Customer Reviews

Whose Religion Is Christianity?: The Gospel Beyond the West

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Lamin Sanneh's work sketches the relationship between East and West in the development of Christianity as a Global phenomenom. His work, in terms of content, closely resembles Phillip Jenkins work - The Next Christendom. However, where Jenkins looks to statistics and trends to analyze and predict (which is unbecoming a historian) the direction of contemporary Christianity, Sanneh goes beyond statistical analysis and insightfully relates issues of aculturation and indigenization. Jenkins' work seems shallow in comparison. Sanneh uses a dialogue style in order to adequately present the intricacies of question concerning the development of Christianity outside a Western context. Sanneh's prior work on translation and his current work on African religious traditions influence the examples that Sanneh uses, but the book is not limited to these topics. In its conciseness and intellectual rigor, this book represents a helpful handbook for understanding the new face of the global church and how we can effectively discuss the subtleties of Global Christianity.

Sometimes one sees a book and struck by simply the title itself makes an impulse purchase. As a "Westerner" living in the East, I purchased this book thinking it would provide more insight into the phenomenal Christian activity and growth that I see regularly here in the East. The title, I would soon discover, is not the most accurate description of what the book entails.

The book's primary interest seems to lay in a discussion of the vernacular translation of the Bible, and even that is focused especially on the African continent. The non-western movement of Christianity is much broader than Africa, yet this is mentioned only as a side note in this work.

The format of the work certainly is a love/hate item for myself. Largely presented in a question and answer format ('interview format') that ranges from comical to frustrating to at times interesting. I have found this kind of format, before as with this text, helpful at first but soon quite tedious as it plods on and on page after page. When the author is not giving incredibly leading questions, his questions present the biased extreme of the 'enlightened' view.

These criticisms aside, the book did present some great insights. I appreciated the response to questions on judging an individual's response to the Gospel and conversion. Also appreciated is the presentation of the strength in the 'Designer's hand' of including all cultures and languages in His ultimate saving Gospel. A person involved in Scripture translation would also find great encouragement in the author's high praise and respect for translation to the 'mother tongue.'

A cumbersome presentation (Q&A format), misleading title and bit wordy discussion of the main topic (translation of the Bible into the 'mother tongue') cause me to give this book only 2 out of 5 stars.

Employing a question and answer rhetorical device, Lamin Sanneh, a native of Gambia who teaches at Yale Divinity School, creates an imaginary dialogue between a representative of the secular, post-Christian West, and himself, an advocate for and scholar of what he calls post-Western Christianity. "World" Christianity, as he understands it, must be distinguished from "Global Christianity." The latter is really just a version of European Christendom, the sad "cultural captivity of faith" no matter how exotic its location. World Christianity, on the other hand, as it has emerged with explosive force in the last several decades, is made up of previously non-Christian societies and cultures who have accepted and adopted the Gospel in and through their own unique idioms. Thus, Sanneh prefers to speak of indigenous cultures discovering Christianity rather than of Christianity (read: the post-Christian West) discovering indigenous societies. For the most part, this resurgence of World Christianity has proceeded since the post-colonial period began, and "without Western organizational structures, including academic recognition, and ...amidst widespread political instability and the collapse of public institutions" (p. 3). In the last third of the book he examines the revolutionary impact of Bible translations in these indigenous movements. Christianity, in fact, "seems unique in being the only world religion that is transmitted without the language or originating culture of its founder" (p. 98). Along the way, he explores ways in which the post-Christian West, so long accustomed to understanding itself as the spiritual creditor to the entire world, might now benefit and learn from World Christianity as its debtor (pp. 57, 74). Except for a few brief remarks about China, Sanneh focuses on his native Africa.

