As Philip Jenkins, author of The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity, writes: “The types of Christianity that have thrived most successfully in the global South have been very different from what many Europeans and North Americans consider mainstream. These models have been far more enthusiastic, much more centrally concerned with the immediate workings of the supernatural, through prophecy, visions, ecstatic utterances and healing. In fact, they have differed so widely from the cooler Northern norms as to arouse suspicion that these enthusiastic Africans (for instance) are essentially reviving the pagan practices of traditional society.”
Or, you could argue that Christianity is simply returning to its roots. It was born as the religion of the outcast and the dispossessed. Today, it’s embraced by young rural migrants flooding to the giant, impersonal cities. Like Islam, Christianity is a reaction to urbanization, cultural upheaval and displacement. It provides meaning, community, refuge, support networks and an anchor. It also offers blessings and redemption. Christianity, in its original form, preaches that supernatural intervention can help you in the here and now. And it promises the gift of eternal life as a reward for the pain and suffering of this one – surely the greatest selling proposition of all time.
This emergent Christianity has gone almost unnoticed in the West. But Philip Jenkins argues that it’s at least as important as Islam, and far more global in its scope. Christians already form a majority in about two-thirds of the world’s nations. The rise of Islam and Christianity in the heavily populated South could create a new era of religious strife, of jihads and crusades. And one day, we may be worrying about Christian theocracies as well as Islamic ones.
So as we celebrate our splendid made-up version of Chris-Dawali-Kwanza-ka, it’s worth remembering that the Christian God, merciful and frightening, is very far from dead. He may not mean much to us any more. But, in large parts of the world we seldom think about, he’s more powerful than ever.
Editor's note: An an earlier online version of this story and the original newspaper version, a statement that Christianity is the fastest growing religion in the world today should have been attributed only to religion scholar Philip Jenkins. He says that by 2050 Christians will outnumber Muslims by a ratio of 3 to 2. An incorrect ratio was published Dec. 24.
