• Directories
    • Business Directory
    • Church Directory
    • Organization Directory
  • Advertise
  • Donate
  • Help
  • Log In
MENUMENU
  • Learning
        • Leader’s Edge
          • Author Interviews
          • Book Summaries
        • Book Reviews
          • Book Look
          • EMQ Book Reviews
        • Publications
          • Anthology
          • Evangelical Missions Quarterly (EMQ)
          • Missiographics
        • Podcasts
          • The Mission MattersNew
          • Missio Nexus
          • People First HR
          • Members Only Feed
        • Blogs
          • Global Issues Updates
          • Member Highlights
          • Mission Advisors
        • Topics
          • COVID-19 ResourcesNew
          • Diaspora Missions
          • Mobilization
          • Muslim Missions
          • Support Raising
        • Media Library
          • Conferences
          • Global Issue Updates
          • On Mission
          • Thought Leader Briefings
          • Webinars
          • Workshop
          • View All
  • Programs
    • Accreditation
    • Alliance for Benefits
    • Bible CertificateNew
    • Church Missions Coaching
    • Cohorts
    • Cybersecurity
    • ImproveNew
    • Mission Jobs
    • Publish
    • RightNow Media
    • The Mission App
    • Women’s Development
  • Events
          • Calendar
          • In-Person Events
          • Virtual Events
          • Event Recordings
          • Awards
        • Premier Events
          • Mission Leaders Conference
          • On Mission
        • Upcoming Events

          • Women In Leadership - Special Events
            Fri Mar 5 2021
          • On Mission 2021
            Wed Mar 10 2021, 12:00pm EST
          • Four Things Every CEO Needs to Know About Fundraising
            Tue Mar 16 2021, 03:00pm EDT
        • View All Events
  • Research
          • Missiographics
          • Mission Handbook
          • Research Reports
        • Popular Research
          • Compensation Reports
          • COVID-19 ResourcesNew
          • Field Attrition Report
          • View All Reports
        • Contribute
          • Current Research Projects
          • Submit Data for Mission Handbook
          • Volunteer
  • About Us
        • Who We Are
          • Our Contribution
          • Meet the Team
          • Board Members
          • History (1917–present)
        • Our Beliefs
          • Statement of Faith
          • Community Standards
        • Awards
        • Partner with Us
          • Advertise
          • Donate
          • Sponsorships
          • Volunteer
        • Help
          • Contact Us
          • Advertising Specs
          • Branding Guidelines
  • Join
        • Learn
        • Learn what you cannot learn anywhere else.

        • Meet
        • Meet people you otherwise won’t meet.

        • Engage
        • Engage in a community like none other.

          • Benefits
          • Benefits for Churches
          • Pricing

Sponsored Content

Upcoming Events

  • Women In Leadership - Special Events
    Fri Mar 5 2021
  • On Mission 2021
    Wed Mar 10 2021, 12:00pm EST
  • Four Things Every CEO Needs to Know About Fundraising
    Tue Mar 16 2021, 03:00pm EDT
  • Webinar: Mission Increase: Discovering the Joy of Biblical Generosity
    Thu Mar 18 2021, 02:00pm EDT
  • Peer 2 Peer for Marketing and Communications Staff: Know Yourself and Know Your Audience
    Tue Mar 23 2021, 02:00pm EDT

View all events »

Topics

author interview Canada CEO Church Church Missions Church Mission Team Church Planting Conference Proceedings COVID-19 Cross Cultural Skills Diaspora Evangelism Focus Future Innovation Islam Justin Long Leadership Management Missiology Missionaries Mission Finance and Administration MLC2019 MLC2020 MLC2021 Mobilization muslim Muslim Diaspora Networks Partnership Personal Productivity Podcast Presenter Research Security Short-Term Missions Spirituality support raising Training Trends Unengaged Unreached unreached people groups Weekly Roundup Women

Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org

The New Shape of World Christianity: How American Experience Reflects Global Faith

Posted on January 1, 2010 by January 1, 2010

by Mark Noll

Noll endeavors to place the American evangelical experience within the broader story of global Christianity.

