African Pentecostalism and World Christianity. Группа авторов

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СКАЧАТЬ gave birth to the World Council of Churches tended to assume that overcoming the doctrinal and liturgical differences between the churches of Europe would unite Christians globally. Today, this is no longer the case and new expressions of catholicity are being sought, for example through the Global Christian Forum.

However it is treated, the study of world Christianity tends to de-center Europe. World Christianity approaches to history reinforce the fact that Europe rose to dominance late in Christian history and that the early spread of the faith was in all directions. Early Christianity was polycentric and the faith has always been expressed in diverse ways. Christianity has multiple histories and a number of orthodoxies.107 In the light of two thousand years of Christian history and with the rise of Christianity in Asia, Africa, the Americas, and other regions, the dominance of Europe begins to look like a one-thousand-year aberration, an accident of history, soon to be superseded. Not only does it critique Euro-centrism, the world Christianity approach relativizes all regions and theologies. It is not only the study of non-Western Christianity but should include the critical study of Christianity in the West as well.

One of the strands of Walls’s theory is that Christianity undergoes “serial expansion.” Use of this term is often misleading and misguided,108 but it does make the valid point that Christianity both waxes and wanes in different parts of the world at different times. There is no guarantee that Christian growth is inexorable. From a historical point of view, the prime example is the Middle East and North Africa, in which there were once strong Christian centers. Another is the suppression of Christianity under Communism and its subsequent revival in many areas. From a theological point of view, we have the New Testament warnings to churches by Paul and the writer of Revelation, and the metaphor of pruning being necessary for growth. So one reason for de-centering Europe is that its numerical decline suggests—although it does not necessarily imply—that European Christianity will become a less significant player in world Christianity in future.

The new catholicity must recognize that many of the newer churches are organized differently from the traditional churches of Europe, which are national churches with parish systems. They may be megachurches, or new denominations, which describe themselves as “international.” Or they may be “migrant churches”; that is, they are not yet settled or integrated into the local religious landscape.109 These are “Christians without borders” and “churches on the move”—arguably much like the churches of the book of Acts.110 In view of the historical diversity of world Christianity and the different contexts in which faith is practiced, the new catholicity will keep an open mind about models of church polity and the limits to Christian diversity, while encouraging a truly “global conversation” to discern the Holy Spirit.111

      The study of world Christianity not only poses conceptual challenges for understanding the context of mission, but it also suggests a re-reading of the biblical narrative and a new appreciation of mission as “in the Spirit,” which contribute to new approaches to the church’s apostolicity and catholicity. Theology is always done in context; mission theology especially must respond to the changing landscape of mission and take into account the vision of partners whose theology and view of the world may be different from our own.

      84. EMW, Von allen Enden der Erde. This chapter originates in the guest lecture which I gave at the invitation of the Evangelisches Missionswerk (EMW) to their General Assembly, in Breklum, Germany, October 8–10, 2014. I thank Dr. Michael Biehl and the EMW for their kind hospitality and also their framing of the topic which stimulated my thinking.

      85. See Bosch, “Structure of Mission.”

      86. See Burrus, “Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles.”

      87. Shillington, Study of Luke-Acts.

      88. E.g., Latourette, History of the Expansion of Christianity.

      89. For insight into the colonial and diaspora context of early Christian mission, see, inter alia, Wright, New Testament and the People of God; Schnelle, Apostle Paul; Wedderburn, History of the First Christians; Irvin and Sunquist, History of the World Christian Movement; Harris, Mission in the Gospels.

      90. EMW, Von allen Enden der Erde, 3.

      91. E.g., Gooder, “Gospel of Luke.”

      92. Bosch, Transforming Mission, 114.

      93. The Jerusalem Council might be seen as drawing back from Peter’s conclusion and qualifying the status of Gentiles, but Gonzales points out that in Acts 15:9–11 Peter goes beyond what he claimed in chapter 10 and Gaventa argues that Acts 10:34–38 forms the climax of the first part of Acts and the Council’s intention is rather to protect the Gentiles from idolatry and polytheism. See Gonzales, Acts, 173; Gaventa, Acts, 163–82, 210–27.

      94. See Yong, Spirit Poured Out on All Flesh, 83.

      95. See Anderson, Introduction to Pentecostalism.

      96. Kim and Kim, History of Korean Christianity, 93–106.

      97. Gonzales, Acts, 142–43.

      98. Pao, “Waiters or Preachers.”

      99. Rayan, Holy Spirit. See also Kim, Mission in the Spirit.

      100. Kim, Joining in with the Spirit; cf. Bevans, “Plenary Address.”

      101. CWME, “Together Towards Life.”

      102. For recent debate, see Cabrita et al., Relocating World Christianity.

      103. Johnson and Ross, Atlas of Global Christianity, 48–51.

      104. Kim and Kim, Christianity as a World Religion, 4–8.

      105. Kim and Kim, Christianity as a World Religion.

      106. For the case of liturgy, see Bradshaw, Origins of Christian Worship.

      107. Perhaps СКАЧАТЬ