— Martin E. Marty July 6, 2010

*Sightings* authors often comment on religion in the United States rather
than “the rest of the world,” but through the years have shown regularly how
artificial or at least permeable such geographical distinctions are when it
comes to religion. Philip Jenkins, Mark Noll, Lamin Sanneh, and others
reveal the same, with important books on what Jenkins calls  ¢â‚¬Å“The Next
Christendom ¢â‚¬  and Noll describes as  ¢â‚¬Å“The New Shape of World Christianity: How
American Experience Reflects Global Faith. ¢â‚¬  They see the Christian
population  ¢â‚¬Å“going South. ¢â‚¬  In American slang,  ¢â‚¬Å“going south ¢â‚¬  means going down
to an inferior position. But in demographic terms, the capital  ¢â‚¬Å“S ¢â‚¬  signals
going up, as the masses of Christians are doing, while Christian power
slides from Europe and North America to Africa, Latin America, and other
points South.

It is impossible to quarantine the diseases of the old North ¢â‚¬â„¢s Christendom
so that they do not also spread South. So the worst of the  ¢â‚¬Å“prosperity
Gospel, ¢â‚¬  with its guarantees of material prosperity to converts, has taken
over and predominates in many movements, such as in Kenya. The homophobia
that leads nations like Uganda and Kenya to debate whether to condemn
homosexuals to death is richly related not only to old tribal taboos, but to
new-style Pentecostal churches there. And the conflicts over gay issues in
the American Episcopal church are heated up by interventions on the part of
Ugandan and Kenyan Anglicans. The Lutheran World Federation, meeting this
month, deals with Tanzanian Lutherans (who number one-third as many
Lutherans after a few decades as there are Lutherans in the United States
after three centuries of presence), as they say they will not accept funds
or help (or prayers?) from Lutheran bodies that have different views of
homosexuality than they do.

Exuberant therefore as many northern world historians may be over aspects of
Christian growth in Africa  ¢â‚¬“ and I ¢â‚¬â„¢ve also paid attention to these in my
2007 *The Christian World*  ¢â‚¬“ they and their compatriots often gasp when
close-ups of practices in Africa get global publicity. This week the
notices come from Nairobi, in balanced reporting by writers in *The
Economist* who, quite naturally, notice the economic side of Pentecostal
growth there. Borrowing  ¢â‚¬Å“Prosperity Gospel ¢â‚¬  techniques from American
evangelists and then re-exporting them in exaggerated form, African
movements manifest bull market versions of competitive  ¢â‚¬Å“market
religion. ¢â‚¬  These
have to be upbeat and aspirational. They help in some reform of business
practices there, but  ¢â‚¬Å“there is also plenty of hucksterism. ¢â‚¬ 

*The Economist *tells of Bishop Margaret Wanjiru ¢â‚¬â„¢s  ¢â‚¬Å“Jesus is Alive
Ministries, ¢â‚¬  where Ms. Wanjiru, a governmental official, draws 100,000
worshippers to meetings, but can see that number rise to 500,000 when a
visiting evangelist also comes along. The editors comment that judgment
from European and American critics often overlooks the fact that gross
versions of  ¢â‚¬Å“the Protestant Ethic ¢â‚¬  were imported from the northern churches.
They also assess that these Pentecostalisms do better at inspiring personal
wealth-seeking than at becoming clear political movements. We ¢â‚¬â„¢ll wait and
see.

Oh, and did we mention that *The Economist* reminds readers that many of
these Pentecostal leaders promote  ¢â‚¬Å“clear anti-Muslim sentiment ¢â‚¬  which
 ¢â‚¬Å“scares politicians who want to win the sizable Muslim vote. ¢â‚¬  Romanticizing
New Christendom movements can be as dangerous as is the sneering done by
those who look on and do not discern the good effects of much of these
churchly endeavors in the lives of ordinary members.

*References*:

Philip Jenkins, *The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global
Christianity*(Oxford, 1999).

Jenkins also treats the subject in  ¢â‚¬Å“The Next Christianity, ¢â‚¬  in *The Atlantic
Monthly, *October 2002:
http://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/issues/2002/10/jenkins.htm*. *

Martin E. Marty, *The Christian World*: *A Global History *(Modern Library,
2007).

Mark Noll, *The New Shape of World Christianity* (IVP Academic, 2010).

Lamin Sanneh, *Disciples of All Nations: Pillars of World
Christianity*(Oxford, 2008).

 ¢â‚¬Å“Slain by the Spirit: The rise of Christian fundamentalism in the Horn of
Africa, ¢â‚¬  in *The Economist, *July 2010:
http://www.economist.com/node/16488830?story_id=16488830.

For an earlier treatment of the prosperity gospel in Africa, see Isaac Phiri
and Joe Maxwell,  ¢â‚¬Å“Gospel Riches, ¢â‚¬  in *The Christian Century *online, July
2007: http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2007/july/12.22.html.

Martin E. Marty’s biography, current projects, publications, and contact
information can be found at www.illuminos.com.

*Sightings* comes from the Martin Marty
Centerat the University of
Chicago Divinity School.

Attribution

Columns may be quoted or republished in full, with attribution to the author
of the column, *Sightings*, and the Martin Marty Center at the University of
Chicago Divinity School.