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The New Faces of Christianity: Believing the Bible in the Global South

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Philip Jenkins, Distinguished Professor of History and Religious Studies at Pennsylvania State University, is a prolific author and a clear, engaging writer who has addressed a host of different topics in his many books. Recently, however, he has captured the attention of many evangelicals because of two of his recent works. In 2001 he published Hidden Gospels, a blistering attack on revisionist interpretations of Jesus. He convincingly argues that headline-making scholars of the Jesus Seminar sort traded far more heavily on novelty and sensationalism than on critical and judicious scholarship. In 2002 he made even more waves with the publication of The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity, which brought acclaim from many sources, evangelical and otherwise. The thesis of that book--that Christianity is exploding in unprecedented and often heterodox ways outside of Europe and North America (that is, in "the global south")--is further elaborated in this fascinating and important book on how these new expressions of Christianity are appropriating the Bible for themselves, often apart from Western influences. Jenkins is a Roman Catholic whose own theological perspective is fairly muted throughout the book. He writes more as a chronicler than as a theologian or philosopher, although his own take on the global south's engagement with Scripture does come to surface in several places, as I will note below.

Jenkins begins by noting that African Anglicans are far more conservative than the bulk of their American counterparts. While American Anglicans (Episcopalians) may tolerate or endorse homosexual behavior, abortion, and other liberal shibboleths, African Anglicans take the Bible in a more straightforward way. Bishop Benjamin Nzimbi of Kenya says, "Our understanding of the Bible is far different from them. We are two different churches." Generally speaking, those in the global south--African or otherwise--approach the Bible without the secular influences that have pressed down on Western forms of Christianity. These Christians are thus far more open to the supernatural reports of Scripture--given the spiritual worldview of their native cultures--and take the Bible to have a supernatural power of its own not often considered by Western Christians, even of a more conservative bent.

After considering the more conservative theological approach of Christian movements in the global south in the chapter, "Shall the Fundamentalists Win?" Jenkins presents chapters on the basic view of those in the global south on the efficacy of Scripture, the understanding of the Old Testament in light of the New, the understanding of poverty and wealth, the engagement of good and evil, their theology of persecution and vindication, the struggle between good and evil, and the relationship of women and men. He concludes with reflections on the global south's understanding of Scripture can challenge American Christians.

Each chapter is richly illustrated with stories and ideas from Christians in Africa, South America, Korea, and elsewhere. Jenkins realizes that he must simplify and generalize considerably to speak of the global south's take on the Bible, since these many Christians do not all speak with one voice. However, he does discern common themes and finds areas in which Western Christians can learn from these other believers. Jenkins is not romantic in his exposition, however. While his editorial voice is generally soft, he does highlight areas of concern for those in the West. For example, a pressing ethical question for Christians in much of Africa is polygamy. Besides the occasional headline in the United States about Mormon-influenced polygamists, this seldom gets our attention, and practically stimulates a protracted debate. When I participated in an apologetics question-answer session with a small group at Denver Seminary in 2004, the first question was asked by a student from Ghana. What should be done with a man who converts to Christianity who already has several wives? In my many years of teaching ethics, I had never spoken on that topic and had never been asked about it. The answer I gave, however, was far different from that given by many native Africans who read the stories of the polygamous patriarchs and find justification for polygamy as an ongoing institution. (Jesus speaks against this in Matthew 19:4-6 where he recognizes the monogamy as the original and blessed order of creation.)

While Jenkins seems skeptical of the realities of the demonic and the need for direct spiritual engagement with these realities, many in the global south see the situation very differently. In this sense, they are far closer to a biblical worldview than most American Christians who somehow read over or relativize the many biblical passages that speak to the realities of the struggle between the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of darkness and which declare the cosmic victory of Jesus Christ (see Acts 13:1-12; Ephesians 6:10-18; Colossians 2:13-15, and so on). As Jenkins writes, "...precious little is left of the New Testament after we purge all mention of angels, demons, and spirits. Shorn of healing and miraculous cures, the four gospels would be a slim pamphlet indeed" (99). Jenkins reports that one Western Christian leader was surprised to find that upon his arrival in Africa he was expected to cast out demons, something with which he had no familiarity. While Jenkins' handling of this material on the engagement of the supernatural is uneven (he does not fathom very clearly the dynamics of the occult world), a reader more deeply rooted in the inspiration, authority, and inerrancy of Scripture should come away with a more profound respect for the workings of the spiritual world.

This important book deserves much more discussion, since Jenkins covers so much ground so provocatively. Jenkins is not, however, without his faults. For example, he makes several summary statements about Islam in relation to Christianity that reveal both his lack of awareness of Islam's utter incompatibility with Christianity and Islam's intrinsically militant nature. (For a better informed and insider perspective in Christianity and Islam see Mark Gabriel, Islam and Terrorism [Lake Mary, FL: Frontline, 2005].) Nevertheless, the book provides a needful cartography of the new, sprawling, global, Christian landscape. Given the expansion of Christian faith in the global south and its waning influence in the West, the global south's perspective on Scripture should be of central concern to Christians who take the Bible seriously as the epistemological foundation for their faith. What can these sisters and brothers teach us? How might we help correct and instruct them? Where has their interpretation of Scripture fallen prey to syncretism? Where has ours fallen prey to secularism and its anti-supernatural prejudices?