We are in a time of extraordinary growth in Christianity fueled primarily, as Sanneh writes, by "several factors: the end of colonial rule; the effect of mother tongue development and Bible translation; indigenous cultural renewal and local agency; and the theological stimulation of the Christian adoption of the African names of God." (41-42) Sanneh provides new perspective in the study of the expansion of Christianity, which complements my prior reading of Latourette's seven volumes on the Expansion of Christianity. Sanneh suggests the missionary should give "priority to indigenous response and local appropriation over against missionary transmission and direction." In other words, the notion that the gospel has been "from the West to the Rest" has been a false view of the expansion of Christianity. Sanneh, a Gambian born former-Muslim adherent, provides a reversed perspective highlighting the "indigenous discovery of Christianity rather than the Christian discovery of indigenous societies." (10)


WHAT IS SANNEH'S CENTRAL PURPOSE FOR THE BOOK?
What was Sanneh's central purposes in writing this book?
It appears that Sanneh's purpose was to assist the Post-Christian Western Church to make "live contact" with Post-Western Christianity. To accomplish this, Sanneh explains this shift of the Church to the Majority world outside the West, including the

One of Sanneh's key points is that "local renewal takes place without global orchestration." Sanneh makes a distinction between "world" and "global" as they relate to Christianity on the grounds that "world Christianity has nothing of the global structures of power and economics that global Christianity presumes." (78) Because new communities have embraced Christianity, mostly without Western orchestration, Sanneh calls for a "fresh understanding of the gospel in world history." (14) That fresh understanding should be a simple as if a child were in our midst as we explained it; after all, that is the model Jesus gave as he explained the kingdom of God. Sanneh reminds us, "Jesus measured spiritual deafness, not literacy."

The Western Christian world is caught in what Sanneh calls a "Western debilitating guilt complex." While much of the Western Christian world predicted a decline in Christian numbers, Christian expansion continued to gather momentum in Asia and Africa. John R. Mott told the delegates of the ecumenical conference at Edinburgh 1910 "to expect Africa to be taken over by Islam." However, Sanneh offers hope: "A post-Christian West is not so far gone that it cannot make live contact with a post-Western Christianity." (80) "The West should get over its Christendom guilt complex about Christianity as colonialism by accepting that Christianity has survived its European political habits and is thriving today in its post-Western phase among non-Western populations, sometimes because of, and in spite of, Western missionaries." (74)

The Western worldview may need adjustment in order for such contact and revitalization of the Church in the West to take place. "In spite of its impregnable roots in secular autonomy, individualism will likely be modified by the communicative realities of cross-cultural encounter." (7)
There is a fresh theological advantage to societies where the recent large-scale conversion followed the adoption of indigenous names of God. These names of God are basic to the structure of traditional societies, forming and regulating their cultures. "It's therefore hard to think of viable social systems without the name of God, but easy to envision societies that have become vulnerable because they lost the name or the sense of the transcendent. (Maybe there is a lesson for a post-Christian West here.)" (31)

My case study paper has been informed greatly by Sanneh's perspective of indigenous theological advantage coupled with the growing new reality of a global Church, which celebrates difference while experiencing a greater unity in the Body of Christ globally. Sanneh writes, "The world is becoming one, not from the synthesis of all cultures into one, or from the discovery of a common genetic pool, but from the accelerating pressure to acknowledge and celebrate difference when that is no longer remote. That is the deep movement of the spirit in our time."

HOW DOES SANNEH DESCRIBE CONVERSION?
Conversion, it should be easily agreed, is "the turning of ourselves to God, and that means all of ourselves without leaving anything behind or outside." (43) I recall a meeting in India where a well-known Sri Lankan Christian leader in dialogue was asking the urgent question of conversion at the gathering. Conversion is confusion in India, besides being illegal. My response to the "dialogue" was to say conversion is like adoption, being taken into another family. This Sri Lankan leader, whose name I withhold, stopped the dialogue and began to preach in a way that exhibited a stark disagreement with the only white guy in the crowd, me. Because conversion is such a volatile subject, especially in India, I appreciate the clarity and simplicity with which Sanneh approaches the subject.

