More from Philip Jenkins

In 2002, Philip Jenkins published The Next Christendom, an eye-opening description of the explosive growth of various expressions of Christianity in the global south. One of the central questions raised by that book has been sized up by Yale missions scholar Lamin Sanneh: “Whose reading—whose Christianity—is normal now? And whose will be in 50 years?” The world is changing. Rapidly. Someone has said you’ll know the shift in Christendom has occurred when African scholars begin writing about “North American Theologies.”

Now Jenkins has a new book. It’s slated to come out in September under the title, The New Face of Christianity: Believing the Bible in the Global South (Oxford University Press). To get a feel for what this one will be about, take a look at his article in the Christian Century magazine (July 11, 2006, pp. 22-27), “Liberating Word: The power of the Bible in the Global South.” A couple of quotes from the article:

“Gatherings of the worldwide Anglican Communion have been contentious events in recent years. On one occasion, two bishops were participating in a Bible study, one from Africa, the other from the U.S. As the hours went by, tempers frayed as the African expressed his confidence in the clear words of scripture, while the American stressed the need to interpret the Bible in the light of modern scholarship and contemporary mores. Eventually the African bishop asked in exasperation, “If you don’t believe the scripture, why did you bring it to us in the first place?”

“Traditionalist themes are important for African and Asian Christians. These include a much greater respect for the authority of scripture, especially in matters of morality; a willingness to accept the Bible as an inspired text and a tendency to literalistic readings; a special interest in supernatural elements of scripture, such as miracles, visions, and healings; a belief in the continuing power of prophecy; and a veneration for the Old Testament, which is often considered as authoritative as the New.”

From what Jenkins has written so far, I’ve come to two conclusions, which dovetail with some of my own convictions:

1. Simply from a pragmatic standpoint, this is not the time for the Churches of Christ to continue an evolution (at least on some fronts) into a American mainline protestant (i.e., theologically-liberal ) denomination. A life-long member of this family, I know a lot of its problems and failings. At the same time, I love this heritage not in spite of what it is, but because of what it is. And I truly believe that its traditional Biblicist voice is worth hearing.

2. It is past time for the Churches of Christ to reject much of our traditional position regarding the Old Testament. Fifteen years ago, when Richard Oster forced me to rethink our borderline-Marcionite (rejection) stance on the first 78% of the Christian Canon, the exercise was for me mostly academic. It was a question I could turn over in my mind and talk about. I had no idea that even then, and before, the erroneous conclusions of the past could have such an impact on mission. To put it bluntly, the global South is simply not going for the notion that what Christians call the Old Testament has little if any real continuing authority. Nor should they. How did we miss the truth that when Paul says “All Scripture is inspired” and is therefore, “useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness” he was referring to the Old Testament?