Statistical center of gravity & African Christianity

Editor’s note: The following post arises from small group reflections from The Rise of Global Christianity, 1910–2010, taught by Dr. Todd Johnson at Boston University in the Fall of 2010. Lead by doctoral students, the small groups discussed lectures given by Christian scholars in various disciplines, including significant changes that have occurred in global Christianity over the past 100 years.

In this week’s class Dr. Johnson spoke on the Statistical Center of Gravity of Christianity over the past two thousand years and showed how it moved from Jerusalem up into Europe by the 1500s and then south and east because of Roman Catholic mission in the Americas. Finally it shifted again back towards the east and further south, ending up in Africa due to current Christian populations there and in Asia. Our groups posed the question of the theological significance of this change and its implications for Christian reflection, discipleship and evangelism. One member from our group expressed her hope that this shift would result in a richer understanding of Christianity as theology becomes contextualized in different cultures. She noted as example that in the West we see Christ as Savior and Redeemer but that in Africa He is more often Healer and Ancestor. Hence there is the occasion for a fuller and richer understanding of Christology. Another member of our group noted the value of hospitality in traditional cultures and suggested that as a resource for evangelism. While in the West we often emphasis orthodox teaching, thinking in terms of hospitality might open new ways of doing evangelism.

Our group spent most of the discussion time reflecting on the readings on Africa from the Atlas of Global Christianity. For one of our group this was her first serious look at African Initiated Churches (AICs), so we talked a bit about how AICs developed during in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. She was pleasantly surprised to read that AICs provided ways for women to be involved that were not apparent in other churches or in African society in general. They even founded churches in some cases. Being from Korea, she noted similarities from Korean history in which women were pioneer Christian converts who were very involved in their congregations. We asked ourselves if perhaps this is a general characteristic of Global Christianity. Another of our group, also from Korea, asked to what extent the openness to women’s involvement was part of western cultural that was imported to local contexts with Christianity. How does one separate the gospel from the culture of those who bring it? Certainly there is a mix of influences when the gospel is actualized in a particular place by a particular people.

Also with respect to Africa, we asked ourselves what the challenges of Christianity are on the continent. From the Kim and Kim book Christianity as a World Religion we noted the church’s attempt to come to grips with its complicity in violence in situations like Apartheid in South Africa or genocide in Rwanda. Poverty and HIV/AIDS infection rates also present a challenge, and one of our group explained how the upcoming Cape Town meetings hopes to address some of these issues. We noted also the challenge that African Christians face in the continuing influence of African Traditional Religions, particularly the prevalence of witchcraft.

Bruce Yoder, discussion moderator