Jenkins does not straightforwardly consider the objective authority and meaning of Scripture, although he mercifully does not adopt a postmodernist approach that dissolves every text into endless social contingencies. It is not clear whether he thinks that the Bible has a determinate meaning that is ascertainable through proper study (exegesis). However, if this is not the case, the danger is that Scripture becomes a wax nose that can be twisted into many different shapes. Scripture itself warns against this (Jeremiah 8:8; Matthew 15:1-4; 2 Peter 3:16). Therefore, in learning how nonwestern Christians approach the Bible, Western Christians should consider whether their interpretations and appropriations truly fit the objective meaning of the text. (On the philosophy of hermeneutics, see William Klein, Craig Blomberg, and Robert Hubbard, Introduction to Biblical Interpretation: Revised and Expanded. [Nashville: Nelson Reference, 2004].) This engagement should be neither a call to unthinking conservatism ("We've got all the truth already, thank you.") nor to unanchored liberalism ("It's all up for grabs, since orthodoxy is what you make it."). Rather, as a Puritan of old put it, "There may yet be more truth to break forth from God's word." Notice the emphasis on "truth" in that statement. The inspired truth has always been there; however, it may have gone unrecognized because of our cultural blinders. However, we will also find errors, ignorance, and turpitude in the global south, since they, too, "see only a reflection as in a mirror" (1 Corinthians 13:12). But By considering how those in the global south are reading, believing, and applying the Bible, we may be able to find more truth in Scripture than we might have otherwise. (Consulting the new Africa Bible Commentary, Tokunboh Adeyemo ed. [Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2006], which is edited and written by Africans with a uniformly high view of the Bible, can assist us to this end as well.)

In this sequel to his earlier volume, The Next Christendom; The Coming of Global Christianity (2002), Penn State professor Philip Jenkins shows how the majority of Christians in the world read the Bible with an authenticity, immediacy, and primitiveness that readers in the mainly white, rich, North American context would find strange and even naive. Most readers, Jenkins reminds us, "see things not as they are but as we are." That is, our reading and hearing of Scripture originates from our social context. Ordinary, poor Christians in Latin America, Asia and Africa know all too well about corrupt states, famine, unending wars, ethnic strife, brutal repression, crushing debt, and grinding poverty, and so they hear these themes of Scripture as directly relevant to their daily lives. Healing, liberation, dreams, visions, miracles, and prophecies are lived realities rather than deconstructed myths for these Christians.

After two introductory chapters, Jenkins shows how the Old Testament in particular resonates with these believers because of its themes of nomadic existence, tribalisms, animal sacrifice, paganism, agrarian economies, and polygamy. He then devotes individual chapters to the themes of rich and poor, good and evil, persecution and vindication, and then women and men. A final chapter compares and contrasts how Christians in the global south and in the wealthy north read Scripture. What constitutes a truly "authentic" reading of the Bible, and what might one dismiss as "cultural baggage" in both text and interpreter? Jenkins is not uncritical of the way global southerners read the Bible, but in both tone and content his "reading" of the global south exudes admiration and even gratitude. Clearly, and I believe he is right on this point, he thinks that sophisticated northern elites, jaded by secular and scientific worldviews, can learn from our sisters and brothers in the global south.

One special strength of this book is that Jenkins quotes copiously from third world theologians, both women and men, and incorporates true life stories into his narrative. Thus, he lets these ordinary believers, and not just the scholars, speak for themselves. We ought to listen to them, too, for as he documented in The Next Christendom, Christianity's center of gravity has already shifted from Europe and North America to Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Already, to take just one example, two-thirds of Roman Catholics live in the global south. This book ought to be required reading for any believer from the so-called "first" world who cares about or lives in the two-thirds world, or who truly believes that the Spirit of the living God speaks today in the catholicity of the saints.

Europeans are sure Christianity is about to disappear. At least it has in Europe. Witness the Anglican church, its churches empty, its coffers empty, chasing vainly after every new leftist fad.

Jenkins wants us to turn our eyes now to the other Anglicans: the ones in Africa, staunch in their faith, their denominations growing, raging against the liberal skeleton of a church left in England. This, Jenkins insists, is the new face of Christianity. When "Sweden's liberal Lutheran church tried to enforce its views on traditionalist diehards, conservatives placed themselves under the authority of Kenyan bishop Walter Obare Omwanza, who denounced the official church...ordination of women as a 'Gnostic novelty'" )p 4).

Jenkins points to these facts: "Between 1900 and 2000, the number of Christians in Africa grew from 10 million to over 360 million, from 10 percent of the population to 46 percent. If that is not, quantitatively, the largest religious change in human history in such a short period, I am at a loss to think of a rival" (p 9). This explosive growth has also happened in Asia. Things are changing.

Jenkins posits many intriguing questions about why Christianity is so appealing. Here's one: "Because of their modern historical experiencem, many Southern Christians easily identify with the profoundly antistate and separatist texts in the New Testament" (p 128).