SUMMARY.
This book challenges us to look for new models of faith and community. Sanneh describes how, in the current expansion of World Christianity, "fishing nets in the form of religious vocations, formation, and apostolic structures will be needed to avert disarray and disenchantment." He writes, "Growth requires the expansion of both physical buildings and horizons to make room for new models of truth and community." (40)

Sanneh, a Yale Divinity School professor, delivers a resounding response to secular critics who charge Christianity with obliterating cultural distinctions and abolishing languages. As a native of Gambia and as a well-researched scholar, Sanneh is uniquely qualified to make a strong case for the way in which Christianity has actually enhanced cultures and native languages globally. He finds it ironic that the world is experiencing a massive resurgence of secularism at the same time there is a resurgence of Christianity in many parts of the globe. Ironically, given his criticism for the abstruse language of many theologians, I found Sanneh's writing style difficult to follow at times. His wording is sometimes hard to follow and the flow of thought seemed to jump. This is made even more difficult with the question and answer format he uses for most of the book. But this little volume is definitely a worthwhile read for anyone interested in world Christianity (which he distinguishes from "global Christianity" which he defines as the replication of Eurocentric or Western Christianity. He points out that languages in which the local name for God was used in Bible translation are the very areas where Christianity expanded most rapidly. He pleads for the post-Christian West to connect with and learn from post-Western Christianity. In a powerful section on language, he points out that Christianity is the only world religion which was not promulgated using the founder's own language. Translation was necessary from the very start of the Church and has facilitated the cultural adaptation of the Good News for 2,000 years. For Christianity, languages have intrinsic value and worthy of God's attention.

Sanneh uses a dialogue format to describe the worldwide character of the Christian faith, in contrast to he persistent secular rationalist myth that Christianity is a western religion imposed upon peoples of the world. He probes the many aspects of this multi-faceted question in terms of an incisive barrage of questions from an opponent with whom he engaging in conscientious and respectful dialogue, dealing with each matter in some detail.

Lamin Sanneh is a native of Gambia who now serves as a professor at Yale Divinity School. He is professor of Missions and World Christianity as well as professor of History. The range of these disciplines are experssed in the intellectual precison of this short work. Sanneh has personal experience and scholarly background in the cultural forms of Christianity in various parts of the world. He serves as an advocate for the voice of Christians in the areas of the world too often ignored or misunderstood by the west.

World Christianity
Unfortunately, most Christians are not any better informed about the rest of the world or the Christians there than political leaders are. The Christian faith has steadily grown in to a multivarious world movement, with Christians outside the traditional Christian areas now outnumbered by world Christians of viritually every culture of the world. Strong indigenous missionary movements reach out from many "Third World" countries.

Sanneh's descriptions of the indigenous approach of the Christian mission and the indigenous character of mother tongue development enhances and affirms traditional cultures wherever they are, in contrast to most other cross-cultural approaches. He presents "World Christianity" as the forms of Christian faith inculturated in the many cultures that sometimes seem alien to each other.

He focuses on the unity in faith beyond the specific variations we find from culture to culture. He develops this view in the African cultural context with which he is most familiar.

He contrasts the vibrant indigenized Christianity we find with the paternalistic attitude of secular western rationalism. Many of us who have lived among other cultures in Africa have noted those benevolent, well-meaning foreigners who approach other cultures of the world with a barely hidden impatience with what they perceive as their inferior backwardness. They come to fix things for them if they will allow it. But always on western terms, and usually for western benefit.

Inconsistent Secularism
In this regard Sanneh aptly highlights the ignorance of many opponents of "mission" who primarily lay bare their outdated prejudice and unawareness of what actually constitutes Christian mission. Sanneh references cultural patterns I have observed in several decades of cross-cultural study and communication, studying cultures around the world. I can especially relate to many of the examples Sanneh uses, coming from Africa, where the depth of my experience was developed.

I note that all through the arguments presented by his hypothetical questioner appear the logical contradictions we often observe from westerners who assume a condescending view of other cultures. These westerners seem to think their cultural pattern is the height of a supposed historical evolution of culture, and thus other cultures are necessarily lagging behind.

