03-38:13 forms of Christianity interact with one another becomes vital and in fact underscores the reality 38:13-38:21 of Christianity the reality if you are to go out and evangelize these new lands there will be some 38:21-38:31 differences and those differences may be welcomed back and sometimes not so welcome back as I leave 38:31-38:37 you with that image a very happy image apologize perhaps I should have given a different picture 38:37-38:45 at the end but but I I end there really to to underscore that there this shift in Christianity 38:45-38:55 around the world is a global shift is a shift that changes the numerical statistical dynamics 38:55-39:04 of Christianity but also changes how people understand and practice and engage with Christianity 39:04-39:11 and with other Christians so I hope that's stimulated a little bit of thinking and thank 39:11-39:25 you very much for your attention. Thank you very much for a fascinating talk and for opening up 39:25-39:34 vast vistas of what God is doing in the world and perhaps raising our eyes a little bit higher than 39:34-39:44 our own domestic or local issues. We're now going to have a time of questions and answers I would 39:44-39:48 just ask you to wait till Sheena asks you with the microphone. 39:48-39:51 (mumbling)