The New Shape of World Christianity: Part 2 of 5

Similarities between Christianity as practiced in America and Christianity practiced in the Majority world, where Christianity is growing, can best be explained by similarities in development. In the 19th century, American Christianity took root in a new world, removed from the immediate influence of the established Church. American Christianity also developed in an unstable, rapidly changing context that demanded an entrepreneurial spirit. Where these characteristics are evident in Majority world (here Noll draws particular attention to the Global South and other rural areas being reshaped by global economic forces) the church in these places have followed similar patterns of development; hence, historical and cultural similarities produce churches with similar DNA.

“The main point of this book is that American Christianity is important for the world primarily because the world is coming more and more to look like America. Therefore, the way that Christianity developed in the American environment helps to explain the way Christianity is developing in many parts of the world. But correlation is not causation: the fact that globalization and other factors have created societies that resemble in many ways what Americans experienced in the frontier period of their history does not mean that Americans are dictating to the world. The actions of American Christians are obviously of great importance in the world, but American actions by no means dominate or simply ordain what is happening elsewhere” (189).

Noll’s provides several brief surveys of the East African Revival, the Korean Church, and of American Evangelicalism’s view of the world in the 20th century. These surveys underline that the growth of Christianity in the Global South is not a case of American Christian’s replicating their experience around the world.