This cultural imperialism in the western paternalistic approach to Africa and other cultures comes out clearly in this discussion, and is rejected by Sanneh in a gentle but clear and firm manner. Sanneh is an advocate for the peoples.

Free Choice
Sanneh consistently portrays the central role of traditional indigenous cultures in Christian mission and Bible translation into the vernacular. Coupled with this is the principle of free and informed choice, rather than the coerced conversion we have seen so often in the history of other religions and cultural imperialisms, notably the movement of Islam across the geography of the world and its cultures.

The diversity and variety of language and cultural expression in the Christian community is not a divisive factor, but rather is seen as the strength of the faith as a universal human phenomenon, freely accessible to all cultures and languages equally, appropriated and adapted and reexpressed by each in a unity beyond their individual diversity.

This is a pithy, challenging but highly readable short book packed with value and insight for rationalist and religious alike.

It's been over a month now, and this book still hasn't arrived. I'd like to know how to contact someone about this.

Lamin Sanneh has provided a very rich dialogue about the nature of World Christianity as we progress through the 21st century in "Whose Religion is Christianity?". In a very detailed but readable manner, Sanneh goes through the various factors that have pushed Christianity out of the West and allowed it to thrive in the South and East. This book focuses mostly on the growth of Christianity in Africa, but it also briefly mentions what is occurring in China as well. It is a quick read, but it is full of useful information from statistics to sociological analysis. His ideas about translation and destigmatization are also great steps in the right direction for further mission not only in the South but also for the West, learning what it means to translate the gospel in other culture but also how the Gospel is both a yes and no to our cultures.

The one major flaw in this book is the emphasis on human agency in mission. Though I'm sure Sanneh would not endorse this view of mission, his description of missionary activity focuses solely on human action to the neglect of God who is both the initiator and sustainer of mission. Still, this is a solid treatment of an issue that the church in the West will have to grapple with as time goes on.

The "center" and growth of Christianity is no longer in the West (if it ever was). African missiologist Lamin Sanneh uses a question and answer format to address issues and inform the reader about the growth, theology, and practice of Christianity outside of the West. Although this is a vital topic, Sanneh's writing style is often difficult to comprehend. The title alone enticed me to read this book and hoped to consider it for a course, but I was disappointed because of the format, [lack of] accessibility in the writing style, and content. I would instead recommend Philip Jenkins' books The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity and The New Faces of Christianity: Believing the Bible in the Global South for much more readable and in-depth looks at Christianity beyond the West.

I read this book as a follow up to Philip Jenkins's "The Next Christendom." Unfortunately, it does not compare well. The book reads like a FAQ (frequently asked questions) from a poorly written website as an infomercial promoting the greatness of Africanized Christianity.

The author makes several interesting points however. One is that Christianity has grown faster than Islam because Christianity has allowed for the Bible to be translated in tens if not hundreds of different vernacular languages. Christianity has even allowed indigenous population to use their own word for God. Islam has shown no such flexibility or adaptation as one is not allowed to translate the Qoran. Another interesting point is that according to the author, Christianity at the onset was a religion of peace meanwhile Islam was a religion of the State and the Sword as Mohammed was both a military and political leader. The author states that the crusades were an aberration of Christianity's history. And, that today all Christians feel guilt and shame when remembering the crusades. Meanwhile, Muslims are proud of all the historical and current Jihads they campaigned for.

But the above are just interesting concepts lost in a sea of directionless questions and answers. The author is brilliant, highly educated (teacher at both Harvard and Yale). But, his book is little more than a random collection of his own subjective opinions not supported well enough by much facts, studies, or reference to other works. Because of the odd question and answer format, the author never develops a coherent and focused theory tied to the title's subject.

As mentioned, if you want to study this subject more effectively I strongly recommend Philip Jenkins "The Next Christendom" instead.