InterVarsity Press Academic, P.O. Box 1400, Downers Grove, IL 60515, 2009, 212 pages, $25.00.

—Reviewed by Edward Smither, associate professor of church history and intercultural studies at Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary; formerly served in France and North Africa.

The New Shape of World Christianity is the latest work by Mark Noll, one of this generation’s leading scholars on American Christian history. With compelling arguments supported by his characteristic thoroughness, Noll endeavors to place the American evangelical experience within the broader story of global Christianity. In this sense, Noll’s work is conversant with those of Andrew F. Walls, Lamin Sanneh, and Phillip Jenkins. Furthermore, it appears that Noll’s intended audience is mainstream American evangelicalism, whose members may not fully understand or appreciate the state of the present global Church.

After describing the current state of global Christianity (chaps. 1-2), Noll narrates the key points of nineteenth-century mission history (chap. 3) and explores the global impact of American missionary evangelicalism (chap. 4-5), including the alleged damage done by Western missionaries (chap. 6). Noll suggests that the American evangelical experience—marked by a high view of scripture and a commitment to conversion and evangelical activism—has served as a template of sorts for global Christian expansion (chap. 7). Prior to his conclusion (chap. 10), he attempts to support the argument in chapter 7 by showing how American evangelical regard for the world developed in the twentieth century (chap. 8), and by discussing the correlation between American evangelicalism and its counterparts in Korea and East Africa in the twentieth century.

What are the book’s major strengths? First, Noll helpfully compares the American evangelical experience to that of the global Church. For instance, the parallels between Korea in the twentieth century and North America in the nineteenth are quite striking. Second, Noll carefully nuances that these parallels are not necessarily on account of evangelical “imperialism” or even the undue global influence of American Christianity. Rather, he states in the final chapter that “correlation is not causation” (p. 189). Thus, Noll affords the American evangelical narrative a healthy, objective, and humble place within the global Christian story.

I have one major critique of the book. In chapter 4, Noll seems to go too far in depicting the Jesus film ministry as a classic product sold by the American evangelical establishment (pp. 68-72). As a film version of Luke’s Gospel (that includes an invitation to embrace Christ), this work greatly parallels Bible translation. Why isn’t the present work of Wycliffe/SIL—not to mention historic efforts by Tatian, Mesrob, Jerome, Henry Martyn, and others—also deemed an evangelical product?

The American role in the film’s development and dissemination also seems to be overstated. Although Americans oversaw the making of the film and have raised millions of dollars to sustain the ministry, the work of translating and dubbing the script is necessarily that of national believers. Also, several years ago, a South African woman oversaw eighty-two dubbings of the film in just one year in West Africa—a “record” that still stands. Due to a great burden for the blind in southern Africa, this same woman and her husband developed the audio-radio version of the film. Learning of this strategy, an Arab Christian leader produced an Arabic audio version to reach North African travelers in Europe. Some of the most innovative ways of showing and distributing the film have come from Sudan, Algeria, and Egypt, where no Americans have been involved. These examples are given to show that those from the Majority World can also believe in an evangelistic tool and may be quite creative and savvy in using it.

This critique aside, Noll’s latest book should be read by church historians, North American pastors, and certainly North American missionaries seeking a healthy understanding of their own Christian history in light of the global Church.

GoToOlder PostNewer PostAll PostsBook ReviewsEMQSectionVolume 46 - Issue 1

Comments are closed.

Subscribe to Our Mailing List

Keep up to date with our community.

Menu

  • Join
  • Directories
  • Events
  • Donate

About

  • Who We Are
  • Statement of Faith
  • Awards
  • Resources

Help

  • Contact Us
  • Terms
  • Cookies Policy

Connect

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Google+

PO Box 398
Wheaton, IL 60187-0398

Phone: 770.457.6677
678.392.4577

© Missio Nexus.
All Rights Reserved.

Membership website powered by MembershipWorks