The unexpected Christian century : the reversal and transformation of global Christianity, 1900-2000 / & [electronic resource] [print]
Scott W. Sunquist ; foreword by Mark A. Noll.
- Grand Rapids, Michigan : Baker Academic, (c)2015.
- 1 online resource (xxiv, 213 pages) : illustrations. xxiv, 213 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm
Includes bibliographies and index.
From Jesus to the end of Christendom -- World Christianity: the gilded age through the Great War -- Christian lives: practices and piety -- Politics and persecution: how global politics shaped Christianity -- Confessional families: diverse confessions, diverse fates -- On the move: Christianity and migration -- One way among others: Christianity and the world's religions -- Future hope and the presence of the past -- African independence and colonizers -- Asian independence and colonizers.
In 1900 many assumed the twentieth century would be a Christian century because Western "Christian empires" ruled most of the world. What happened instead is that Christianity in the West declined dramatically, the empires collapsed, and Christianity's center moved to Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Pacific. How did this happen so quickly? Sunquist surveys the most recent century of Christian history, highlighting epochal changes in global Christianity. He also suggests lessons we can learn from this remarkable global Christian reversal.