World Christianities c1914-c2000
Cambridge History of Christianity Vol 9
Editor: Hugh McLeod
Cambridge University Press 2006
ISBN: 0521815002 (hardback)
Price: £100 (US$180)
Fulcrum review by Andrew Wheeler
And so the colossal enterprise draws to a conclusion - the 9th volume in the CUP attempt to describe 2000 years of Christian enterprise across the globe. And this volume, edited by Hugh McLeod, Professor of Church History at Birmingham, wrestles with the most complex and tumultuous century of all - the century in which Christianity became truly global for the first time in its history, whilst losing dominance in its historic heartlands. It is a century in which all of us have lived some portion of our lives, and in which we have contributed to, experienced and reflected on aspects of the story that McLeod and his collaborators tell.
How, then, to tell this story without bewildering the reader, or without it becoming an endless chronicle of people, places and events? The key to the approach is in the very title - we are introduced to a panoply of "Christianities", an approach taken also by the previous volume on the 19th century. The emphasis is on diversity and difference, and we are led into the maze carefully. We are invited to understand the story in relationship to a number of interlocking matrices, or to view the story from several distinct angles.
In an Introduction McLeod identifies five major themes running through the story:
- The development of Christianity from a mainly European and American religion to a worldwide religion
- The major challenges faced by Christianity in its European and North American heartlands
- The diminishing importance of denominational boundaries, together with the growth of contact with other faiths
- The huge role of war in 20th century history
- The relationship between Christianity and movements for the emancipation of oppressed groups.
The structure of the book then lays several interpretative grids in turn across these narrative themes. Part 1 explores "institutions and movements" that have been at the heart of the unfolding story. Here one of the treasures of the book emerges for me - the way we are suddenly confronted with surprising juxtapositions. We are provoked to consider, for example, the rather formal development of the papacy alongside the political structures of colonialism and its demise, all in the context of the swirling tides of ecumenism, Pentecostalism and Independency. For me the joy of the book is in the way surprising connections and contrasts are discovered, things latent in my awareness but which now emerge into the light.
The story of the century in which the family of "Christianities" became truly global for the first time is bound to have a geographical shape in the telling. The long central section attempts this. The horror of world war, its aftermaths and consequences seem to permeate almost every chapter in some way or other. And again surprising juxtapositions widen your horizons continually - considering the religious ferment of the 60s and the crisis of Christianity in the West alongside post-independence African vigour, or the overthrow of communism in Eastern Europe alongside the struggle against apartheid, for example. Stories strewn through memory, but now related in a new way. But where are the maps? To tell a story of such geographical spread, characterised by such dynamic movement without the aid of maps seems to make life unnecessarily difficult.
And finally, in Part 3, the grand story is viewed from a number of social and cultural perspectives. Here for the first time the account begins to feel like "one damned thing after another", but in that the book is primarily a reference book and that the themes here are likely to be approached as free-standing chapters, this is probably of little consequence. Here we find consideration of liturgy, marriage and family, homosexuality, Christianity and the sciences, literature, film and the arts.
One particularly refreshing chapter is the penultimate one on "Role Models" - the modern Saints of the Church. The personal and individual character of this chapter is engaging after the broad sweeps that characterize most of the book. Here we meet those beatified by Pope John Paul II, Mother Teresa as well as a host of others. Following on their heels come Gladys Aylward, Martin Luther King, Billy Graham, Niemoller, and other more surprising figures - Keir Hardie, George Lansbury , George Bell from the British story, and from across the world, Franz Jagerstatter, executed by the Nazis for refusing to fight, the Berrigan brothers, imprisoned during the Vietnam war, and Jimmy Carter. A wonderful reminder that story also belongs to all those who live out their faith in Christi authentically, known or unknown.
My one quibble with the structure of the book occurs in this final section. Sandwiched between the chapter on liturgy and a consideration of wealth and poverty issues is a cluster of small chapters on "The Other", considering relations with Jews, Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists. This leaves the reader with the sense that inter-faith relations are subsidiary to the main story, albeit significant for the Church. On the contrary the relationships between Faiths is surely an issue fraught with both potential and danger that deserves to take its place alongside the movements outlined in part 1 - such as Pentecostalism and ecumenism. Even the final summarizing chapter "Being a Christian at the End of the 20th Century" gives no particular profile to the inter-faith issue - and especially relations with Islam. The two Faiths do, between them, claim the allegiance of nearly two-thirds of humanity. And their relationship is decisive for the future of both.
This final chapter stays faithful to the volume's defining vision of the proliferation of "Christianities" as it surveys key issues around the world on the brink of the 21st century - persecuted churches, the demise of Western Christendom, and in conclusion the rise of the Church in China, but lacks any attempt to survey or assess the whole. Maybe the theologian in me, rather than the church historian, emerges at this point and wants to ask - what does the whole story mean - the story now told across 2000 years? And what might we say about the future in the light of the colourful and tumultuous story told in this rich volume?
The Revd Andrew Wheeler is mission pastor at St Saviour's Church, Guildford, and was formerly a Church Mission Society mission partner in Southern Sudan. Fulcrum has just published a review of his book 'Bombs, Ruins and Honey: Journeys of the Spirit with Sudanese Christians'
These posts are by guest authors for Fulcrum