Another important chapter is spent on persecutions. Various Asian and Muslim countries are currently persecuting Christians. "Between 2000 and 2005, violence between Muslims and Christians in just one Nigerian province killed or expelled over fifty thousand people, mainly Christian (p 129). Not something our newspapers cover in depth.

You will find this an eyeopening book.

Philip Jenkins' "The New Faces of Christianity" pivots upon how people read the Bible. Some prefer a very literal reading, and others insist that the Bible is something to interpret. That alone would not be much to say. Jenkins' contribution is to map the variety of interpretation and to point out which parts of the Bible inspire the greatest variety of response.

Jenkins' opens by talking about the frustrations felt by many African leaders. In so many words, those African leaders are confounded by the insistence by Christians in developed countries to read the Bible as a metaphor. "Why do you give us this book," he quotes, "and then tell us not to believe it."

Sure enough, the stories of desert peoples struggling for water, fighting pestilence and plagues, and generally scraping by with hunger never far are all aspects that remain true in much of the world. Jenkins calls that a reason why the Bible is a different text to people in the developing world.

Now that I have read this book, I want to explore my Bible and look at some books that I never gave much attention to. I am really eager to read Amos, for example, and to look at Daniel and Revelation. I really feel glad to have read this book because it has made me excited about reading my Bible.

Jenkins' treatment of the emerging shape of Christianity in Africa and Asia (not much on Latin America) is a major contribution in several respects:
- Following on his previous book, The Next Christendom, it's an eye-opener on the astonishing growth of Christianity in the global South. Many think that Christianity is nearly unique to the Americas and Europe: there is much more happening, and it is encouraging.
- Theologically, the book provides insights on the Bible as it is read in Africa and Asia that provide rich new perspectives for our own Bible study in the West. New insight into the universality of the biblical message.
- One must ask what are the implications for Christian missions launched from the West. Do Africa and Asia still need us to teach them the Word? They are well on their way, and indeed are evangelizing in Europe and America themselves.

Tremendously thought-provoking and worthwhile. A major contribution to the field.

Philip Jenkins is for my money one of the real superstars of contemporary Christian studies. He writes about what is, not what he wishes were the case, that is he is not an ideologist. His "Hidden Gospels" was tremendous for cutting through the Jesus Seminar claptrap & its many offshoots, long before many other good things came out in response to the DaVinci Code. Jenkins is especially valuable for seeing American Christianity as it is, and this book helps us by pointing the way to understanding the American church, NOT in the fashionable way of looking for signs of its demise, but rather seeing it in the whole sweep of the church's tremendous explosion of growth & vitality around the globe. His book is an answer to that question of why American churches MUST be engaged in ministries, trips & mission endeavors that connect us to the gospel's life beyond our own borders: the answer is so that WE can be in touch with Christ's living work & power & ministry. If it ever was the case that we needed to go out to others for their good, now we must do it for exactly the opposite reason -- for re-connecting ourselves to this Spirit that lives in mission & in gospel planting. Jesus calls us. . .

This book is a companion volume to Jenkins' highly successful "The next Christendom" which looked at the position of Christianity in the global south. As numbers of Christians remain static or fall in the Western nations but grow significantly in Africa, Asia and South America, the Christianity that these nations exhibit can be very different to that with which we are familiar. Jenkins explores, mostly using Africa as an example, how Christianity is experienced in the global south, including the significant focus on healings, demons, witchcraft and persecution, all within a framework of a world like that of the Bible, marked by plague, poverty and exile.

Jenkins shows how Christians in the global south are reading the Bible with fresh eyes, taking new messages or highlighting areas that for post-enlightenment westerners have lost their power. Some of the behaviour and theology of these churches made for uncomfortable reading for me as a western believer but it was a fascinating reminder that Christianity is a global religion and that we are often very different from our neighbours on the planet, and yet the Bible can speak to us all in our own languages. It's a worthwhile and thought-provoking book and an excellent companion to "The Next Christendom".

That's the beautiful reality you behold from another excellent book by Penn State Prof. Philip Jenkins. The Bible is very much alive and changing lives in the Third World (really the Two-Thirds World). In this book, Jenkins concentrates mostly on Africa and, to a lesser extent, on Asia. In my view, the most striking anecdotes emerge from Africa. If you want to rediscover the Bible for yourself or if you are a biblical student or scholar, you will want to take cues from what the Holy Spirit is doing with the Bible in Africa. To give you a flavor of the book, my favorite anecdote is the one about the Kenyan congregation who heard the reading of Paul's wishes to the Corinthians, "My love be with all of you in Christ Jesus," and answered in unison: "Thank you, Paul." Yes, Paul is still evangelizing. May we in the First World learn again to live the Bible.

Content of book a must read. It gives an overview of God working among many people around the world. For content I would give it 5 star. I give it an overall 3 star because of the writing style. I feel more editing would have been helpful for the finished product.

Here Jenkins continues to offer us eye-opening reports from the field of contemporary Christianity and its ever-changing face. Though heavier in anecdote than analysis, this is a superb addition to this recognized scholar's growing corpus.